By Pete Ramirez
The Texas Tribune, a digital, nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization, is hosting its eleventh annual Texas Tribune Festival beginning on Monday, September 20, 2021, and ending Friday evening, September 25, 2021.
This festival brings together leading politicians and policymakers within local, state and national government to participate in a mix of one-on-one interviews, panels and networking sessions hosted by some of the premier journalists in the nation.
Students are eligible to purchase discounted student tickets to the virtual festival for $49 by following this link: https://festival.texastribune.org/. General admission tickets are $199.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the festival will be held entirely online in a virtual setting. “It’s the second and hopefully the last festival that will be virtual,” said Evan Smith, CEO of the Texas Tribune.
Smith said that although his organization originally wanted to host a portion of the event in-person, completely pivoting to virtual allows the event to be more accessible to not only the politicians and policymakers, but to casual fans of the Tribune who can now participate from the comfort of their homes.
“We provide all kinds of opportunities for people to spend time with some of the biggest thought leaders and influencers around Texas and around the county,” Smith said.
A few of the biggest names that will be attending the event are U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Senator, John Cornyn, staff writer at the New York Times Magazine and creator of the 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones and former U.S. Representative, Beto O’Rourke.
For a list of all the speakers who will be attending the festival, follow this link.
“If you care about politics, if you care about policy, if you care about Texas, if you care about the world, there are going to be incredible opportunities that you would not otherwise have, to be part of conversations about those things,” Smith said.
Students who attend can benefit from the festival’s networking opportunities and grow their knowledge on nearly any subject they may be interested in.
“As a student, especially, this is a great moment to expand your thinking,” Smith said. The Tribune’s event provides a safe place for attendees to listen to views that challenge their preconceived notions on certain issues.
“The goal is that there is something for everybody. And if you allow yourself to stray from the things that you are coming to see, there are going to be other things over here that you are not aware of but are going to be interesting also,” said Smith.
The Texas Tribune and their festival want attendees to walk away from their event better informed and more engaged citizens.
Smith also shared that there will be a session that is exclusively for students attending the festival.
Before our interview came to a close, Smith provided some words of wisdom for journalism students looking to enter the industry.
“The best advice I can give anybody wanting to break into the journalism business is you want to be a swiss army knife and not a meat cleaver,” Smith said. “We need people like that. We need multi-tool players more than we’ve ever needed them.”