Tag Archives: conferences

Another boring journalism conference

I found it interesting that I saw this quote about journalism conferences as I was gathering links for a post about a journalism conference in Montreal.

I like hearing people talk about the trade, and giving insight. And considering what I do, it would be ridiculous to argue that I don’t like navel-gazing about journalism. But I’ve never been a big fan of big academic-style conferences, particularly those that cost hundreds of dollars to attend.

There’s one such conference this weekend, called the Journalism Strategies Conference. It runs Thursday to Saturday. Unfortunately I’m working during much of it so I won’t be able to attend.

But I will be there for a free event on Thursday night, a panel discussion whose lineup is sure to make things interesting:

Just the thought of Payette and Nagata getting into a debate about professional journalism might be worth the price of entry. Which is, you know, free.

The discussion, moderated by Daybreak host Mike Finnerty, begins at 7pm at Concordia’s DB Clarke Theatre (underneath the lobby of the Hall Building at 1455 de Maisonneuve W., corner Mackay). The Facebook event page is here.

There’s another free event Friday at 6pm at the McGill faculty club, with invited guests from abroad.

Two organizers of the conference, Christine Crowther and Lisa Lynch, appeared on CINQ-FM’s Digital Life Show last weekend to talk about it. You can download the podcast on their website.

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WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg (left) with Q&A moderator Jeremy Clarke at WordCamp.

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg (left) with Q&A moderator Jeremy Clarke at WordCamp.

WordCamp, the WordPress conference, continues today at 10 a.m. (which is in like 15 minutes so I better get going). You can read a writeup about it in today’s Gazette, or if you’re really interested, follow the WordCampMontreal-tagged Twitter updates and check out the photos in the Flickr pool.

Above is a photo of Matt Mullenweg, who’s one of many people behind WordPress (but certainly its most famous name). Everyone else in the room also took pictures (or video) of Matt. Or interviewed him.

One device at a time, please!

One device at a time, please!

Resources from the Intertubes

See also Cool WordPress things that speakers mentioned and WordCamp presentation slides.

In order of appearance:

Day 1

  • The perfect migration to WordPress: Why and How (Jerome Paradis and Kim Vallée): ?
  • Lifestreaming – the new future of blogging? (Erin Blaskie): slideshow, Qik video
  • WordPress MU – How to install and avoid common mistakes (CT Moore): Slideshow
  • Ecommerce on the cheap with WordPress (Alexandre Simard): Slideshow
  • Q&A with Matt Mullenweg: Qik video (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3), State of the Word talk
  • WordPress security (Brad Williams): slideshow
  • oEmbed: An easier way to embed video (Stephane Jolicoeur & Audrey-Rose Savard): Qik video, blog post, slideshow
  • Cooking with BuddyPress (Andy Peatling): ?
  • Caching and optimization for WordPress (Jeremy Clarke): Slideshow
  • Communication 2.0: le project pontmercierbridge.ca (Philippe Martin): ?

Day 2

Other WordCamp recaps

More to come as I find it.

The oxymoron of media ethics

I’m told there’s a free conference on media ethics Friday/Saturday at U de M, sponsored by the CREUM (ethics research centre). Most of it happens before noon when I’m unconscious, but there’s a panel at 5:30 on Friday about whether competition hurts journalism, with Michelle Blanc and Yves Boisvert. If I had any ethics, I might go.

The full schedule (in PDF) is here.