WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 30, 2017) - The National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) announced today a team of dedicated professionals will serve as honorary co-chairs and corporate partners for the 2017 NABJ Annual Convention and Career Fair. The convention is scheduled for Aug. 9-13 in New Orleans, Louisiana. More than 3,000 journalists, media professionals and students are expected to attend this year's "Power Up and Break Through" gathering.

Both honorary co-chairs -- Warren Bell and Michelle Miller -- have deep ties to New Orleans and a long history with NABJ.

"We are thrilled to have the support and engagement of so many amazing African American professionals with distinct ties to the New Orleans," NABJ President Sarah Glover said. "Our time is now to propel NABJ to new heights. There will be many breakthrough and memorable moments at this year's convention, propelled by the dedication of this dynamic team."

 
Bell, a local news legend and scholar, attended his first NABJ convention in 1982 and is a founding member of the New Orleans Association of Black Journalists (NOABJ). He also served as a regional director on the NABJ board and was co-chair of the 1983 convention in New Orleans. He is the recipient of the NOABJ Lifetime Achievement Award.

 
"I am thrilled to have the chance to serve my beloved NABJ once again as its 2017 honorary convention co-chair," Bell said.

Miller is a correspondent for CBS News and has served as a substitute anchor on "The CBS Evening News" weekend editions and CBS News "Up to the Minute." From 1994 to 2003, Miller lived in New Orleans and worked as a reporter and anchor for WWL-TV, the CBS affiliate. She is a past recipient of an NABJ Salute to Excellence Award.

"For many of us, NABJ is the connection to our professional pathway. It gave us knowledge, strength and courage to get to the next job, through the next story, or past the next challenge," said Miller, who is the wife of former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial.

"I was told I wouldn't make it. I was discouraged. I was blocked. I made mistakes. But being connected through NABJ, I got up. I climbed out. I moved forward. I'm still climbing, still sharing, still learning. That is why NABJ remains relevant and why I'm proud to serve on the convention planning team."

NABJ is fortunate to have the support of four New Orleans business and community leaders to anchor the local corporate partners committee: Tod Smith, president,and general manager, WWL-TV/TEGNA; Demetric Mercadel, senior public affairs customer service specialist, Entergy New Orleans; Cheryl Teamer, senior vice president, New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau; chair, The Greater New Orleans Foundation; chair New Orleans Aviation Board; and Jimmie Woods, CEO and co-founder, Metro Service Group.

NABJ will be in New Orleans next month to cultivate outreach in "The Big Easy" and underscore and cultivate the association's diversity efforts. The spring NABJ board of directors meeting takes place April 7-9 at the Hilton New Orleans Riverside hotel.

Companies seeking more information about how to partner with NABJ at the conference and professionals interested in registering, please visit: www.nabjconvention.com .

About the National Association of Black Journalists: An advocacy group established in 1975 in Washington, D.C., NABJ is the largest organization for journalists of color in the nation and provides career development as well as educational and other support to its members worldwide.

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NEW ORLEANS -  The New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau (NOCVB) has issued its Second Quarter Convention Sneak Peek for 2017, including a list of CVB-booked business for the months of April, May and June.

Information provided courtesy of the New Orleans Convention & Visitors Bureau

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In today's digital era, a growing reliance on information for continued productivity and operation of business has always remained a top priority for organizations. Enterprises are being continuously challenged to ensure business continuity. With threats coming in all shapes and sizes-from a superstorm to hacking from within and without-one has to take everything into consideration before putting an efficient and robust disaster recovery plan in place to keep the mission critical functions running. However, the traditional methods of disaster recovery no longer meet the changing requirements of today's volatile environment. The enterprise landscape is changing and so are the needs of CIOs, who now seek the resiliency of the overall infrastructure as their insurance against any man-made or natural calamity.

Disaster-Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) is a continuously evolving field that is an amalgamation of disaster recovery, data protection, and backup. One of the aspects that is going to be of utmost importance this year is the integrity of data. Businesses want to be sure that their data is secure and usable. To meet 
these demands, disaster recovery vendors are introducing active assurance technologies with data healing capabilities, while catering to the needs of application resilience as part of the service.

Amid these developments, to help CIOs find the apt disaster recovery solution provider for their enterprise, a distinguished panel comprising CEOs, CIOs, VCs, and analysts along with CIOReview's editorial board has evaluated scores of disaster recovery solution providers and selected the top players.

We  looked at the vendor's ability to design and build advanced  disaster recovery solutions and services that cater to the burning  needs of today.

We present to you CIOReview's 20 Most Promising Disaster Recovery Solution Providers 2017.

Recognized by:	Ultimate Technical Solutions
An annual listing of 20 companies that are at the forefront of providing disaster recovery solutions and impacting the marketplace.	UTSI employs various kinds of technology solutions to achieve an always-on, always-available technology infrastructure. www.utsi.us

Ultimate Technical Solutions

Architecting an Always-On Infrastructure

"We identify clients' most important services and ensures they are always up and running"

	David St. Etienne President, Ultimate Technical Solutions

Business continuity planning is an area that businesses cannot afford to neglect. Besides combating cyber threats and disasters, an effective business continuity plan comes in handy during many other situations. David St. Etienne, President, Ultimate Technical Solutions, Inc. (UTSI), believes that almost 75 percent of companies shut down due to losing critical business data in the event of a disaster. Keeping in mind the magnitude of these incidents, the C-suite is on a lookout for robust solutions that can identify their business's most important IT services and make plans to keep them up and running. To that end, UTSI, with over two decades of experience, has been instrumental in providing business continuity and disaster recovery solutions for natural disasters and cyberattacks. "We enable clients to develop a business continuity plan to minimize the unproductive downtime caused by a disaster while maximizing the availability of their system infrastructure," he explains. "We identify clients' most important services and ensure they are always up and running."

UTSI leverages data center facilities, network operation center, automated monitoring systems, and a team of experienced professionals to achieve an always-on, always-available technology infrastructure. UTSI's virtualization technology enables clients to keep infrastructures such as website and email, and even phone systems online. The data is safely backed up on secure servers, giving clients access to it through a variety of online communications links. "In the aftermath of a business interruption, we provide the links to our clients so they can ensure undisrupted business operations irrespective of the condition of their physical resources," explains St. Etienne. Through the company's continuity solution, clients can replicate important data to offsite locations for both storage and disaster recovery. "We use remote connectivity technology to make servers across the country function accurately," adds St. Etienne. UTSI also implements a disaster recovery system, which restores computer systems to a working state quickly, without losing any important company information. Further, the company has streamlined the entire solution by partnering with Datto which helps protect customers by delivering uninterrupted access to data at any time, in a matter of minutes.

UTSI maintains competitive advantage through its solution's ability to work with Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems from a single platform with a true image based backup for all three environments. "Our solution fits into any OS the client uses, giving them a holistic view of all systems," says St. Etienne. In one instance, two of UTSI's clients in the waste management industry could not function due to power failure caused by a tornado. UTSI facilitated the lease and setup of generators for power supply until it could be provided by the utility company. Along with its partner, Datto, UTSI was able to provide them internet access via the Datto Networking solution. This enabled the client to service current contracts and gain new business even during critical times.

UTSI is working toward adding new features to its portfolio to offer business continuity solutions. This will allow the SMB market to have a single device as a firewall with built in 4G failover, enabling immediate transfer of control for the internet. "Our business continuity for internet will empower numerous businesses, especially those using cloud services," concludes St. Etienne.

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NEW ORLEANS - The goal of Sista Strut is to heighten awareness about the issues of breast cancer in women of color, as well as provide information on community resources. Studies show that African American women are more likely to get breast cancer at a younger age and have a death rate from breast cancer twice that of Caucasian women of the same age. Sista Strut recognizes the strength of survivors, their family and friends, heightens awareness, promotes early detection and the search for a cure.

African American women in the US have a 41% higher death rate from breast cancer than white women.

African American women are more likely than white women to be diagnosed with breast cancer before age 40 and are more likely to be diagnosed with larger tumors.

Awareness of these issues will help survival rates with earlier diagnoses.
The registration fee for Sista Strut is:

$15 per individual/$20 per team member through 2/21

$20 per individual/$25 per team member 2/22 through 3/21

$25 per individual/$30 per team member 3/22 through 4/22

Registration Fee includes Sista Strut T-shirt for both Individual Sign-ups and Team Member Sign-ups. A team can consists of 2+ people (no minimum or maximum). Each participating member of a Team must sign up as a Team member in order to receive a Sista Strut T-shirt and back pack.

*$3 additional charge for XXL & XXXL shirts.

T-shirts pickup information will be posted when details have been finalized.

Click to Here Sign Up

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