Colorado SunFest 2026 is a daylong event bringing Coloradans together to discuss what makes A Better Colorado. Find out more about specific sessions planned for Friday, May 1 below.
Keynote speaker
Pulitzer Prize winner and former New York Times Executive Editor Dean Baquet will kick off Colorado SunFest 2026 as the keynote speaker on May 1 at the University of Denver.
Baquet currently leads The Times’ Local Investigations Fellowship, a program for journalists to learn investigative skills and work on a local project with guidance from seasoned editors. Baquet was executive editor of The Times from May 2014 to June 2022, and previously served as managing editor and the Washington bureau chief.
To open Colorado SunFest 2026, Baquet will sit down for a one-on-one conversation to discuss the current attack on the freedom of the press, the role journalists play in our democracy and will entertain questions from the audience.
Early in his career, Baquet worked in newsrooms at the Chicago Tribune and the Times-Picayune in New Orleans. His reporting on the corruption among the Chicago City Council earned him the 1988 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting.
Baquet started as a metro reporter in 1990 at The New York Times before climbing the ranks. He spent time as the managing editor, as well as editor, at The Los Angeles Times. He returned to New York and was honored as the 2021 Benjamin C. Bradlee Editor of the Year by the National Press Foundation.
The fourth annual Colorado SunFest is Friday, May 1, at Josef Korbel School of Global and Public Affairs on the University of Denver campus. Tickets are available for purchase on The Colorado SunFest event page.