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June 10-13, 2012 | St. Petersburg, Fla.

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The Program

Over the course of three days, we'll cover all these topics. Every hour will be packed with valuable information to enhance your career. Come prepared to learn work hard and have fun!

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Sunday, June 10

6 p.m.: Welcome reception at the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront

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Monday, June 11

8 a.m.: Breakfast

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8:30 a.m.: SEO, Google & You

Search Engine Optimization may come off as a dirty word full of sinister page view-trolling connotations. But it’s a necessary tool all journalists in an online age should know how to use. So, too, should journalists be aware of the free tools — many from Google — at their disposal to help in the reporting, gathering and presentation of news. Learn what techniques and tools to immediately incorporate into your work. Speaker: Daniel Petty, social media editor, Denver Post

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10 a.m.: Video Basics

There are 10 BIG things you HAVE to know if you are going to shoot video. You will learn them in this session. These are the things that separate an amatuer from a pro. From learning how to deal with motion, framing, light, sequencing and sound, these are the skills that will have to become second nature to you, especially when you are working alone or working in a breaking news situation. Speaker: Al Tompkins, Senior Faculty, Broadcast and Online, The Poynter Institute

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Noon: Lunch

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1:30 p.m.: Creating Multiplatform Stories

Learn to take advantage of the strengths of each platform to create your own multiplatform stories. Become your own your own "team coverage." Find out how to get viewers, readers and surfers to watch, read and surf your content. Whether you're a Jack (or Jill) of all media, or work with a team of journalists from other platforms, this interactive session will help you turn your story ideas into multiplatform stories when you head back to your newsroom. Speaker: Victoria Lim, freelancer

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3:45 p.m.: Using Census Data

In the old days, journalists would turn to the U.S. Census Bureau every 10 years for a headcount. But now, the Census Bureau can be a source of data and story ideas almost every day. The bureau is still slicing, dicing and releasing data from the 2010 census, and it is supplementing the decennial count with a rolling survey called ACS — the American Community Survey. Moreover, the Census Bureau regularly churns out reports and data on government spending, business patterns and other topics — down to the local level. The amount of data can be daunting, but if you know how to mine it, you can find and tell compelling stories about your community and how it is changing. This session will help you understand and tap the Census Bureau's treasure trove of data. Speaker: Jeff South, Associate Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University

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5:45 p.m.: Dinner

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Tuesday, June 12

8 a.m.: Breakfast

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9 a.m.: Mobile Newsgathering: Making the most of your smartphone

You'll learn the basics of how to use hand-held devices as a journalistic tool. With the help of social media, apps and some gear, you'll immerse yourself in the best practices for reporting, editing and sharing stories to any media platform with your smartphone. Speaker: Deb Wenger, assistant professor, University of Mississippi

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11:30 a.m.: Lunch

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1 p.m.: 24,187 Ways Public Documents Can Help You Break More News, More Often, More Easily

For many reporters, public records requests were something they touched on briefly in j-school before getting back to the useful stuff. In this session, we'll get down to the brass tacks of how FOIA requests can help break great stories that keep on giving in almost beat, explore resources to help the paperwork disappear and run down tools that might help you avoid even having to make a public records request in the first place. With examples on topics ranging from environmental policy, surveillance, college athletics and more, this session will explain how to use public records laws to literally make great stories come to you. Speaker: Michael Morisy, Co-Founder, MuckRock.com

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3 p.m.: Break

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3:30 p.m.: Get Active! New Ways to Listen, Learn and Engage Your Audience

Join this fast-paced social-media session. Learn how to employ a variety of "active listening" techniques to research and develop better pieces. Then see the best tools for collecting content. Finally, hear how easy it is to leverage social tools to connect with and engage viewers and readers. Bring your notebook, an open mind, and prepare to get active! Speaker: Jeff Cutler, Content Specialist & Social Media Trainer, JeffCutler.com

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Wednesday, June 13

8 a.m.: Breakfast

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9 a.m.: Breakfast & Making it Make Sense

You’ve spent the last two days absorbing information from a variety of speakers. Now What? This time will be spent talking about how you can take all of this new information back to your newsroom and apply it to your work. Speaker: Chris Vachon, Associate Executive Director, Sigma Delta Chi Foundation

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11 a.m.: Closing Discussion and Program Evaluations

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Noon: Departures

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Speaker Information

Jeff Cutler

In 1992, Jeff Cutler was delivering words to MacConnection, HomeQuarters Warehouse, the Boston Herald and the Mariner Newspaper chain. From there he expanded into projects for Fidelity Investments, WearGuard, Talbots and a host of other respected businesses.

These days, in addition to his new-media presence, Jeff's a credentialed reporter covering events like major golf tournaments and sporting events, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and film festivals and lifestyle events all over the world.

His current project load includes articles and features for Gatehouse Media, a slew of social-media projects including blogs and podcasts, columns and editorials for a variety of clients, as well as the completion of marketing and branding initiatives for recognized names like Brookstone, TJX and UNO Restaurant Group.

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Victoria Lim

Nicknamed the "Queen of Convergence," Victoria Lim became an award-winning multi-platform, multimedia reporter before anyone even knew what that was... or would become.

You can read, watch and surf Victoria's stories covering personal finance to education, sports to pets. Victoria's reports from Haiti earned an Emmy nomination during her time at Bright House Sports Network, a 24-hour regional sports cable channel serving central Florida. Prior to joining BHSN, Victoria served as the senior consumer investigative reporter for WFLA-TV, the Tampa Tribune and tbo.com, where she pioneered convergence journalism. Her reporting earned more than two dozen honors including an Emmy, an Associated Press Individual Achievement award and being named Florida "Journalist of the Year" by the Society of Professional Journalists.

She's taught communications, news writing, and multimedia reporting at the University of Tampa, University of South Florida, and the highly regarded University of Missouri Journalism School. Her alma mater, Temple University, honored Victoria with induction into its journalism hall of fame, the Lew Klein Award. Victoria provides newsroom training to journalism professionals nationally and internationally.

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Michael Morisy

Michael Morisy is the co-founder of MuckRock.com, a freedom of information tool that allows anyone to submit valid freedom of information requests without licking a stamp, suffering legalese or leaving their browser. The site, funded in part by the Sunlight Foundation, provides ways for journalists who are stretched thin to investigate the environment and other issues through public records. Michael is also web producer for the New England Center for Investigative Reporting. He has previously written for the New York Daily News, where his reporting was part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning series "Forgotten Heroes."

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Daniel Petty, Denver Post

Dan Petty is The Denver Post’s social media editor and central region engagement editor for Digital First Media. His primary focus is training and teaching journalists how to use social media tools to tell more powerful stories digitally and grow and interact with audiences around their work. He oversees The Post’s overall social media strategy, plans coverage for major events, and helps other news organizations in DFM’s central region with social media challenges and opportunities. The Post newsroom has grown from fewer than 10 percent of its staff using social when he arrived to more than 80 percent today, and The Post’s main Facebook page has the sixth largest audience among U.S. Newspapers. Dan continues to write and shoot photos and video for The Post as opportunities arise. An avid runner, he competed in Division I track and field and cross country at his alma mater, the University of Richmond, where he graduated from in 2009.

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Jeff South

Jeff South joined the faculty of the VCU School of Mass Communications in August 1997 after more than 20 years as a newspaper editor and reporter.

He specializes in teaching computer-assisted reporting: how journalists can use computers to gather and analyze information. South also teaches students how to present news on the Internet.

South received his bachelor's degree in journalism in 1974 from the University of Texas, graduating with high honors. He has worked on daily papers in Austin, Dallas and Lubbock, Texas; Phoenix, Ariz.; and Norfolk, Va.

From 1989 to mid-1997, South worked at the Austin American-Statesman - first as state editor, then as database editor. In the latter capacity, he directed the paper's efforts at online research and data analysis. He also created an intranet for the newsroom and assisted in putting the newspaper online.

While serving as database editor, South developed a class in computer-assisted reporting at the University of Texas. He has done CAR seminars for the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., and other groups.

He has written for the American Journalism Review, the Online Journalism Review, Quill and other journalism publications about how newspapers can take advantage of the Internet.

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Al Tompkins

Al Tompkins is The Poynter Institute’s senior faculty for broadcasting and online. For almost 10 years, thousands of people a day read his online journalism story idea column “Al’s Morning Meeting” on Poynter.org. Tompkins is the author of the book “Aim For The Heart: A Guide for TV Producers and Reporters,” which was adopted by more than 75 universities as their main broadcast writing textbook. A new edition is planned for 2010. He co-authored four editions of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s “Newsroom Ethics” workbook. Tompkins joined Poynter’s faculty from his job as news director at WSMV-TV in Nashville, Tenn. For 24 years, he worked as a photojournalist, reporter, producer, anchor, assistant news director, special projects/investigations director, documentary producer and news director.

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Deb Wenger

Debora H. Wenger, a 17-year broadcast news veteran, is assistant professor of journalism at the University of Mississippi. Prior to her academic appointments, Wenger was assistant news director at WFLA-TV in Tampa, Fla. Wenger conducts research in the area of multimedia and provides multimedia training to newsrooms around the country. She received her undergraduate degree from what is now known as Minnesota State University where she graduated summa cum laude. She received a master’s degree from University of North Carolina-Charlotte.