Disney, ESPN Ambassadors Attend AAJA 2022 Convention This Week In LA
More than 40 ESPN employees, including SportsCenter's Michele Steele, are attending to learn about culture, help develop and attract talent
Wednesday was a great first day at the Asian American Journalist Association’s (AAJA) annual convention, which is convening in Los Angeles this year.
Under the banner “Owning Our Narrative,” AAJA is holding its first in-person convention since 2019. For ESPN, Day 1 opened with the “Sports Media Summit,” a signature event that featured a full day of workshops, including “Investigative Reporting,” hosted by Chicago-based SportsCenter correspondent Michele Steele. There are also seminars involving “Creative Story-telling,” “Cross-Platform Content,” “Live Sports/Studio Production,” and “Social Media Podcast.”
“This year, we launched the ‘ESPN Sports Media Summit,’ which gave us an incredible opportunity to create a connected and dynamic learning experience that allowed us to build a community of AAJA members interested in sports while leveraging our leaders, content, and culture, to develop and attract talent, and demonstrate our commitment to the AAJA community,” said Wokie Daboh, Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
Good first day at #AAJA22 – and it’s only the beginning! Was an honor to be on this @espn panel with @MicheleSteele @BowenDou @j_yang5 and it was amazing to see soooo many people again!!#AAJAfam #AAJA @aaja @AAJAsports pic.twitter.com/QbEwefuhuK
— Howard Chen 陈定豪 (@TheHoChen) July 28, 2022
More than 40 ESPN ambassadors, including on-air talent and behind-the-scenes employees, represent the company at the event, which continues through this Saturday at the Sheraton Universal Hotel. Collaborating with ambassadors at the career fair is one of the initiatives Talent Acquisition Manager, Schalitda Strong, looks forward to the most.
“I am beyond excited about our presence at the career fair,” Strong said. “This year, AAJA set record attendance which for us translates to more opportunities for prospective candidates to – through our dedicated group of ambassadors – learn more about our culture, our people, as well as career paths across the company.”
Steele is an active participant and board member of AAJA’s Sports Taskforce.
In the video above, Steele discusses the importance of AAJA for her as a Filipino-American journalist.
Spencer Jackson and Chin Wang produced the video above
More than 40 ESPN ambassadors are at the convention. (Chin Wang/ESPN)
ESPN's Michele Steele (L) moderates an investigative reporting panel. (Chin Wang/ESPN)
(L-R) ESPN's Amy Bennett, Mina Park, Carrie Brzezinski Hsu, Jaren Yang (Chin Wang/ESPN)
