The National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) Annual Conference is an annual event that has been a tradition since 1977. The conference is the NSNC's main event and promotes professionalism, education, and networking support for media professionals and journalists in a free-press environment. Leighann Lord hosted the virtual conference in 2021.

"If the 1999 Louisville conference is remembered for the visit to the Muhammad Ali Museum and the 2005 Texas conference is remembered for the mechanical bull, then the 2021 conference must be remembered as the Leighann Lord conference. Her emcee role was absolutely pitch perfect. Her humor, her quick-thinking reactions, her sensitivity to what was happening around her, why it's the best MC work I've ever seen. Then add to that the passing of her mother only a few days before ("My mother would have wanted me to do this") and what we witnessed was professionalism and excellence of the highest caliber."
Dave Lieber