For those of you who were wondering what happened to the paper last week, here’s the dirty little secret: we were skipping school and hanging out in Missouri. There, it is out in the open. I promise, though, we were doing it for you.
In fact, the reason we were shirking our newspaperly duty is because we weren’t, in fact, shirking our newspaperly duty. Last week was the 87th annual Associated Collegiate Press National College Media Convention. So really, we were doing this all for you, our readership.
I have to say, it was a pretty good trip, definitely worth the time. Certainly, it was not all fun and games, but there were quite a few enlightening bits of information in the multiple seminars the eight members of our staff attended.
If you’re still staring indignantly at the page, take heart. You too can get enlightening bits of information and traveling goodness by going to a conference, and it may even be counted as an excused absence.
There are many conferences going on all around the country during the course of the year. From meteorology to language, art and ethics, conferences cover a variety of subjects.
The first thing you may want to do if you’re looking for a conference experience is to join a club. Conferences require fees to attend, and it may be best to go with a group of people who have common interest. As a group at Plymouth State, conference trips can be planned into the budget at allocations.
Perhaps the best way to find the ideal conference for a group is to search online. One site, Conferencealerts.com, lists all of the conferences in all topics. Visitors to the site can find conferences by topic and area. They can also subscribe to updates on conferences.
Conferences are certainly not all fun and games, but if you are passionate or even just interested in the subject, they can be very informative and satisfying. The ACP conference, for example, was four whole days of seminars involving news and media tips and tricks of the trade. For someone uninterested in the subject, this certainly would have been a bore.
However, for those of us who enjoy journalistic pursuits, the conference was a chance to improve our product and get fresh ideas. The conference was set up as ongoing seminars of 50 minutes to an hour and 20 minutes in length. This seems like an ideal length, just long enough to get the necessary information and not so long as to become boring.
The seminars covered many different topics, from ad placement to news office atmosphere, effective writing, and internship tips. There was a seminar that seemed to answer almost every journalistic question. Of course, every conference is different, but certainly if an attendant is interested, these seminars can be interesting and enlightening.
Certainly, if you aim to go far in your field, you should always seek the newest perspectives in your area. Conferences are a good place to get that newest view and keep up to date, as well as to get a better feel of what your field will be like.