Fourteen students from across the US worked at the event, producing video, photographic and written coverage of the two-day conference and award ceremony. The ONA event is now in its fourth year, and draws leading figures from the world of web journalism.
Mr Bryant is currently studying at New York University and edits and writes for ReadMe - the journalism department’s new media blog. Mark Dery, one of the course tutors, suggested the idea and helped arrange funding for the trip.
The students worked for free on location in Chicago, although they had no dedicated newsroom and had problems with web access.
"It was all pretty much virtual, and the site blog entries were put together on Sunday," he told dotJournalism.
"But the wireless connection didn't work, so we had to blog from coffee shops around the hotel."
Being on location gave the students the opportunity to meet many experienced online journalists from publications across the country.
"It was instructive to meet the conference participants in person and to engage in the panel discussions," he said.
"It's a great networking event for a fledgling industry."
Mr Bryant’s next project will be finding a job after graduation, as well as keeping up his contributions to ReadMe.
"Ideally, I'd like to work for Salon.com, Slate, or a large metropolitan newspaper that has a substantial online presence."
Dianne Killian, executive director of the ONA, told dotJournalism that all the students were encouraged to attend panel sessions where they could socialise with some of the best online journalists in the country.
"The ONA is committed to supporting and encouraging excellence in online journalism, and that means not only today, but tomorrow.
"These are tomorrow's professionals."
See also:
http://www.journalists.org/2003conference
http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/ReadMe
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