Conference Schedule

Region 4 Conference is exactly one week away!

Here’s the lineup:

Friday, April 3

6-8 p.m. — Reception at Winking Lizard Crosswoods

Saturday, April 4
(specific session times and descriptions are subject to change):

7:30-8:30 a.m. — Registration

8:30-9:30 a.m. — Breakfast with Walter Middlebrook (Sponsored by Nationwide)

9:45 to 11:15 a.m. — (choose one)

Moving Beyond the Mainstream: The Impact of Digital Media on Public Affairs Coverage (presented by the Kiplinger Program) (Sponsored by OSU Office of Communications)

This session is designed to get you up to speed on the latest trends in the digital world and how they impact public affairs reporting. You’ll examine how the Internet is changing the shape and delivery of news and information. You’ll familiarize yourself with how journalists and others are communicating through Twitter, YouTube, blogs, Facebook, and a variety of other sites and technologies (including QR codes, Publish2 and Ping.fm). And you’ll learn how to apply new reporting strategies in multiple platforms. This is a foundations session for those who want to better understand and navigate the digital age.

Ethics of User-Generated Content with Ray Marcano, internet general manager at Cox Ohio Publishing.

11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. — Mark of Excellence luncheon and awards ceremony with keynote Leonard Pitts

1:15 to 2:45 p.m. — (choose one)

Beat Blogging with Henry Gomez of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Bob Baptist of the Columbus Dispatch and Chris Seper of MedCityNews.com. Learn how these pros are engaging readers on a whole new level. Blogging is quite different what reporters do in print. Blogs aggregate content from elsewhere, allow interaction with readers and allow for posting lots of tidbits and additional information – items that cannot fit in print. Blogs also can contain video and audio, and are part of an interactive online network of other blogs and social networking sites. (Presented by Online News Association) (Sponsored by Columbus Dispatch)

Time for Transition: Life after Newspapers. A career coach and other panelists guide attendees through the next steps in the life of a former or about-to-be former journalist. Do you go into PR? Back to school for a brand new career? What’s next? (Sponsored by Paul Werth Associates)

3 to 4:30 p.m. — (choose one)

Following the Crowd: How to Reach New Audiences on the Web (presented by Kiplinger Program)

In this session, you’ll explore how journalists, non-profits, start ups and other organizations are using new technologies and techniques to gain attention and expand their reach. You’ll learn the sophisticated ways people are using 
Twitter, Second Life and other social media sites, for example. And you’ll explore how new semantic tools are changing they way groups collect, organize and make meaning from thousands of people who comment daily on the Web.

Narrowcasting: On-camera Professions in New Media

Assistant Managing Editor Dave Maetzold of college broadcast Web site palestra.net will provide insight into the changing world of online broadcasting. The site’s network of paid student reporters cover news, sports and entertainment. The network was founded in 2006 by a group of former Columbus TV sports guys who realized that the media was moving away from the half-hour evening TV newscast to an online and on-demand world.

The network has grown to nearly 100 schools and more than 120 student reporters. Reporters have covered every BCS bowl game, college basketball’s Final Four, the Super Bowl, the Sundance Film Festival, the Bonarroo Music Festival and both the 2008 Republican and Democratic National Conventions. Student reporters have filed stories from all 48 continental states. Palestra.net is a content partner of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel providing student reporters opportunities to appear on both TV networks. Palestra.net is also a content partner with Fox Sports Interactive, providing reporters one more national platform on which to showcase their work.

Spring Conference 2009 is sponsored by Nationwide, Ohio State University — University Communications and School of Communication, Columbus Dispatch, Cox Ohio, Paul Werth Associates, Scripps College of Communication at Ohio University, Graydon Head and Ohio Newspaper Association.

For those of you attending, please be at our first meeting on Tuesday!!