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As the conference developed a focus for moving more Black males and women into all aspects of the mass media, it provided a base for an informal, world wide network of minority communicators, both students and professionals. The annual confabs, exhibits and placement counseling continue to serve as a recruiting arm for media outlets.

Attendance has steadily grown — to a record 2,000 conferees in 1982 and '83. Last year, there were 83 panel discussions and workshops, 55 recruiters and exhibitors, and more than 200 panelists and discussion leaders from throughout the nation and the world. 

The Gannett Newspaper chain (Publisher of U.S. Today), through its philanthropic arm, the Gannett Foundation, has been the major financial supporter of these conferences since their inception. For the past eight years, in addition to a major grant to the School of Communications to defray some of the conference costs, the Foundation has provided funds to bring to Howard's across the country. Approximately 50 colleges and universities are represented through this mechanism, school officials report.

After several years of meeting at such hotels as the Capitol hill Quality Inn, The Mayflower, and the Shoreham in Washington, the sessions are now all held on Howard's main campus with many participants housed at varying locations.

[[3 images of conference]]

Communications Conference pays tribute to Frederick Douglass 

[[2 images of conference]]