Online hotel reservation tips

The link to reserve rooms online at the Renaissance Grand & Suites, the St. Louis convention hotel, is available here. You will be directed to the hotel’s home page with the code already entered in the appropriate field. All you need to do is enter your arrival date to begin the reservation process.

Some people reserving rooms have noted that the online system returns a message that says room types cannot be guaranteed. If you make room reservations and request a room with two double beds, your immediate feedback from the hotel will be that they are not available. This is due to some software system they have that can’t be overridden as to the response.

However, if you provide them with your e-mail address when making your reservation, you should subsequently receive an email from hotel staff saying that the room(s) with two double beds are reserved for you. We have all 475 of the hotel’s double-double rooms held aside for our convention.

New: Pictures of the Year International exhibit

PoYiLogo.jpgSt. Louis convention attendees will be able to view a special exhibit created by Pictures of the Year International (POYi) at the Missouri School of Journalism. Pictures of the Year International is the oldest and one of the most prestigious photojournalism programs in the world. POYi presents public exhibitions to engage and educate citizens about their world and the role of a free press in a democratic society. The POYi 50-Print Traveling Exhibit is a collection of the most significant documentary photography culled from winners in the 66th annual POYi competition. The display includes 18×24 inch prints from a wide selection of news, sports, feature, and issue reporting photography. Pictures of the Year International is a program of the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism. You can see some of the most recent winners of POYi contests at their Web site, www.poyi.org.

Registration booklet now available

You can download it here. Online registration will be available sometime next week.

Speaker openings still available

There are still openings for speakers at the JEA/NSPA convention in St. Louis Nov. 13-16.

If you’re interested, you may submit your online proposals at http://www.jea.org/workshops/speakerreply.php.

Keynote Speaker: Al Tompkins

We are planning great things for you in St. Louis. One of our keynote speakers is going to be Al Tompkins from the Poynter Institute.

Al Tompkins is The Poynter Institute’s Group Leader for Broadcasting and Online. More than 20,000 people a day read his online journalism story idea column “Al’s Morning Meeting” on Poynter.org. Tompkins wrote “Aim For The Heart: A Guide for TV Producers and Reporters” in 2002, which was used by more than 70 universities as their main broadcast writing textbook. He co-wrote three editions of the Radio and Television News Directors Foundation’s “Newsroom Ethics” workbook.

Al 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. His hour-long documentary, “Saving Stefani”, was featured as a special Dateline NBC and was awarded the 1999 Clarion Award. The ten-year documentary project tells the story of a young girl that Al and a medical team found dying in a Guatemala hospital. Al has trained more than 9,000 local television news producers, reporters, photojournalists and managers in his One-Day Storytelling Workshops in 37 states.

During his two and a half decades as a journalist, Al has won The National Emmy, The Peabody Award (group award), the Japan Prize, The American Bar Association’s Silver Gavel for Court Reporting, seven National Headliner Awards, two Iris Awards and the Robert F. Kennedy Award for international reporting. Al joined Poynter in 1998 after 25 years as a journalist, including serving as a reporter, investigative reporter, Director of Special Projects and Investigations and then was appointed News Director, WSMV Nashville. Under his direction, WSMV was Nashville’s leading news station.

To read an excerpt go to http://www.aimfortheheart.com

St. Louis Local Committee

Local Chair
Nancy Freeman
Clayton High School
#1 Mark Twain Circle
Clayton, MO 63105
314-854-6668
cell-314-803-5733
fax 314-854-6734
nancy_freeman@clayton.k12.mo.us

Media Tours
Priscilla Frost
prisfrost@aol.com

Write-Off Contests
Beth Ann Brady
bbrady@ladue.k12.mo.us
Nancy Smith
smithnancy@rockwood.k12.mo.us
April van Buren
msryanpchs@yahoo.com

Break with a Pro
Christine Stricker
christine_stricker@clayton.k12.mo.us

On-site Critiques
Elisha Strecker
ehspublications@yahoo.com

Issue Seminars
Jeff Kuchno
jkuchno@sbcglobal.net

Local Vendor/Advertising
Matt Schott
matthew.schott@fhsdschools.org

Advisers’ Bags
Don Johnson
johnson.donald@mail.webster.k12.mo.us

Friday Luncheon
Cathy McCandless
cathymccandless@wentzville.k12.mo.us

Entertainment Options
Mitch Eden
cmeden@htc.net

T-Shirt Distribution
Aaron Manfull
aaronmanfull@gmail.com

Adviser Auction
Susan Benedict
benedictjams@charter.net
Michelle Dunaway
michele_dunaway@fhsd.k12.mo.us
Mary Dempsey
DempseyM@OTHS.K12.IL.US
Marc Russell
Marc.Russell@leesummit.k12.mo.us

Gateway to the Best

It’s not too early to start planning to come to the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention in St. Louis in November, and St Louis has a lot to offer you. Check this site for ideas and links to make your convention one of your best ever. To start off, check out this link:

http://www.explorestlouis.com/slcvc/work/clients/jea/inspiring.htm