In addition to their policy talk, there was also ample opportunity for the featured journalists to offer advice and tell their own stories in an informal setting.

George magazine's new Executive Editor Richard P. Blow told conference- goers about dropping out of graduate school at Harvard after three years. He called it one of the best decisions he'd ever made.

"Grad school is a very long conversation with a very small group of people," he said. "[Political journalism] is much more fun--and that's not unimportant."

Over lunch, HPR staffer Nicole B. Usher '03 chatted with Isaacson about how to obtain a successful career in political journalism.

"He told me that you can have all these big internships but what really matters is your writing," Usher said. "He said, 'If you write for your local newspaper and can make a city council election sound interesting then I'll hire you.'"

John D. Couriel '00, the editor-in-chief of HPR, said overall the conference far exceeded his expectations.

"We've had some serious discussion, but we've also had a lot of fun," Couriel said. "What makes this conference different than all the million other things going on at Harvard is that the HPR is dedicated to the idea that every cause is worth talking about."