Kathy Bergen
Staff Reporter - Chicago Tribune
Kathy Bergen is a business reporter for the Chicago Tribune, covering the tourism, hospitality and convention businesses, as well as the city's bid for the 2016 Olympics. Her coverage includes news and trend stories about the city's hotels, convention centers, restaurants, sports teams, cultural institutions and tourist attractions. She joined the Tribune in 1992, starting as a copy editor on the Business desk. After several years, she switched to reporting, taking on the personal finance beat for several years before switching to the hospitality beat. Previously, she worked as an editor at Crain's Chicago Business, and as an editor and reporter at a variety of smaller newspapers, including the Rockford Register Star. While at the Tribune and other papers, she has won a number of local, regional and national awards.
Natalie Boscia
Vice President Tourism & Lifestyle -
Edelman Public Relations
Natalie Boscia has an extensive background in public relations and marketing with more than nine years of agency experience. She is responsible for overseeing the implementation and management of strategic public relations programs for the Illinois Bureau of Tourism and serves as senior manager for the annual Illinois Governor’s Conference on Tourism. She started her career at a Chicago-based entertainment public relations firm where she implemented extensive media relation programs and press tours for major film studios including Disney, MGM, Paramount, Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Entertainment. She later broadened her entertainment public relations experience as a publicist for Sony Theatres Corporate in New York, where she managed the media outreach and event planning for the opening of the Sony IMAX Theatre.
Barbara Morrow
Senior Travel Editor - Midwest Living
A 30-year veteran, Barbara has written and edited travel articles for Midwest Living since 1989. She leads the editorial travel and special publications team, including Midwest Living travel editorial, the magazine’s biggest category, the expanded annual Best of the Midwest magazine and custom travel magazines. A Missouri native, Barbara is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She has worked as a newspaper reporter and editorial page editor, and has written and/or edited more than a dozen books, including Midwest Living travel guides featuring Illinois and Chicago.
Pam Oliver, NBC 5
Producer and News Planning Editor -
NBC Channel 5
A graduate of Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Pam produced and reported for the downstate public broadcasting station, WSIU. She continued her journalism career at Northwestern University in Evanston in the Department of Public Relations as a Public Affairs specialist promoting University research and programs. While at Northwestern, she produced a daily radio-news actuality news service and assisted in the production of a weekly network public affairs program. After 5 years at Northwestern, Pam went on to become News Director for Cablevision of Chicago producing locally originated news, entertainment and feature programming. In 1986, Pam joined WMAQ-TV news as a field producer and news research for the award winning consumer segment "The Wright Report." She also field produced local coverage of Pope John Paul's visit to New York City. Pam is the recipient of several local Emmy Awards and has been nominated for a National Emmy for work on NBC 5's "News for Kids Chicago Style." Pam has also been recognized by state and national mental health organizations for a series of stories addressing mental illness. She co-produced NBC 5's adoption series "Wednesday's Child" with anchor Allison Rosati. She currently produces the weekly feature series "Art's Chicago" and as News Planning Editor. Pam is responsible for identifying local news stories for daily coverage.
Frank Sennett
Editor-in-Chief, TimeOut Chicago
For a guy who grew up in Montana, Frank Sennett has put down some solid Chicago roots over the years, from getting his journalism degree at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and graduating from the improv program at Players Workshop of the Second City to serving as an editor at several Chicago-based publications and spending a season in the Wrigley Field press box. His career highlights include serving as managing editor of the weekly Newcity during a period of "substantial critical buzz," as Crain's Chicago Business put it (and then becoming editor of the company's national alternative-press Web portal); receiving two Lisagor awards from the Chicago Headline Club; publishing seven books (including two crime novels about a Chicago journalist) so far this decade; and working as a features editor at sonicnet and MTV.com. Sennett keeps coming back to the city for one simple reason: He flat-out loves it.