NABJ 2013 Convention: Orlando

The latest news from the Program Committee as NABJ prepares for Orlando.

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The National Association of Black Journalists welcomes you to join us from July 31-August 4, 2013 as we gather in Orlando for the 38th Annual Convention and Career Fair! Thousands of journalists, media executives, public relations professionals, and students are expected to attend to network, participate in professional development sessions and celebrate excellence in journalism.

National Association of Black Journalists website, describing this year's convention.

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The 38th Annual NABJ Convention and Career Fair will be held at the Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center.  Above is a peek at one of the queen/queen rooms. And if you’re looking for a roommate, check out the NABJ Convention Roommate Bureau Facebook group. I hope to see you there!!

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Today is the day! It is the LAST day to register for this year's NABJ Annual Convention & Career Fair, in Orlando.  The rate will be $325 until midnight.  After that, the price rises $55 to $380.  

We also have the complete list of workshops posted here. So run -- don't walk -- to the NABJ website and register TODAY!!

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The clock is ticking! You have exactly five days to take advantage of Early Bird registration for the 2013 Annual NABJ Convention & Career Fair. It ends on Friday, March 15; the price jumps from $325 to $380. Don't delay!

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Thank You, NABJ!

The NABJ Program Committee received 30 more workshop proposals in the spring round of submissions.  A BIG thanks to everyone who submitted.  

We have made our choices, which are being reviewed by the NABJ board.  We're getting in touch with everyone who submitted, but please be patient.  Meanwhile, check out the workshops that have already been approved, here.

Don't forget -- Early Bird registration ends on March 15. Register today!!

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Did you miss submitting a convention workshop proposal in October? Do you want the chance to refine and resubmit a proposal? Have you come up with a great new idea that will help our members?  Then now is the time to submit your ideas. The deadline is Feb. 22 at midnight Pacific Standard Time.

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"Help us help you help us. What are you seriously lacking? Is there a subject area or some topics that you consider missing from the working lineup?"

Former NABJ President Will Sutton asked me great question on the NABJ Facebook group on what the Program Committee is looking for in the upcoming mini-round of workshop submissions for the 2013 Convention and Career Fair.  Below are 10 topics I’d love to see.

A Deep Dive Learning Lab on how to use WordPress

Journalist branding

Data journalism

Creating infographics/data visualization

How to ensure your online presence is clean

Creating/maintaining long-form journalism in a 140-character world

Breaking into the health care/science beat

Video shooting/editing for the print journalist

Journalist versus bloggers - are the lines blurring?

Coding 101

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Time to Think About More Orlando Workshop Panels!

                            Later this week, the NABJ Program Committee will open up a second call for proposals covering workshops at the convention in Orlando July 31-Aug. 4, 2013.  We will also post workshops that have already been approved on the NABJ website by the end of this week.

This mini-round is the perfect chance for those of you who missed the October deadline or weren't sure what to submit. We are also adding names to our list of folks who don't want to create or moderate a panel, but want to speak on one.  The deadline -- Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 at 11:59 Pacific Standard Time -- is a strict one, so please don't miss it. There will not be any deadline extensions.

For those whose workshops were initially rejected, I would encourage you to tweak your submission and try again.  Check out our submission criteria from the last round here.  And if you have any questions, please feel free to email me or hit me up on Twitter or the NABJ Facebook group.  Good luck!!

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Let's end the week with this 2:35-minute video of the NABJ convention host hotel's $50 million renovation project.  Enjoy!

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Program Committee Update

First, I want to give a BIG thank you to the members of the NABJ 2013 Program Committee who were on the conference call Nov. 3 to begin the selection process for our workshops in Orlando next year.  We all have lives, and their sacrifice is greatly appreciated.

Second, I have to say that NABJ members made the decision process very difficult by submitting some great workshop proposals.  The bad news is we only have a finite number of workshop slots, so not everyone will be a presenter in Orlando.  But I believe the committee did a great job of balancing what they thought were the needs of our members.

The next steps are:

Merge some proposals that were similar;

Refine others that were good ideas but needed fleshing out;

Choose the Deep Dive Learning Labs;

Get board approval during their December call;

Inform the accepted and rejected; and

Post on the convention section of the NABJ website.

The goal is to have all this done in January, so members can actually see what programming they're getting during Early Bird registration.

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It's that time again.  The NABJ 2013 Program Committee meets on Saturday via conference call to do the first round of reviews on the workshops members submitted. You can follow the conversation on Twitter using the #NABJ13 hashtag.

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Next Up: Preparing For The Program Committee Conference Call

First, I again want to thank all the people who stepped up and submitted workshop proposals and volunteered to be speakers at next year's NABJ Annual Convention and Career Fair in Orlando.  In the end, we had 50 speakers and 125 proposals submitted by the Oct. 17 deadline (OK, so a few were a day late).

The next step is I work with deputy committee chair Melanie Eversley and NABJ Program Manager Irving Washington to look at what was submitted and remove submissions that clearly don't fall under the proposal committee guidelines.  Next we give the remaining proposals to the Program Committee for their review.

On Saturday, Nov. 3, we will have a day-long conference call to review every proposal submitted.  Our choices are to reject, accept or accept with modifications. After that, we format and order the proposals and submit them to the NABJ board for their December board meeting.  We hope to have our choices up on the convention section of the NABJ website before the end of the year.

And for those of who who submitted (or wanted to submit) after the deadline, we will be doing a mini-round of proposal submissions in the spring.

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Meet The Newest Members of the 2013 NABJ Program Committee

We've added some new members to the NABJ 2013 Program Committee:

Khorri Atkinson, journalism student at the City University of New York;

Tara August, Senior Director, Talent Services Group, Turner Sports and representative for the Sports Task Force

Brittany Geneva Cummings, CNN associate producer and chair, communications committee for the Atlanta Association of Black Journalists;

Bliss Davis, multimedia journalist, WJW-TV Cleveland;

Bakari Savage, reporter, Central Florida News 13.

Due to other commitments, Will Wright, the representative from the Broadcast Task Force, is no longer on the committee.

To see a complete list of the committee, click here.

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The pool at the Gaylord Palms, the hotel for next year's NABJ Annual Convention and Career Fair.

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On behalf of the National Association of Black Journalists and the 2013 Program Committee, I want to personally thank ALL the members who stepped up and submitted a workshop/speaker proposal for next year's convention.  We had more than 100 workshop and more than 50 speaker submissions (and counting).

The best part was that the vast majority were terrific ideas that will allow us to take programming to the next level and benefit the membership.  The Program Committee, which will meet Nov. 3 to review them all, is going to have a tough job.

If you missed the deadline, don't worry -- we're doing a mini round of submissions in the spring.

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Need Ideas For Your NABJ 2013 Convention Workshop Proposal? Here’s 13!

As the Oct. 17 deadline to submit workshop proposals and speakers for next year's Annual Convention and Career Fair in Orlando, I thought I'd share some workshops that could be in the mix.

Our tracks are:

The Fundamentals – No matter how technology changes, the basics of journalism remain the same. This track covers the fundamental skills every journalist needs to know. From the art of the live shot to the art of storytelling, these sessions will cover the nuts and bolts of how to be a better journalist.

  On The Beat – In today’s fast-paced newsroom, beat reporting moves fast. Journalists must cover everything from politics to energy to business. This track is designed to break down reporting beats. Whether you want to be a better photojournalist, move into sports, hone your business acumen or explore politics in this election year, these sessions will dig deep into specific beat reporting. NABJ Task Forces are strongly encouraged to submit proposals for this track.

  Technology Tool Box – With tools including Storify, Rebel Mouse, Tumblr, API, Bundlr, Open Source, or HTML5, it’s hard to stay on the cutting edge of technology. These sessions will highlight new and emerging technology that helps journalists perfect their craft.

  Moving into Management – If you’re looking to move up into the management ranks, this track is for you. Presenters will offer workshops that will help take your career to the next level.

  Communication Station – The industry is changing and so are job titles. Communication is at the heart of what we do, but it’s not always in a newsroom. This track is designed to educate and train members in communication fields. From academia to public relations to entrepreneurship, sessions will cover innovative and creative programming for those in communication and non-traditional journalism professions.

  Deep Dive Learning Labs- Our day-long and half-day Deep Dive Sessions give members the chance to learn at a more relaxed pace.  Past sessions have covered topics including entrepreneurship, mobile reporting, Final Cut Pro, career transformation and branding.

  "I Feel Lucky” - Do you have a great proposal idea that doesn’t fit into one of our standard tracks?  If so, you can submit your proposal in this section. Please note that priority will be given to sessions that fit within our standard tracks; however, we are open to proposals that may go beyond that criteria. Make sure you have an innovative or interesting idea because proposals selected from this option will be very competitive.

  Presenters Only:

Are you a subject matter expert interested in presenting? We are accepting applications for conference presenters. This option is for individuals who do not wish to propose a workshop session, but want to be considered as a possible panelist.  The NABJ Program Committee will review each presenter submitted. Due to the anticipated volume of presenters, NABJ will only contact presenters that fit in line with our final programming.

So, based on those criteria, below are some suggestions for workshops in New Orleans.  And remember — the deadline to submit is Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2011 at 11:59 p.m. ET  Good luck!

Media Ethics in a Web 3.0 World

Job Search Tips & Techniques

Adding a Dash of Data to your Journalism

Make Your Web Stories Clickalicious

Monetizing My Blog

WordPress 101

How Crowdsourcing Can Be am Effective Newsgathering Tool

Incorporating the Latest Social Media Tools in your Stories

How to break into INSERT BEAT HERE

How to Develop Effective Multiplatform Stories

Multimedia training for seasoned journalists

How to Survive and Thrive as a Freelance Journalist

Copy editing in a 21st Century Newsroom

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well can we see the content of a winning proposal not just a title or a broadcast of self concerned favorites

Yes.  I did a series of blog posts on specific proposals that won in 2012 and 2011.

http://nabj2013.tumblr.com/post/32882185996/what-makes-a-great-nabj13-proposal

http://nabj2013.tumblr.com/post/31859445856/my-series-on-what-makes-a-great-workshop-proposal

http://nabj2013.tumblr.com/post/31268181719/photo-courtesy-of-visual-dichotomy-on-flickr-via

http://nabj2012archive.tumblr.com/post/23539968750/nabj-2012-workshop-put-your-best-pitch-forward-a

http://nabj2012archive.tumblr.com/post/22319891796/nabj-2012-workshop-data-visualization-on-the-cheap

http://nabj2012archive.tumblr.com/post/21911847351/nabj-2012-workshop-wordpress-web-design-half-day

http://nabj2012archive.tumblr.com/post/18898805773/nabj-2012-workshop-talking-heads-101

I hope this helps.  And I hope you submit a workshop proposal.