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Weekly Updates[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
"Fluid" is a word to describe the planning that is underway for this year's NCEW Convention in Salt Lake City, September 23-26.
The evolving goal has been to find the most effective and meaningful way of using the convention to address individual concerns as well as the organization's extraordinary challenges during this year of unprecedented upheaval in the news industry.
"Industry in Transition: Challenges and Opportunities" is the new convention theme. It acknowledges what has been happening since our last meeting in Little Rock. Certainly, it is a period of stressful challenges, but it also has the potential to be a time of opportunity.
All of us are working to adapt to a news and communications industry that is changing exponentially before our eyes.
The convention format will follow a familiar pattern: NCEW University for those who arrive early; invigorating critique sessions where colleagues help each other become better at their craft; a spouse tour to the one-time-mining-town-turned-resort-community of Park City; and plenty of good food, drink (the Utah legislature learned we were coming and dramatically revamped and loosened the state's liquor laws), and collegial camaraderie.
While several sessions and speakers will address important issues of the day, a majority of the discussions are now being designed to explore an industry that is in transition, if not in a battle for survival.
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt will keynote a discussion about health care in the United States; Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who was just named the new U.S. Ambassador to China, will address the convention; and several key players in the energy debate will be on hand to discuss climate change, cap and trade, and the burgeoning green revolution.
Beyond the issues, though, is the reality of what is happening in our shops and to each of us individually. How do we rise to the challenge of doing more with less? What are some creative ways to find an editorial niche in the expanding world of e-news? What is the best way to develop creative editorial campaigns that don't take a lot of time or people power? What of the First Amendment and of journalism's watchdog role--how can they be adapted and preserved?
As mentioned earlier, your conference organizers are trying to be fluid and adaptable as the year progresses. The goal is to put together a program for these most difficult, unpredictable, and challenging times that will help each NCEW member become professionally invigorated and personally rejuvenated.
Besides, not a single NCEW member will want to miss the unique experience of being serenaded by the 360-voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir. There'll likely be many more of them than of us, but that is precisely what will make the Thursday evening concert as well as the entire convention an event to remember.
Duane Cardall is the editorial director for KSL-AM/TV in Salt Lake City. Email duane.cardall@ksl.com
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