Fall Conference: Your thoughts?

We'd appreciate your feedback on the Oct. 26 Fall Conference at NIU. Was it useful for you? Are there aspects you would change?

And, do you have suggestions for conference / workshop topics for 2008? Please let us know.

NINA contest results

Results from this year's NINA contest are posted here. Congrats to the winners and thanks to everyone who entered, and to everyone who attended Friday's conference at NIU.

Registration deadline approacheth

Don't forget to register for the NINA Fall Conference and Awards Luncheon, set for next Friday, Oct. 26, at NIU-DeKalb. Registration deadline is Friday, Oct. 19. All information and registration forms are on our Web site.

Parking is included in your registration fee. Use the NIU visitor lot (follow the signs off Lincoln Highway) and tell the attendant you're part of the NINA Conference.

All conference sessions are in the Holmes Student Center, adjacent to the parking lot. The morning sessions are on the second floor. Follow the signs once you're in the building. Lunch is in the Regency Room.

NINA Swap Meet

NINA's Oct. 26 Fall Conference is a swap meet. We'll offer six different roundtable discussion sessions where journalists can learn from their colleagues:

• General assignment reporting
• Courts and cops reporting
• Challenges for new editors
• Feature writing
• Political reporting
• Copy desk and design desk challenges

Here's our fall newsletter with all the details. And here's the registration form.

The conversation can begin here. If you'd like to toss out a question or topic in any of those areas, just post a comment below.

Depressing. But then ...

Here's depressing news from the Knight Foundation about students and the First Amendment:

Three years after a new federal law took effect requiring schools to educate all students about the Constitution and the First Amendment, a new survey shows that a majority of America’s students aren’t even aware that Constitution Day exists. See full story.

But, if you want to feel a little better, read this column from Monday's Northern Star. Can't say I agree with every word, but at least this is one student who "gets it" about the First Amendment.

And if you just want to feel creeped out, go to the "other" Knight Foundation page and take in "The Official David Hasselhoff Site of Worship."

Workshop aftermath

To those who attended today's NINA workshop on alternative story forms: What was the biggest idea you went home with? What's the biggest question you're left with? Any other thoughts worth discussing?

For me, it was the overall idea of segmenting: looking at how every story can be broken apart into its various elements, and then choosing the best form to present each element in print, online or both. And, it's the idea that the critical moment for all of that to happen is that initial reporter-editor conversation before any writing has taken place.

Thanks to Cory Powell of the Minneapolis Star Tribune for doing a wonderful job leading the discussion. And thanks to everyone who attended. We had a full house.

EyeTrack and story forms

In advance of this Thursday's NINA workshop: Here's an interesting piece from Poynter today about EyeTrack studies with alternative story forms. The upshot is: Story form matters. A lot.