With just a week left to go, there is still much work to be completed inside the Tampa Bay Times Forum before the home of the Lightning is ready to welcome thousands of delegates and news media next week.
As reporters were led into the inside of the arena Monday morning to see the elaborate theatrical stage that will be the central focus of convention viewers, they also saw dozens and dozens of construction workers busy getting the building in tip-top shape for the GOP celebration, an event costing tens of millions of dollars to stage.
But Monday's news conference was all about showing off the elaborate 13-video backdrop to the six-foot-high podium that organizers are calling "light years" ahead of anything previously done at a political convention.
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2012.