HomeBriefings – Foreign Press Centers...Information Session for Media Planning to Cover the 2024 Presidential Nominating Conventions

# 									Information Session for Media Planning to Cover the 2024 Presidential Nominating Conventions							

FPC Briefing

Representatives from the Congressional Press Galleries

Friday, February 16, 2023, 2:00pm ET

Washington, D.C.

February 16, 2024

## 								Summary							

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The 2024 Presidential Nominating Conventions will take place this summer, advance planning by journalists is essential for both the Republican and Democratic Nationals Conventions.Representatives from the Congressional Press Galleries held a discussion about media access at the conventions, applying for accreditation, and what happens after that. The Congressional Press Galleries are the non-partisan entity that credential the vast majority of the media for the Republican and Democratic conventions. All media who require access to the 2024 Democratic and Republican Conventions must be credentialed through one of the four galleries below.The deadline to apply for media credentials is April 12, 2024

 
 

**THE WASHINGTON FOREIGN PRESS CENTER, WASHINGTON, D.C.**

**MR ROBERTS:**Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center.  My name is Ryan Roberts.  I am the director of the Foreign Press Centers and very excited to be with you this morning.  I’m going to say a few words about what the Foreign Press Centers will be offering to journalists and how we will be working with journalists during the elections, and then I’m going to turn time over to our media relations officer Doris Robinson, who will moderate our panel with our esteemed guests from the Congressional Press Gallery.

I’d like to highlight the support and the programs that the Foreign Press Centers are going to offer during this U.S. election season as we approach this sort of crucial time.  We know this is a big story for all of the FPC-credentialed journalists, and I wanted to talk very briefly about the role that the Foreign Press Center will have in helping you to cover these elections.

This year, as you know, is a particularly votable one with national elections occurring in at least 64 different countries, countries that represent something like half of the population of the world.  And so we want to help you to best navigate our own American democratic process.  So let me outline the pool of resources.

First, credentialing.  If you’re participating in this briefing on Zoom or in person, it means that you have an FPC credential.  That’s a good start.  That will help you as you travel around the country and try to gain access.  It offers no guarantees, but it’s a good place to start.  

We’ll be sharing a recording of this video with our embassies and other journalists who are not credentialed with us, and to them I would just encourage you to reach out to us and obtain an FPC credential, a temporary one, when you travel to the United States.  

We will also be organizing reporting tours.  Our reporting tours take journalists to cities around the United States to understand the electoral process.  We offer reporting tours both for FPC-credentialed journalists – those usually last a few days – and also to journalists nominated by our embassies and consulates.  Those tend to be a bit longer.

If you are interested in those, please ensure that you are registered with us, that you are receiving our emails, because we send announcements for those reporting tours.  If not, you can reach out to us at dcfpc@state.gov if you have any questions.

Finally, a word about conventions.  For years, decades even, the Foreign Press Center has provided briefing and filing centers and other support at both the Democratic and Republican convention.  These centers, we have heard from journalists, are crucial to helping them to understand the process and to have access to both facilities and individuals.  We are in the process of preparing similar accommodations for the conventions this year.  That, of course, is always pending budget or logistical considerations.  We don’t have any more details on that, but we will be providing those through our mailing list as well.

In short, the Foreign Press Centers are here to address any questions or suggestions that you have about covering these elections, and please feel free to reach out to one of our media relations officers, visit our website which is fpc.state.gov, or send us an email at dcfpc@state.gov.  

Thank you for much for your commitment to journalism, and I’ll turn it over to our star of the show, Doris Robinson, who will then introduce our great speakers today.  Thanks.  

**MODERATOR:**  Hello, everyone.  Well, good afternoon, and welcome to the Washington Foreign Press Center, and welcome to the journalists joining us online.  My name is Doris Robinson, and I will be today’s moderator.  

We know that advance planning is very important.  That’s why we’ve arranged today’s information session for journalists planning to cover the 2024 presidential nominating conventions this summer.  We have representatives today from the Congressional Press Gallery.  And just a reminder: today’s briefing is on the record, and we will post a transcript later today at fpc.state.gov.  

And with that, I will introduce our speakers.  First, we have Olga Ramirez Kornacki.  She is the director of the House Radio-TV Gallery.  Next to her is Andy Elias – he is the deputy director of the House Radio-TV Gallery; Zeke Hartner – he is the digital journalist coordinator for the House Radio-TV Gallery; and finally, we have Justin Supon, who is the deputy director of the House Press Gallery.  

We will start with opening remarks by Zeke, and then we will open for questions.  Zeke.  

**MR HARTNER:**  Thank you, Doris.  All right, so as Doris said, I am Zeke Hartner with the House Radio-TV Correspondent Gallery.  So I’m just going to go over some prepared remarks I have about the role our office plays and some general information about the conventions this year.

So every four years, our office handles the credentialing of radio and television organizations for the conventions on behalf of the parties, and once again we’re filling this role in Milwaukee and Chicago.  Deadlines for broadcast and workspace requests have passed, but organizations are still able to make requests for credentials.  So you have until April 12th to request credentials for your organization.  There are still options available to you if you would like to have a workspace in one of the convention sites.  

So there is a general press filing center at both conventions which will meet your basic needs.  They have things like desks, power, Wi-Fi.  They are first-come, first-serve.  And the second option is to partner with an organization that has dedicated workspace already assigned to them, so someone who has already been in touch with us, already filled out an application, and will have dedicated workspace.

Once we have processed and approved an application, we’ll be asking organizations to submit a list of names of those who will be attending by late spring.  Around the same time, possibly sooner, organizations that the gallery has approved for credentials will be given access to an online portal for Ardian.   Ardian is a contractor for the Secret Service, and they facilitate background checks of all personnel who may require access to certain areas within the arena, including the convention floor.  

The convention – sorry, the convention credentials issued by gallery staff will grant bearers access to a variety of spaces within the convention’s perimeter, including the convention floor, where they’ll be able to go live to interview delegates.  And let’s see – to receive these floor credentials, a limited number of an organization’s attendees will be able to enter our rotating floor pass line, where they can swap out their primary convention credentials for a floor pass credential and be given an amount of time on the floor before returning to us and returning that credential and receiving their original convention credential.

You should also be aware that the Chicago Police Department will require an additional credential for any news organization covering protests outside of the DNC’s convention perimeter that requires a separate First Amendment zone to be set up.  To be clear, though, this credential will not be required of news organizations simply interested in covering the proceedings within the United Center’s secured perimeter.  It will only apply to those covering outside protests that necessitate the CPD’s creation of these zones.  And that does not – and Milwaukee does not have a similar setup.  

And with that, if anyone has questions, how about — 

**MR SUPON:**Can I jump in here? 

**MR HARTNER:**Yes, of course.  

**MR SUPON:**Hi.  My name is Justin Supon.  I do something very similar to what my compatriots here do, except I work on behalf of the daily print press.  So if you are a daily print publication, you’re going to be coming to my gallery to make an application.  As Zeke said, the deadline to request in our situation workstations, which are small desks, dedicated desks, the press stand seats which are inside the arena, and workspace.  That has expired, but if you do really need something along those lines, please give us a call.  Our phone number is 202-225-3945.  We will do our level best to get you what you need to cover the convention.  

**MR ELIAS:**Just to add a few more details to the overview, I thought it’d be important just to go over some deadlines that are coming up.  As the two of them pointed out, we’ve already passed our broadcast space and workspace deadline.  The next deadline will be for credentials, which is April 12th.  We’ve actually also already passed the deadline for RNC-issued housing in Milwaukee.  That was January 26th.  That does not mean that you won’t find housing in Milwaukee.  It just means that you actually won’t do so through the party itself, so you’ll be on your own there in Milwaukee at this point.  

The next deadlines are as follows.  February 29th is the deadline to request a room block through the DNC.  More information on that is available at demconvention.com/media/housing.  

At the end of March, those DNC room blocks will be assigned to media who’ve requested them.  In early April, we expect to be the possible timeframe for the GOP spring walkthrough.  Again, we mentioned the April 12th credentials deadline through all of the congressional galleries.  

In April and May, organization – and we still haven’t figured out exactly when this might happen, but organizations that have been approved by the Radio-TV Gallery will begin to receive their notice of accreditation from us, which will also begin the process with the Secret Service’s provider Ardian, who will subsequently reach out to all of our approved organizations, their designated point of contact, to open up their vetting portal on behalf of the approved organization.  

May 22nd will be the DNC’s spring media walkthrough.  And as you all probably know, July 15th through 18th is the Republican National Convention dates, and August 19th through the 22nd is the DNC.  

**MODERATOR:**Okay, with that, we will open for questions.  For those in the room, please raise your hand.  For those online, you can raise your virtual hand.  And we will start in the room.  Sir.

**QUESTION:**Hi, it’s Sebastian from German media outlet t-online.  Can you – Zeke, you already mentioned this different kind of credentials for being inside/outside.  I’m sorry, maybe I was a little – it was a little too fast maybe, but can you maybe repeat it?  What do we have to do to be inside or the floor, or what does that mean?  What floor, or – yeah.  

**MR HARTNER:**So there will be different levels of credential.

**QUESTION:**  Yes.

**MR HARTNER:**So there will be a basic-level overview that you will get if you are requesting only a credential and no workspace within either of the convention sites.  You will get like a basic access that will get you into the perimeter and would get you up to a certain point.  And you would only get the next level of credential if you had requested further workspace, if you had a media row position, something like that.  So there’s different tiers of credential that gives you different levels of access.  

And then there’s a floor pass credential that we will control a limited number of.  We will have that – the gallery staff will hold onto those, and you will come to us if you want to go onto the convention floor, interview delegates.  And we will – you’ll have the floor pass line that you’ll enter.  We will then give you that floor pass credential, and that supersedes the credential that you already have, so it will get you into the convention floor.  You could go and interview delegates, whatever your coverage needs are there.  And then we would give you a timeframe – 30, 45 minutes – you’d come back to us, return the credential to us, we’d give you your original credential back.  And at that point, you could re-enter the line or go file or what have you.  But — 

**QUESTION:**Okay, so this (Inaudible) deadline to this floor credential?  This is when we are there? 

**MR ROBERTS:**Exactly.  

**QUESTION:** Okay, thank you.  

**MS KORNACKI:**Of course, it would be me not to know how to operate this.  

The party will give us a certain number of credentials.  Each credential is non-person-specific, so they can be traded back and forth.  So if you have a team of, say, five people, what you may receive is you may receive a certain number of perimeter passes that will get you past security through the gate.  Other people on your team may get building access passes that would bring them down to our floor pass line.  

The one thing to keep in mind:  Generally, Mondays and Tuesdays are very quiet, and you’ll get an extended time once out there, as Zeke said.  You can keep trading back and going back out on the floor to do what you need to do.  The very last night is our busiest night, and that night I would expect to have a lot of people wanting to go on the floor.  If I were you, I would recommend that you get most of your interviews done Monday and Tuesday, because we’re not sure – if the fire marshal comes in and shuts the room down, you may not be able to get on the floor for two hours until the fire marshal decides to open things up, so just a little hint.

**MODERATOR:**  Okay, let’s go here.

**QUESTION:**  Greetings.  I’m with RND, German news network.  I’m still not sure I have understood completely.  So if I only get the basic credential, will I have access to the hall?  Can I get into the hall, or will I just be in the perimeter outside of the hall?

**MS KORNACKI:**  Yeah, we will make sure you will get a combination of credentials.  If you are one person or two people, it is our intention to make sure that you get into the building and that you get down to the hall where we will be distributing our floor passes.  It may very well be, depending on what the party gives me – and it is a long – a week-long negotiation of “we’ll give you this many in exchange” – but we will make sure that if you are two people, you’ll get into the building.  One may be able to come down to the floor pass line and go out onto the floor for a limited period of time, and then the – when you’re done, you come back, switch up with your colleague, and then your colleague will be out – able to go on the floor.  We’ll make sure you’ll be able to do that, absolutely.

**MR ELIAS:**  And just to briefly add to that, one thing we will try to ensure, though, is that every person that you will bring with your organization will at the very least have access to the perimeter so that it’ll make it very easy for you all to trade your credentials.  As Olga said, these are all transferable to give certain people access to that rotating floor pass line at a different time.

**MODERATOR:**  Oh, go ahead.

**QUESTION:**  Any way to get a workplace credential?  Is it easier to get to the floor then, or —

**MR ELIAS:**  So the workspace in Milwaukee will be in the Baird Center, which is about two and a half blocks from the Fiserv Center.  We expect it to be within the perimeter.  The Secret Service has not yet designated the perimeter, but we expect it’ll be quite simple.  Once you get through the perimeter, you’ll be able to easily move from the Baird Center over to the Fiserv Arena in Milwaukee.  In Chicago, the workspace is actually in the parking lot adjacent to the United Center, so – be very easy.

**MS KORNACKI:**  The workspace is in tents in Chicago.

**MODERATOR:**  Let’s go here and then here, and then we’ll go online.

**QUESTION:**  Barabada Noordermeer with the Dutch Financial Daily.  Does this apply to journalists from all media, or is this – are there different rules for television, radio, newspaper?

**MS KORNACKI:**  All media get the same credentials.  The party has different levels of credentials; they call them different things.  In years past, the one that gets you through security is called a perimeter pass, then they’ll have a building pass called an arena pass.  There’s just different levels, and we will make sure that you will be able to do your job.

**MR SUPON:**  If I could just jump in here, the Radio-TV Gallery credentials get their constituents access to certain broadcast positions in the arena.  Since I represent daily print reporters, we do not have access to those.  Our credentials get you – will – if you have the correct combination of credentials, will get you into the arena and into the press stands, which are built out inside the venue.  In Milwaukee, they will be on the second level.  We’re hoping to have a floor pass operation established on the event level.  In Chicago, they are expected to be on either side of the event stage.  That’s the importance of our credential.  That’s how you get access through us.

**QUESTION:**  (Inaudible) with the German Welt, another German – Olga, would you mind taking us bit through the days of the week?  So I have never been to a convention, so is this always the same?  What happens Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday?  What is the most important day?  What happens when?

**MS KORNACKI:**  Of course.  We don’t know exactly what the schedule will be, but generally the first night is very quiet and its speakers who are up and coming.  I know Wednesday night is the vice president announcement and then Thursday is the presidential nominee or the President comes out.  That – and then all day long they’ll have different events going out.  I know that the Republicans are talking about – they want to keep you busy and they want you to talk about their city, so they will have all sorts of events throughout the city during the convention, as will the Democrats.

**MR ELIAS:**  And as Olga indicated, they’ll release the schedule much closer to the conventions, but one differentiation between the Republicans and the Democrats is that the Republicans tend to have daytime sessions as well, whereas with the Democrats typically only in the evening.

**MODERATOR:**  Great.  So let’s go online.  We’ll take a question from Miya Yamanak (ph) from NHK Japan. 

**QUESTION:**  Yes.  So we heard from the RNC and the DNC that there – we would have to apply for convention tickets, and just to confirm, those are – the process for that is separate from applying for the credentials, correct?

**MS KORNACKI:**  There can be a minor confusion about this.  The Secret Service call their credential a credential, and I believe they tend to call what the party issues – they call them tickets.  We call them credentials.

**MR ELIAS:**  Yeah, and I think the Republican Party introduced the term tickets one or two cycles ago.  But in effect, that’s what they refer to as a credential, or at least what we have always referred to as a credential the GOP called tickets.  The Democrats still call credentials credentials.  

The Secret Service pass – it’s unclear.  It’s a credential.  We like to call it an overlay just to differentiate it from the credentials that we issue.

**MODERATOR:**  Great.  Any other questions in the room?  Go ahead.

**QUESTION:**  My name’s Jan Postma.  I’m from Dutch BNR Nieuwsradio.  I’m just wondering can you elaborate or say anything – I know you can’t promise anything, but how big the chances are for foreign media to get credentials, or if it’s something – yeah, maybe how big are the chances?

**MS KORNACKI:**  A journalist is a journalist no matter where they’re from.

**QUESTION:**  Well, we noticed in the past few years since COVID that it has become a little bit more difficult sometimes to get into events.

**MS KORNACKI:**  Right.  Well, sometimes what happens is when we approach the party, we tell them how many journalists have applied, and they will say terrific.  I may say – in 2016, I may have said something like I’ve got 7,000 people who are applying for credentials, and they will come back and they will say: here’s your 6,500 credentials.  But we will make sure that – and that’s why we do the combination – we will make sure that people will get access.

**MR ELIAS:**  But again, at the end of the day, we will accredit every news organization that we deem worthy of that accreditation, who meets our criteria.  As Olga said, though, we may have to limit the number of passes we’re ultimately able to issue, but we will accredit all worthy news organizations.

**MR SUPON:**  The same goes for the daily print press.  We do our level best to make sure everybody has as much as we can give them.  Again, as Olga said, we can request a thousand tickets and the party will come back and say you only have 500.  We have to work within that, and if – again, we are available for questions or inquiries.  If there’s anything we can do to help you, we will do our level best to do so. 

**MODERATOR:**  Okay.  Olga, did you want to talk a little bit about the police department in Chicago? 

**MS KORNACKI:**( Zeke.)

**MODERATOR:**Okay.  

**MR HARTNER:**  Yes.  So – and the police department have said that they want press to have one of their credentials just in case you are out covering the City of Chicago and a protest or demonstration pops up and there is a large-scale arrest that is made, they say they want you to have these credentials on you so you don’t accidentally get arrested along with the protesters. 

So they have asked that people apply, and that really only applies if you are planning on being outside of the convention space or planning on covering any protests that might happen.  It is not necessary for the covering of the convention itself, so it’s really only if you know that you’re going to be out in the City of Chicago and likely to cover a demonstration or protest and so you can get that protectively.

**MODERATOR:**  Great.  So we will go here, and then we will go online. 

**QUESTION:**  Do we have to ask for the floor pass credentials way before or just whenever we need them? 

**MR SUPON:**  The way we operate with floor pass is we usually have floor pass lines in our – what we’ll call it press stands.  That’s the area build out for the daily press.  If you have the credential to get into the arena, you can come to our staff there, sign out a pass for a limited number of time, and then you come back and return it.  So it’s an in-person in the arena activity.  We don’t give floor passes out ahead of time.  We keep possession of them because we try to make sure that they are cycled in and out to make sure as many reporters can get to the event floor and interview the delegates as is possible. 

**QUESTION:**  (Off-mike.)

**MR HARTNER:**  Yes.  But we try to anticipate the demand.  As Olga said, Monday and Tuesday usually at the conventions are very quiet.  Demand increases on Wednesday when the vice president gives – vice presidential nominee gives his or her speech; demand goes up even more the next day when the presidential nominee is announced and gives his or her acceptance speech.  So in those cases, we may limit the time.  We may start out the week by giving you two hours on the floor. That may turn into only half an hour on the busier times. And I would also note that our policy is that if you fail to return the floor pass in a reasonable period of time, you do not get a floor pass for the remainder of that day. 

**MODERATOR:**  I’ll take a question here: “How do we apply for police credentials in Chicago?” 

**MR ELIAS:**  The Chicago Police Department will have a process that I think as of now they do have something on their website?  What we are planning to do – our office, the Radio-TV Gallery – is when we send you our notice of accreditation, we will include a link to the Chicago Police Department’s website, which will take you to the place there which would provide you that information to begin an application, if you were interested. 

**MODERATOR**:  Thank you. 

**QUESTION:**  Sorry if I missed that.  I’ve also never been to a convention.  So just to make it clear: everybody whose application is approved will get access to the perimeter, but not everybody – just the number of floor passes is limited, but everybody will always access to the press filings – we’ve always access to the press filing center.  This is not limited but only the floor pass.  Right? 

**MS KORNACKI:**  Right.  If you get a credential from us and you come to our floor pass line, you trade it in; that will be time-limited.  It does not mean that once you come back and give us back the floor pass that you have to leave the building.  You can go upstairs on the concourse.  You can go around and talk to people who are walking around with their silly hats and their pins.  You can do all sorts of stuff.  And then once you’re done and you’re prepared to go to the filing center, then you can leave.  The only time that we limit your access is the floor, simply because none of the galleries are given the number of floor passes that we actually need.  And you’ve got the party very interested in making sure that the floor doesn’t get clogged with people, and the fire marshal is also interested in that as well.  So the only thing that’s time-limited is the floor pass.  No one will get their own floor pass to keep. 

**MR ELIAS:**  And just one point of clarification, though.  Olga suggested that people who have left the floor pass line would conceivably be able to stay in the arena and that’s going to be actually dependent on the number of arena credentials —

**MS KORNACKI:**  Right. 

**MR ELIAS:**  — we receive from the parties.  So it is possible that those – once they leave the floor, they may have to go back to the work space, which is subject to the perimeter credential so – again, just to sort of temper expectations.  It may be that, again, you have to go directly out back to your work space after leaving the floor. 

**MODERATOR:**  Thank you.  Let me take a couple of questions online.  Kim Madrid, TV Tokyo, go ahead. 

**QUESTION:**  Hello.  My name is Kim Madrid.  I’m with TV Tokyo.  Thank you for the information session today.  I just had a question regarding any potential security checkpoints.  So if we’re bringing in a camera, will there be a security checkpoint at the perimeter to make sure the camera is A-okay?  And then will there be a separate one to get into the building? 

**MS KORNACKI:**  There will be security around the perimeter.  We obviously don’t know what it is yet.  The Secret Service has not set that up yet or shared that information.  We’ll know more closer to the time that we get there.  But, yes, they generally – both parties generally have access points for press only, but we’ve also asked them to allow press to come in other entrances as well.  So yes, you will be screened.  Hopefully, ideally, it would be once to get into the perimeter and then, depending on what they plan, it could be going into the building as well.  There will be a list of forbidden items that will be posted at all locations so you’ll know.  But camera equipment, news equipment, all of that is perfectly acceptable. 

**MODERATOR:**  Great.  We’ll take another question online.  Magda from Polsat News, go ahead with your question. 

**QUESTION:**  Hello, thank you so much for doing this.  I have one more question about floor passes.  I do understand that we cannot in advance apply for such pass, just when we are in the convention.  And can we apply just once, like say on Monday, of we can apply every day? 

**MS KORNACKI:**  You should be able to come as many times as you want.  It all depends how many floor passes we have; how many people are in line.  So it’s conceivable that the further we get into the week, the longer the line will be.  But, yeah, she could – should be able to come as often as you want.  It always depends on the number of people in the building and how many people are waiting in line to get on the floor.  I’m sure Justin has something.  

**MR SUPON:**Again, these do not leave the possession of the House – House – or the media gallery staffs.  We lend – essentially lend them to you for a limited amount of time so you have access to the actual event floor, and then you need to return that to us so we can loan it out to any other reporter who might need time on the floor.  So it’s a rotating credential that we keep control of, but you can come to the lines as many times a day as is physically possible for you, if you wish.  

**MODERATOR:**Great.  Let’s go back to the room.  Omar. 

**QUESTION:**Omar Achy.  I work for Maghreb Arab Press in (inaudible).  I just want to know when do we – can we expect the notice for the accreditation?  And I don’t know if I missed – I heard you mentioned housing.  Is this some hotels that are for journalists or (inaudible)? 

**MR ELIAS:**So the housing deadlines I referenced are for party-issued housing.  So again, for the RNC that deadline has passed, but the DNC’s, I believe, is at the end of this month, so there still is time.  But again, if you don’t get housing through the parties, you’re still able to do so on your own.  So that’s still an option.  And thankfully in Chicago there is a lot of hotel rooms, so that shouldn’t be the problem that it might be in Milwaukee, at least if you want to stay in downtown Milwaukee proper.

**QUESTION:**  (Off-mike.)

**MR ELIAS:**  So at this point, we’re actually trying to coordinate this with the Ardian Group.  We’re still working to connect with Ardian and the Secret Service to determine a path forward with them, so we’re going to hold off on sending our notice of accreditation until we have those conversations to determine the process.  Our thinking at this point is probably maybe late March at the very earliest – April-May is when you’ll probably begin receiving them from us.  

**QUESTION:**Balazs Nary from Hungarian TV, radio, and news agency.  I have a question also regarding the accreditation that in, theory, when there is much more application than the application the parties could provide the space, what are the main principles for considering who gets the accreditation or the credential and who does not get?  So are there some basic principles to consider beside if it happens?  

**MS KORNACKI:**What we will do is each party prints up a series of credentials.  And what we will do with news organizations, given – taking into account the number of people who are coming, we may say – if it’s a group of five, we may say two perimeter and then three building.  But of the three, on the back of their credential, we will stamp “Floor pass eligible.”  And because that’s transferable, then two can go in to the floor and then when they’re done, they can trade off with their colleagues and even the ones that are outside.  So it’s a constant rotating basis.  Justin, you may have yours differently? 

**MR SUPON:**No, our credentials are also transferable.  Again, as Olga said, if you have a team of ten and you get – in a perfect world – five credentials that get you into the convention venue, you can have five people in the convention venue at a time, but it doesn’t matter who they are because you can leave there and hand off your pass for use by a colleague who may need to do an interview on the event floor.  

**MODERATOR:**Great.  We have time for just a couple more questions.  

**QUESTION:**Thank you.  This is Joon Hyung Cho from Yonhap News Agency, South Korea.  Is there going to be any special press availability or programs only for foreign media?  Especially as a foreign media journalist, I have some interest in the candidates’ foreign policy.  So it will be great if there is some kind of press availability for the candidate to speak about his own foreign policy.  So is there going to be anything like that?  

**MR ELIAS:**I think, in the past, the Foreign Press Center has actually handled that.  So I’ll turn that over to Doris. 

**MODERATOR:**Yes, we’re setting up a briefing space at both conventions where we’ll have speakers come and give briefings for the foreign press.  So stay tuned.  

And we have time for one more question.  So I’ll check online, and it doesn’t look like we have any more questions.  I’ll give a final round to our in-person journalists.  Great.  

**MR HARTNER:**Doris, I actually had one more thing (inaudible).

**MODERATOR:**Sure.  Sure.  

**MR HARTNER:**  So during the application process, if you have not already applied, we are asking that only one point of contact apply for an organization.  So if you’re a reporter who is only planning on going to Milwaukee and you know another team is going to Chicago, we ask that only one person from your organization apply for both groups and they submit all the numbers that they will need for each convention.  If more than one or more than two – we’ve had some applications from the same organization, and we’ve got to reach out and zero out some of those requests and roll them into other applications so we just have one point of contact.  So if you haven’t already applied, we ask that just one point of contact, one application.  

And also parking, you can still submit parking requests while filling out applications.  We don’t process those directly.  We pass those on to the party.  I believe there is a cost associated with parking.  I don’t know that we have that number yet.

**MR ELIAS:**  150, roughly.

**MR HARTNER:**  Yeah, roughly $150 – but that is something that we pass along to the party and that they handle.  

**MODERATOR:**Great. 

**MS KORNACKI:**You can also Uber to the sites.  

**MODERATOR:**We’ll take a question.  Sure.  

**QUESTION:**You – you were mentioning these journeys by – organized by the FPC.  Can you give maybe a quick overview of what kind of (inaudible) journeys you offer for us (inaudible)?  

**MODERATOR:**So I will say I attended the 2016 Republican National Convention and the Democratic Convention and we set up various briefings.  We set up briefings about – the city.  We might set up something – it’s going to be in Milwaukee – we would set up something maybe with the mayor, other officials, to give you guys some background information on the conventions and why they happen and the importance of them and stuff like that.  So, yeah, we plan to send out more information about that soon, so stay tuned.  You’re welcome.  

Great.  So I will turn it back to our speakers and see if we have any final remarks.  

**MR HARTNER:**I just would say thank you all for being here, for joining us online.  If you are the point of contact for your organization, there is a good chance that either we’ve already spoken or we will speak in the coming days.  So I look forward to talking with each of you further, and with that, I will turn it over to anyone else who wants to close.

**MR SUPON:**  I would just like to bring up something that you might want to think about.  Wi-Fi will be provided in all of the media facilities, including the convention venue, but you may want to try to figure out an alternative to using Wi-Fi because invariably it crashes because of the sheer load of people trying to get onto that network.  So if you have a story that really needs to be filed quickly, you may consider a hard connection or I guess a personal hotspot.  Just putting that out there.  

**MODERATOR:**  Olga, Andy?  Great.  So I would like to thank our briefers for taking the time to brief us today, and I would like to thank the journalists for participating.  This concludes today’s briefing.

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