Taking It to the Net

A hat trick of work­shops for do-it-yourself jour­nal­ists. Learn how to use blogs, pod­casts and YouTube to get your opin­ions out there.

Join us for three dynamic work­shops — all in one day!

Hosted by Geist mag­a­zine and the SFU Writing and Publishing Program. 

Saturday, July 12, 2008
Listel Hotel, 1300 Robson Street, Vancouver
9:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
$99 per per­son (includes a sub­scrip­tion to Geist mag­a­zine)

Online reg­is­tra­tion is now CLOSED
But a few spots are still open. Please arrive early to pay at the door. 

In our noisy, rapidly chang­ing world it can seem as if one person’s opin­ion doesn’t count, but the growth of cit­i­zen jour­nal­ism and par­tic­i­pa­tory media tell us oth­er­wise. Join Geist mag­a­zine and the SFU Writing and Publishing Program for a day of three dynamic work­shops and learn how to har­ness the power of the Internet to make your­self heard — and make a difference. 

10 – 12 Who cares?
Journalist Shannon Rupp intro­duces tricks of the trade for engag­ing your audi­ence. Techniques blog­gers can learn from reporters. Opinion writ­ing that pro­vokes read­ers, not lawyers. Shannon will also help you focus your ideas so come ready to brainstorm. 

12 – 1 Lunch 

1 – 2:30 Making Connections
Not sure what’s already out there? Alexandra Samuel, CEO of Social Signal, will intro­duce you to pre-existing groups and offer advice on how to nav­i­gate and par­tic­i­pate in the exist­ing world of online activism. 

2:30 – 4 Say It Yourself
In the final ses­sion, Gary Shilling will take our work­shop to the net, lit­er­ally. Bring your lap­tops, cam­eras, video cam­eras, cell phones (what­ever!) and Gary will assist you to set up a blog, make a short video for YouTube or make your first podcast. 

John Maxwell has been involved in the Internet and online pub­lish­ing since the early 1990s. He was a Web-entrepreneur with Knossopolis Media, one of Canada’s ear­li­est web design col­lec­tives and was a researcher and instruc­tional media pro­ducer at the Open Learning Agency. John is as an Assistant Professor at SFU’s Master of Publishing Program. One of his cur­rent research inter­ests is the impact of dig­i­tal tech­nol­ogy in the cul­tural sector. 

Shannon Rupp is an inde­pen­dent jour­nal­ist based in Vancouver. She has writ­ten for a wide range of mag­a­zines and news­pa­pers includ­ing the Globe and Mail, the Ottawa Citizen, Saturday Night, the Georgia Straight and The Tyee. You can read some of her arti­cles here, here and here.

Alexandra Samuel is the CEO of Social Signal, which builds online com­mu­ni­ties for non­profit, gov­ern­ment and busi­ness clients. She has spent years con­sult­ing, research­ing and writ­ing on web com­mu­ni­ties and civic par­tic­i­pa­tion by har­ness­ing the lat­est gen­er­a­tion of online tools, like blog­ging, social book­mark­ing and RSS.

Gary Shilling is a graph­ics savant with a life­time of expe­ri­ence in print and dig­i­tal media. Over the course of his career, he has been an art pub­lisher, installed one of the first dig­i­tal type­set­ting sys­tems in Canada and pro­vided cre­ative solu­tions to some of the lead­ing Canadian high-tech com­pa­nies. He cur­rently con­sults in graphic design as Gary Graphic in Vancouver.

Online reg­is­tra­tion is now CLOSED
But a few spots are still open. Please arrive early to pay at the door.