The press events and press conferences of TV news channels are the best ones for me as a TV critic and a journalist covering television to go to - it starts on time, its filled to the brim with intelligentsia, lacks stragglers and clueless people simply showing up just to pack their plates with food and grab goodie bags, lacks uninformed idiots asking retarded questions, is swift, clean, seamless and uber professional.
So it was too on Friday with the press event and press conference of the eNews Channel on MultiChoice's DStv platform rebranding to eNCA (DStv 403), which was held Friday afternoon at the Radisson Blu Gautrain hotel in Sandton.
Iman Rappetti, now the new co-anchor of News Night with Jeremy Maggs was the master of ceremonies as Patrick Conroy (group head of news, eNCA) and Chris Maroleng (Africa editor, eNCA) took turns to speak and took questions during a Q&A session.
During the eNCA press conference TV screens tuned to the eNCA inside the room co-incidentally showed the live press briefing from the Lonmin mine, as news executives from both the eNCA as well as invited journalists undoubtedly itched to get back to their BlackBerrys and offices to cover the news.
After the succinct press briefing advertising executives from the eNCA and elsewhere, sponsors, eNCA staff and executives, the press, and invited guests snacked on a wide array of five star delicatessen in the side lobby on the 3rd floor of the Raddison Blu Gautrain hotel.
Outside on the pool deck (which is looking out over competitor CNBC Africa's head office) guests mingled around the wet bar. The talk wasn't idle chit-chat on a Friday afternoon however - it was all biz.
The top executives of the eNCA were all in attendance from Patrick Conroy to Seamus Reynolds (news editor) to Rob Brown (the head of technical operations). Jeremy Maggs' camera team from Maggs on Media on the eNCA was filming.
