National Federation of Press Women: Conference

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CONFERENCE
DIRECTORS

Angela Smith
Bonnie Arnold

CONFERENCE SITES

Check out
our conference sites.
(.doc, pdf)

AFFORDABLE LIBEL INSURANCE

September 10-12, 2009
El Tropicano Riverwalk Hotel
San Antonio, Texas
800-288-3927

Online registration form

Fill-in Conference Registration Form (.doc)
(Fill it out right on your computer, then print and mail with your check.)

Conference Registration Form (pdf)
(Print, fill in and mail with your check.)

Watch for our online form where you can register and pay securely by credit card.

Read about Pre-conference Tour of San Antonio (.doc, pdf)

Pre-conference Tour Registration Form (.doc, pdf)

Post-conference Tour of Hill Country (.doc, pdf)

Post-conference Tour Registration Form (pdf)

Invitation to conference | Speakers | Tours

Y'ALL COME TO THE TEXAS CONFERENCE

By Donna Hunt
Texas Press Women

If you read your March NFPW e-Letter and marked your calendar for Sept.10-12 as we asked you to do, you’ve made a good start toward getting ready to attend the National Conference in San Antonio, Texas.

Members will go on a “Roundup on the River” - the famous San Antonio River Walk - and although we’re not going to be in the high rent district, the El Tropicano Riverwalk Hotel is nearby with a water taxi service available. Actually, a balcony just over the lobby is directly over the river.

Angela Smith and Bonnie Arnold, co-directors of the conference, are busy lining up fantastic speakers and workshops. Such outstanding speakers as Manny Mendoza and Mark Birnbaum, who have traveled the world filming their award-winning documentary about the falling fortunes of print journalism, have agreed to speak.

For a change of pace, Texas Monthly columnist and author Sarah Bird will give her humorous take on the writing life. For just a hint of what to expect from Sarah, her thesis was a photojournalism project on the vanishing world of old lady beauty shops.

Editors from the San Antonio Express News, Austin American-Statesman and Fort Worth Star Telegram are slated for a panel discussion on the future of the daily newspaper. Speaking at the student awards luncheon will be 14-year-old Sophie Eve D-Arcy, cofounder of Kids Speaking Up, a nonpartisan group dedicated to combating ignorance and apathy in young people.

Workshops are being prepared in four tracks, journalism, PR/Advertising, freelance/fiction/
nonfiction, and technology/person skills. Outstanding speakers are coming to enlighten us in those areas. Representatives from Dell, Apple and Radio Shack will be showing off the latest in technology for personal and professional use. Much more and many more speakers are in the works. You won’t want to miss any of it.

If all of that isn’t enough to seal the deal for you to come to San Antonio, a pre-conference one-day tour is planned of all the places that put San Antonio right up at the top of the list of places you must visit in the United States. Then let’s not forget the post-conference three day tour hailed as a “Hill Country Adventure.” We’ll travel to the state capital in Austin for a day filled with history and fun before we move on to historic Fredericksburg. We’ll visit a wildflower seed farm, one of Texas’s top wineries, a presidential library and home, the Texas state museum and the state Capitol as well as lots of other fun places that you’ll find no place but Texas.

Texas members are looking forward to hosting this conference and are pulling out all the stops to make this “Roundup on the River, Growing with the Flow” an event that you will never forget.

Ya’ll come!!!

SPEAKERS:

Manny Mendoza and Mark Birnbaum will present Stop the Presses: The American Newspaper in Peril, their award-winning documentary film about the falling fortunes of print journalism. They traveled the country interviewing writers and editors, journalism professors, media critics and readers and non-readers to look at how we got here and what’s at stake in the woes of daily newspapers.

Texas Monthly columnist and author Sarah Bird will give her humorous take on the writing life. Here’s a short bio in her own words: I grew up in a Catholic Air Force family of eight. Went to five different schools in fifth grade. Spent my happiest years in mostly Mexican-American Catholic schools. Lived with my family and on my own in Japan, Okinawa, France, Spain, the Yucatan Peninsula, and most of the western states, though I've lived the longest in Texas (number one in prison population!) and love New Mexico the most. Degree in anthropology from the University of New Mexico. Journalism fellowship at the University of Texas. My thesis was a photojournalism project on the vanishing world of old lady beauty shops.

Editors from the San Antonio Express News, Austin American-Statesman and Fort Worth Star Telegram are slated for a panel discussion on the future of the daily newspaper.

Scheduled to speak at the scholarship luncheon is 14-year-old Sophie Eve D-Arcy, co-founder of Kids Speaking UP,a nonpartisan group dedicated to combating ignorance and apathy in young people. The group was founded in 2004 by Sophie and her sister Isabelle (ages 10 and 12 at the time). They publish an annual magazine and write a weekly op-ed column for a Santa Barbara online newsletter.

Workshops will be offered in three tracks: journalism/writing (including freelance/fiction/ nonfiction), PR/Advertising and technology/personal skills. Among the many workshop speakers are award-winning author Jodie Thomas, former UPI reporter/war correspondent Joe Galloway, true crime writer Suzy Spencer, and literary agent Jim Hornfisher. Also, Millie Brown, CEO of Brown Publishing Group; Larry Brill, former news anchor and president of Brill Commununications, Alan Govenar, Executive Director, Documentary Arts and Monica Maeckle, VP, New Media and Businesswire.

Representatives from Dell, Apple and Radio Shack will also be showing off the latest in technology for personal and professional use.

TOURS:

NFPW members who want to really get the flavor of Texas up close and personal will be in for treats when they sign up for the pre-conference one-day tour of San Antonio and three day post-conference tour of the Texas Hill Country.

A Sept. 9 tour of the city will take members to all the beautiful and historic points of interest including the Mission San Jose, San Fernando Cathedral, the Alamo, Mexican Market and Institute of Texas Cultures. They will see San Antonio from the sky at the Tower of the Americas and have dinner on the famous Riverwalk.

Read more about the tour (.doc, pdf) then send in your registration form (.doc, pdf) by July 13. First come, first served.

A three-day Hill Country Adventure will follow the conference, beginning on Sunday and ending on Tuesday afternoon. On Sunday morning we will head for the state capitol in Austin to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Research Center, drive down Congress Avenue to the LBJ Presidential Library, then head to the Bob Bullock Texas State Historical Museum. Lodging will be near Sixth Street, the “in” place for entertainment in Austin.

On Monday we’ll head to Johnson City and the birthplace of President Lyndon B. Johnson, then on to his ranch where we will go into the office of the Texas White House. Fredericksburg will be our destination for the day where members can shop and tour the remains of the town’s Old World Heritage. A stop at Becker Winery will sweeten the tour before going to the Wildseed Farm, largest of its kind in America. Dinner Monday in Fredericksburg will be followed by a visit to the Silver Saloon to enjoy live “Blues” music.
Wednesday after breakfast and time for shopping in the quaint shops of Fredericksburg we’ll head to Luckenbach made famous by the Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson song, “Luckenbach, Texas,” then head back to San Antonio in time for members to catch their flights home after an experience they won’t soon forget.