Conyers Davis Keynotes USC’s Town and Gown Pre-Election Luncheon

USC’s Town and Gown is the oldest women's non-profit organization at USC. Founded in 1904 as the Women’s Club of the University of Southern California, they are a philanthropic organization whose purpose is to support USC through scholarships for students, building and campus enhancements and cultural programs. The women of Town and Gown showed great foresight in 1935 to build the Town and Gown Building on campus, often called the “living room of the university” because it is in perpetual use by the Trojan Family.
 
The Institute has hosted some of its most impactful convenings at the Town and Gown Building and the women of Town and Gown use it for regular meetings of its large membership bringing fascinating speakers to address relevant and timely topics.
 
They traditionally host a pre-election luncheon, and this year Town and Gown invited the Institute’s Director of Strategic Initiatives, Conyers Davis, who served in the Schwarzenegger administration and has worked on many national campaigns, to speak. Conyers' talk, entitled “Celebrity, Communications and the Presidency” took an interesting look at the rise of celebrity politics and how it impacts campaign strategy. With the star of Celebrity Apprentice as this years Republican Party Presidential nominee the interconnection of politics and celebrity has become complete. Conyers also discussed how the transformation of media has also impacted this political celebrity culture and with a multitude of ways to get your message out with social media, twitter, snapchat, blogs, etc candidates are adopting very different communications strategies. Showing clips of Hillary Clinton on “Between Two Ferns” with Zach Galifianakis, and Donald Trump on the Jimmy Fallon Show the crowd was entertained as they were educated.