Wordstock 2009: Twittering and a Twitter-free zone
For the first two hours at the morning’s opening session at Wordstock on Oct. 3, several of the nearly 150 attendees were playfully tweeting with keynote speaker Robb Montgomery, a multimedia guru from Chicago.
It was a quaint change from the normally traditional writing and editing fare at Wordstock.
Montgomery, live on the big screen at the Eaton Lecture Theatre, demonstrated advantages of using Twitter for journalists while getting tweets from several in the audience in real time.
But then the savvy tweeters got their comeuppance as they moved on to the afternoon series of seminars.
IIn Don Gibb’s class on writing short features 1,000 words or less, Gibb had written on the blackboard, “This is a Twitter-free zone.”
Sure enough, someone tweeted upon entering the classroom, “Just entered Don Gibb’s no Twitter zone.” Another tweeted, “Me too.”
The 14th annual Wordstock was themed, “Journalism tools in the new universe”, and Montgomery, who travels around the world putting on clinics for media on the latest tools for multimedia journalism, easily filled the opening two hours on ways journalists and others can take advantage of social networking tools such as Twitter, Del-icio-us, Utterli, Google Maps, Embedr, and Twtpoll to enhance their online experience. He followed up with an extra afternoon session on mastering the art of good audio and video.
Other sessions at Wordstock picked up on that theme, with Marissa Nelson of the Toronto Star talking about ways to approach online stories worth telling; Bill Dunphy of the Hamilton Spectator on the top “1,001” Internet tools for writers; and a panel that included bloggers Tim Shore of blogto.com and David Topping of torontoist.com on the challenges and benefits of place blogging, aka news blogging.
Traditional writing seminars, besides Gibb’s popular short features session, included first-person journalism with Kim Pittaway, a former Chatelaine editor, and creative writing with Paul Lima, a successful freelance writer.
There was also a well-attended seminar on “life after the newsroom”, a session designed to help out –of-work journalists, or those who intend to leave journalism, use their skills as communicators in other lines of work.
Paul Lima had a second session directed at freelancers to help them find corporate markets
Reaction to Wordstock was generally positive. One person wrote: “I like the timeliness of the presentations. They covered the latest methods of news reporting and feature writing. I enjoyed Don Gibb’s workshop because it was the most useful to my job.”
Speaking of Don Gibb, who retired from teaching at Ryerson in 2008, among the other comments was this one: “Don Gibb: He’s the master. Always worthwhile.”
There was some mixed reaction to Robb Montgomery’s social media sessions. “I thought Robb Montgomery was great,” one said. “It was nice to see ‘new blood’ as someone who has been coming for several years in a row.”
Another said Montgomery’s session was “so far ahead of me.”
Wordstock relies heavily on volunteer support and this year was no exception with students from the Ryerson Journalism Course Union (notably Amanda Cupido and Kristy Thomson, co-presidents of the JCU) helping out with registrations and introducing speakers and members of the Ryerson Journalism Alumni Association fulfilling a variety of roles.
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Bryan Cantley, the mastermind and chief organizer of Wordstock since its beginnings in 1996, was presented with a framed print of the first Wordstock brochure. It was the Ryerson Journalism Alumni Association’s way of thanking him for creating a writing workshop that continues to attract between 150 and 200 participants every year.
The inscription read:
“Since 1996, Bryan Cantley has been the heart and soul behind Wordstock. It was his idea 13 years ago to organize an affordable one-day writers’ workshop for those who make their living, or simply enjoy, working with words. Wordstock has been a success story since its first year, attracting close to 200 writers, editors and wannabes to seminars on everything from the art of the interview to writing a novel. This framed print of the first Wordstock brochure honours Bryan’s commitment to -- and passion for -- the craft of writing. Thank you Mr. Wordstock!” (Don Gibb, ’68, RJAA member.)
WORDSTOCK 2009 AGENDA
8:30 to 9:45 - Registration, coffee, snacks
9:45 Introductions ( Eaton Lecture Theatre, 80 Gould St., corner of Church and Gould.)
10 a.m. to 12 noon (Eaton Lecture Theatre, 80 Gould St., corner of Church and Gould.)
Journalism tools in the new universe
Chicago new media journalist and the CEO of Visual Editors, Robb Montgomery, trains journalists in more than 20 countries and will present a two-hour keynote seminar on theSocial Media techniques that can improve your reporting and the connection to the communities you serve. His lecture will be a live interactive demonstration of some key social media tools and techniques.
Learn the culture and best practices for creating digital media to work better with the real-time Web.
Examples will include Twitter for journalists and Delicious for reporting, researching and auto-publishing.
Check out his blog at http://www.robbmontgomery.com
12 noon to 1 p.m.
Free barbecue Lunch in the Ram in the Rye Pub (3-minute walk from Rogers Communications Centre)
1 to 2:30 p.m. (Choose one)
Great features 1,000 words or less
So, what are the tricks to writing great short features? Don Gibb, one of the country’s best and most popular writing coaches and a former Ryerson journalism professor, offers practical advice on the art of writing a short, tight feature story that’s loaded with rich detail and colour.
Life after the newsroom... or any job, for that matter
Whether you’ve left (or want to leave) your job, how do you take your skill sets and equip yourself for a new field, whether it’s in communications or some other line of work. This panel will give you inspiration. Speakers include: Mark Franklin, president and practice leader of Career Cycles in Toronto; Ian Harvey, ex of the Toronto Sun; others TBA. Moderator: Peter Haggert, ex-editor, Fredericton Gleaner.
Audio: the most valuable multimedia to master
IImprove your sound slides, video, and podcasts by improving your audio. This session offers an update of the latest in technology and technique for recording in hostile environments. Speaker: Robb Montgomery
(re)Discover the joy of creative writing
If you’re an aspiring writer or an experienced writer looking for a little spark, Paul Lima helps you rediscover the joy of creative writing. This session touches on the content in a book of the same name that Lima has written and published. The session includes many tools and techniques to get you writing novels, short stories, poetry and serials.
Place blogging is attracting eyeballs
Some news blogs have captured the imagination and attention of a whole new generation of news consumers in ways that mainstream news websites have not. Panelists talk about their strategies and their business models. Speakers: Bill Dunphy, Hamilton Spectator; Tim Shore, blogto.com; David Topping, torontoist.com; others TBA
2:30 to 2:45 p.m.
Refreshment break for 15 minutes
2:45 to 4:15 p.m. (Choose one)
Freelancers: Finding corporate markets
In this workshop on “Conquering Corporate Markets”, successful freelance writer Paul Lima explains how to use five specific marketing tools to find corporate writing assignments. He discusses how to submit a quote and how to price work for corporations.
Opening your eyes to stories worth telling
Are we telling stories in our community that will attract eyeballs to our websites? This session offers ideas on how to improve multimedia storytelling, including routine community events, in ways that are simple but effective. Speaker: Marissa Nelson, senior editor, digital news, Toronto Star.
The top “1,000” Internet tools for writers
Bill Dunphy of The Hamilton Spectator leads a group discussion of everyone’s top Internet tools for searching, writing, file/data sharing, news aggregation, web/information filtering, free publishing, free audio/video editing, video hosting, etc.
Doing more ...with way less
The reality is that journalists in all media, especially at small daily and community newspapers, are being asked to do more with less. Phil Andrews, managing editor of the Guelph Mercury, has gone through tough downsizing too but Phil seldom loses his sense of humour. He talks about how to maintain a vigorous and fun newsroom after it becomes a lot smaller.
First person journalism is not about you
When should you give in to the temptation—in a column or a feature—to slip into first-person? How much should you reveal? Magazine writer and former Chatelaine editor-in-chief Kim Pittaway shares the secrets to successful first-person journalism. Hint: it’s not all about you.
HISTORY OF WORDSTOCK
The RJAA's major initiative is Wordstock. In 1996, the Canadian Newspaper Association approached the RJAA to seek its support in putting on a one-day series of seminars and workshops for writers or wannabes. Since then, the RJAA and the CNA have provided the administrative support for the event which regularly attracts between 150 and 200 registrations.
Wordstock draws reporters, writers, editors, and people who might want to be. It's open to more than just alumni and does draw people from coast to coast. Incidentally, Wordstock was to have been called "The Woodstock of Writing Workshops" but a good editor intervened and suggested "Wordstock" as a better choice. And so a "cult workshop" was born.
Wordstock features a main speaker (or two main speakers) who addresses all who register as well as streams of five different workshops or seminars on the craft. Among the speakers in the past: storyteller Stuart McLean, Paula LaRocque from the Dallas Morning News, author Katherine Govier, editor Neil Reynolds, journalist, columnist and author Jan Wong, investigative reporter Peter Cheney, editor and broadcaster Kirk LaPointe, online publishing pioneer Tom Regan of the Christian Science Monitor, Peter Mansbridge of the CBC, Don Gibb, a Ryerson alumnus, journalism professor and a leading writing coach in Canada; Dana Robbins, now publisher of The Hamilton Spectator (also Ryerson grad); Bill Dunphy, new media guru of The Hamilton Spectator, and Robb Montgomery, CEO of Visual Editors Inc.
Up until 2003, Wordstock had been held the second Saturday in June at the School of Journalism but the event has been switched to the early fall to coincide with the university's annual Homecoming.
For more information please e-mail the Chair of Wordstock, Bryan Cantley or telephone: 416-575-5377.