About the conference
ACES 2025 Salt Lake City was held April 3–5, 2025, at the Hilton Salt Lake City Center. The conference sold out.
The program offered 40 breakout sessions led by expert speakers. Sessions were grouped into four topic areas and geared to introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels.
Notable events included:
- Ask the Editing Experts Roundtable: A pre-conference event on April 2 where attendees met with editing experts in small groups.
- First-Timers Reception: A welcome event on April 2 for first-time conference attendees.
- Peer Connection Coffee Chats: Small groups of peers within a specialty area met on Thursday, April 3, to discuss a professional topic.
- ACES Education Fund Spelling Bee: Held Thursday, April 3, at the conference hotel.
- Silent Auction: Attendees bid on editing, language, and book-related items. All proceeds went to the ACES Education Fund’s scholarship and fellowship programs.
- ACES Awards Banquet: Held Friday, April 4, with the conference keynote.
- “Rebel With a Clause” screening: An ACES Education Fund fundraiser featuring Brandt Johnson’s film about ACES member Ellen Jovin and her pop-up grammar advice stand. The screening was moved to a remote viewing for ticket holders.
Keynote speaker
Journalist LZ Granderson delivered the keynote at the ACES Awards Banquet on Friday, April 4.
Granderson is an op-ed columnist for the Los Angeles Times, a contributor for ABC News, and host of ABC Audio’s “Life Out Loud with LZ Granderson,” the network’s first LGBTQ-focused podcast. The Emmy Award winner has focused on sports, culture, and politics.
Before ABC, he was a columnist and contributor for CNN. He also spent more than 17 years at ESPN, in roles that included NBA editor and cohost of “SportsNation.”
He is a journalism professor at Western Michigan University, his alma mater, and the author of “The Ballad of LZ Granderson,” a collection of personal essays about sports, culture, and politics.
Sessions
Breakout sessions were organized into four topic areas, each offered at introductory, intermediate, and advanced levels:
- Core editing skills
- Words and language
- Business of editing
- Panels
General sessions
- Merriam-Webster presentation — Peter Sokolowski
- AP Style presentation
- Chicago Manual of Style presentation