McCormick Fellows Forum 2009: Comfort Cams + Broke-A** Brides?!

A record-breaking number of McCormick Fellows - 55 of the initiative’s 95 minority media execs from across the country - gathered in Chicago last week for the Fellowship’s annual Fall Forum. In its 11th year, the program allows minority news execs to attend some of the industry’s leading management training and also provides a platform for sharing their views on critical issues facing the news industry. Highlights from this year’s program included:

• A talk on use of social media led by Fellow Javier Morgado of NBC News
• A discussion on the state of diversity initiatives in the news industry led by Fellow Larry Olmstead of Leading Edge Associates
• A brainstorming session where Fellows explored new online tools and used them to develop concepts for niche news and information sites, led by Sybril Bennett of Belmont University

This last session led to some winning - and hilarious - concepts:

• A Web site for family members to monitor elderly relatives by viewing Comfort Cam.
• A site for newbies in a community to connect with a church that matches their faith.
• And yes, a site for wedding planners on a budget… called Broke-Ass Brides!

In our continuing series on journalists "reinventing" themselves, we caught up with McCormick Fellow Alli Joseph to ask her about her new company Seventh Generation Stories… (click here)

For more on the Fellows initiative, visit the program’s Web site .