Sports Journalism Summit IV at Poynter

Does anybody who attended have a good postgame report on the seminar? I wasn't able to make it this year and am curious as to what I may have missed.

 

I was there last year when the lineup was similar. I thought it was excellent, well worth my time.

 

If I were 25 yrs old, I'd have loved the three days at Poynter. Hell, I'm a mile past 25 and I loved it, anyway. It was a mix of still-roaring dinosaurs and passionate new-media practitioners. We yakked/taught for hours on editing, investigative reporting (how to make the courthouse yr friend), columns, blogs, books, personal narrative, photography (I held, carefully, a $26K video/still camera), audio, video, journalism-study opportunities, and today's need for re-invention every five minutes of yr career.

One young man from Illinois told me it was his third trip to the Summitt. First time, paper paid. Second time, they split the tab. This time, he took vacation time and paid his own way. That progression is a reflection of the economy (this yr's crowd was maybe half of last yr's), and his investment in himself (the crowd just as eager as last yr's).

 

Sincere congrats to Dave. Well-deserved.


That said:

Howard . . . : : : (no explaination necessary . . . )

. . . and I remain one of the relatively-positive defenders of Hill on this board, but this positioning
seems a bit . . . shall we say . . . premature.

 

And don't construe my remarks as an assertion that such gatherings are wholly without value -- because that's clearly untrue.

But permit me to segue to a slightly different angle, here:

How many here would visit the Poynter website if you could access
Romanesko somewhere else?

 

What, precisely, did Ms. Hill and Mr. Paige "reinvent"?
Themselves?

 

I wonder if Garry Howard gave any tips on effective narration of video ....... Oops. Wrong thread.

 

Session D: "You've got to want it!" -- Dave Kindred, SportsJournalists.com motivational poster

 

I have no desire to knock this gathering nor anyone who went to it. A chance for journos to meet face-to-face and learn how others survive in this rough business is a great thing. Hopefully the summit in Florida was well worth it for all who attended.

However, I must report that in 15 years as a stringer/reporter/photographer/copy editor -- just about all of that spent working full-time for various daily and weekly newspapers -- I have yet to attend a single professional seminar or workshop. Over the years, my training has consisted of things like the boss telling me, "We use Quark here. Click on the icon to open it. Our deadline is midnight."

Good luck, everybody.

 

It's too bad that some places just don't recognized the value -- educationally and motivationally -- of occasionally sending people out to these things. I've been really lucky that way over the years -- of course, a lot of those years were in a much more robust time for the business.

I even had a managing editor who decided that, with economic issues having an increasing impact on sports, I should go to the Wharton School for business writers, and I spent a week there -- as a sports editor. And it was a great experience.

Those kinds of reaches aren't going to happen very much anymore, but hopefully, forward-thinking managers will still recognize the value of sending people to professional growth opportunities.

 

I didn't attend this year's Summit for financial reasons, but one of my best friends was there. He brought up an interesting story that I'd nearly forgotten about.

From an e-mail last Thursday:

"Remember when Bo Jackson beat the shit out of that reporter a few years back? Well, that reporter's here. I heard he was in the audience at today's sessions."

Apparently that guy is still in the business. Good for him that he stuck with it, I guess, even in this market and after such an ugly incident.

Also, Paige and Howard didn't show despite being on the list of speakers.