The 2008 Communications Network Conference, a group of philanthropy professionals who work in communications, began last night in Chicago.

Chair of the Network, Larry Meyer (pictured below at left) and Senior Communication Officer and Secretary at Knight Foundation, introduced Ira Glass, who explained how his wildly successful NPR (and Showtime) show This American Life uses narrative hooks to “cunningly” engage listeners around issues they might not otherwise care about.

Everyone was still abuzz about his talk this morning at breakfast;

to follow the events, the conference Twitter tag is #comnet08 and the conference blog has more details about sessions and speakers.