400 journalists from Ireland, Britain and around Europe are attending the Annual Delegate Meeting of the National Union of Journalists in Belfast.
It is the first time the conference is being held in the city.
Belfast Lord Mayor Jim Rodgers, who opened the conference, told delegates their attendance was another example of how the situation in Northern Ireland had changed dramatically in recent times.
The conference is being held in the Europa Hotel, the most bombed hotel in Europe, and home to many of the overseas reporters who covered the early days of violence in the 1970s.
