Watch the CCPS Conference on Party Conventions

I'm back after spending much of last week at the Midwest Political Science Association's annual conference. Thanks for putting up with my lack of posts while I was away.

The Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies held a conference on party conventions last week and the bright lights of the C-SPAN cameras were there to capture it. You can watch the panels online by clicking on the links below (even though I was on the second panel, I think the third panel was the most interesting of the three, providing a lot of insight into Democratic delegate selection rules):

Panel I: The 2008 Conventions in Historical Perspective: Do Conventions Still Matter?

Mike Berman, president of the Duberstein Group who has worked on every Democratic National Convention since 1968
Billy Pitts, president of Government Affairs at the NTI Group, and assistant parliamentarian at four Republican conventions
Costas Panagopoulos, assistant professor at Fordham University and author of Rewiring Politics: Presidential Nominating Conventions in the Media Age (2007)

Panel II: The Changing Role of Media at Conventions

Ron Elving, NPR Washington Editor
Dotty Lynch, AU School of Communication Executive in Residence and former Political Director of CBS News
Brian F. Schaffner, assistant professor at American University and co-author of Politics, Parties & Elections in America (2008)

Panel III: The Role of Delegate Selection and Convention Rules

Anthony Corrado, professor of Government at Colby College
Tad Devine, founder and partner of Devine Mulvey and Democratic strategist
James A. Thurber, distinguished professor of Government at American University and Director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies