As many of you are aware, we had the distinct privilege and honor of co-hosting the West Virginia on the Rise event on September 21st in Charleston with our friends at the American Conservative Union Foundation.

In every way imaginable, and perhaps even in ways we didn’t imagine, the event was a resounding success!

The room was packed and there were multiple news outlets in attendance – among which included WCHS in Charleston, and West Virginia Public Broadcasting, who were both live-streaming the event. Further, for those of you in West Virginia, your local public broadcasting channel will be airing a trimmed-down version of the event in the near future if you weren’t able to follow in real-time yesterday.

In addition to radio and television prior to and during the event, we’ve seen widespread coverage through other news outlets afterward.

Some of these outlets include:

• MetroNews
• U.S. News & World Report
• KTUL in Tulsa, OK
• The Seattle Times
• The Charleston Gazette-Mail
• WCHS-TV in Charleston
• WSAZ-TV in Charleston & Huntington
• The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington

We were so pleased to host US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, WV Attorney General, and US Representative Alex Mooney as keynote speakers. Likewise, Cardinal Institute was incredibly proud to moderate all  three panel discussions throughout the day. Garrett Ballengee, executive director, moderated the opening panel on opioids and the closing panel on the economy, and Jessi Trojan, development director, moderated the panel on families.

All in all, it was a day full of stimulating intellectual discussions. The problems facing West Virginia cross all political, social, and economic lines. Solutions won’t be given by any one particular group, either. There’s no doubt, that the day’s conversations are a step in the right direction to bringing new and innovative ideas to the table for overcoming the hardships we often see, and may even find ourselves in the midst of in our wild and wonderful state.