Anderson Cooper

Titles

Anderson Cooper`s Keynote

Anderson Cooper gives an impressionistic look back at his life in journalism so far, and he tells it with the same candor and feeling that resonates so powerfully with audiences, critics and subjects. He shares amazing stories of the people he met, the things he saw and the lessons he relearned in the midst of devastation. His television viewers will recognize in his talk the same distinctive intellect, empathy, curiosity, eloquence and accountability he brings to his broadcasts. Cooper crisscrosses through time as these haunting experiences dislodge old memories he has long tried to contain. Reporting from Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami surrounded by sadness and despair, he tells of survivors looking for missing loved ones and whole villages decimated to covering the devastation - still being felt - of Hurricane Katrina. Cooper is reminded of his own earlier losses and the formative impact they have had on him: the death of his father, writer Wyatt Cooper, when he was only ten and the suicide of his brother, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, in front of their mother while he was in college. Throughout his talk, he reflects on the family history he has kept at a distance for years, gradually remembering and reconfiguring pieces of his past into something recognizable.

Anderson gives the audience a sense of what it means to be a journalist -- the fear, the adrenaline, the camaraderie, the pragmatism, the desensitization, the self-preservation -- and how challenging it is to do that job without losing essential parts of oneself. He also shares telling insights into the anatomy of a news story, a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what makes it to air and what doesn`t. Cooper demonstrates why he has become one of the most relevant and incisive voices in the news business.