October 28-29
The Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel, Edmonton, Alberta

Keynote Speaker: Arthur Kent



Setting the Nation’s News Agenda: Ours for the Taking.

Why should out- of-touch executives and bureaucrats continue to dictate the flow of news?
As the next wave of new technology rolls in, journalists will be able to respond faster and better to the challenge of grabbing the attention of readers, listeners and viewers - and telling them the stories the big guys continue to miss.

Arthur Kent rose to international prominence during the 1991 Persian Gulf War when he acquired the nickname “The Scud Stud.”He graduated from Carleton University and worked at NBC as a foreign correspondent and host of Dateline NBC from 1989 to 1992. He later returned to Canada to host the CBC’s Man Alive. Today he’s a journalist and award-winning documentary film producer owning his own film company, Fast Forward Films, in Britain.

In 1989, Arthur Kent won back-to-back Emmy Awards for his role in NBC's coverage of the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Romanian uprising.

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Seminars:

Arthur Kent

Hook, Edge and Storyline: Grabbing and holding attention in the swamp of information overload.

Carol Picard

Small-town Journalism: Working in a world where everybody knows your name

Newsgathering in smaller communities presents a unique set of challenges — how do you maintain objectivity and professional standards when the people you’re writing about are personal friends, long-time acquaintances — or heavy-duty advertisers? Does life at a weekly automatically doom you to a life of grip-and-grins and puffball editorials?

Carol Picard has been a journalist for 30 years, first with dailies in Winnipeg and Edmonton and for the last 15 years as a community newspaper editor in Canmore, Alberta. Five years ago she and two business partners launched the Rocky Mountain Outlook in a regional market to compete against two well-established community weeklies. In its five years The Outlook has won numerous awards, both provincially and nationally, for photography, design and graphics, reporting, feature writing, headline writing and editorial writing.

Lorraine Turchansky

Be the Editor They Love: How to tighten, brighten and improve reporters’ stories without stealing their voices.

Turchansky is News Editor at the Prairies Bureau of The Canadian Press and Broadcast News. She landed her first job with the national news service 31 years ago and now is proud to be a CP Style Wonk. She has also worked as a newspaper reporter and as a copy editor at Hansard, the official record of debates in the Alberta legislature.

David Postman

Mastering the Blog

David Postman is the chief political reporter for The Seattle Times, where he has worked since September 1994. Based in the paper’s capitol bureau in Olympia, he writes about all levels of politics, from the Seattle mayor’s race to the presidential election. Since May 2006 he has been blogging full-time for the paper with "Postman On Politics."

Susanne Reber

Book Smarts: Transforming a hot news story into a must-read book you can’t put down.

Reber has been with CBC National Radio News since 1986 and has worked as international field producer, National Editor, Executive Producer Newsgathering and Deputy Managing Editor. She co-authored the non-fiction book “Starlight Tour, the last lonely night of Neil Stonechild.” Neil was found frozen to death in a field. He was last seen by his friend handcuffed in the back of a Saskatoon police cruiser.

Her investigative work has been awarded many national and international awards, including The Michener Awards for Meritorious Public Service in Journalism, The Canadian Association of Journalists, the Online News Association, Gabriel and International New York Festivals.

Bob Weber

Telling it Fast. Telling it Right.

With the increasing emphasis on Internet-based news, deadlines are getting tighter and tighter as editors seek to keep their websites updated. From long experience in wire-service reporting, Weber discusses how to file fast copy without losing sight of storytelling.

Weber has been a reporter-editor at the Canadian Press for 12 years, where he has covered a wide range of general assignments as well as specializing in the Arctic. He has recently returned from a stint in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where he was embedded with Canadian troops for five weeks. He has also worked on several book projects as editor, ghostwriter and author.

Steven Greenhut

Going Beyond Left and Right: How to stay principled without being predictable

Greenhut is senior editorial writer and columnist for the Orange County Register in Santa Ana, Calif., and author of Abuse of Power: How the Government Misuses Eminent Domain.

He recently was published in the Wall Street Journal and received a national Thomas Paine Award from the Institute for Justice for his writing promoting property rights.

Cecil Rosner

Don’t Give the Story Away: How to improve the quality of your storytelling in broadcast or print

 
Rosner is Managing Editor for CBC Manitoba. He has spent 30 years in print and broadcast journalism, and teaches investigative journalism at the University of Winnipeg. He is the author of When Justice Fails - The David Milgaard Story, and is currently writing a history of investigative journalism in Canada.

Robert Cribb

‘Narragative’ Writing

In-depth investigations often rely on unique reporting techniques that don’t always lend themselves to natural storytelling. Turning access to information documents or computer-assisted reporting data into a compelling narrative can be a sweat inducing process for many of us. We'll trace the path from technique to finished tale.

Cribb is an investigative reporter at the Toronto Star. His investigations include reports on serious food safety problems in restaurants, illegal slaughterhouses, fraudulent telemarketing boiler rooms, dangerous doctors, slum landlords, government corruption and airline safety. Cribb is past president of the Canadian Association of Journalists, co-author of Digging Deeper: A Canadian Reporter’s Research Guide (Oxford University Press) and a lecturer at Ryerson University’s School of Journalism.

Rescuing Radio from the Rip and Read

CHED radio’s Byron Christopher and CBC radio’s James Wark will combine their talents to demonstrate effective writing for broadcasting.

REGISTRATION INFORMATION
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A. Fees
Conference fees include all workshops and keynote speeches. The symposium begins Saturday morning with workshops throughout the day. On Sunday the workshops will end around noon.

New or lapsed CAJ members can renew/join using this form to take advantage of CAJ member rates (Memberships cost $75 for regular or $150 for associate members, $40 for journalists earning less than $30,000 annually, and $30 for students) (Please include all information on this form for the Media Directory)

National Writers' Symposium 2006 Fees:

$140 CAJ member (journalist) -- $120 before October 5
$250 Non-member (journalist)
$300 Associate member (non-journalist)
$450 Non-member (non-journalist)
$50 Student member $40 before November 5 --$90 Non-member (student)

B. Book your hotel
The CAJ has arranged special rates at the Coast Edmonton Plaza Hotel in downtown Edmonton. For reservations call 1-780-423-4811.

C. Tally the charges

You can phone in your registration at (613) 526-8061, or complete this form and e-mail it back to canadianjour@magma.ca or fax it to (613) 521-3904

D. Registration information (Please complete ALL information)

E. Method of payment (Please ensure information is complete)

Enclosed is my cheque made payable to the Canadian Association of Journalists.

Send completed registration form to:

CAJ
Algonquin College
1385 Woodroffe Avenue, B224
Ottawa, ON K2G 1V8
FAX: 613-521-3904

Further information, contact:
John Dickins, CAJ Executive Director
Tel. 613-526-8061
e-mail: canadianjour@magma.ca - www.caj.ca

canadian, association, journalists, CAJ, journalist, journalism, canada, society, group, national, media, reporter, editor, producer, radio, television, newspaper, magazine, web, writer The Canadian Association of Journalists is Canada's largest organization for professional journalists and promotes excellence in journalism, investigative journalism and the public’s right to know.