TAB’s Southwest Broadcast Newsroom Workshop set for Nov. 7

posted on 8.31.2015

TAB’s annual workshop for broadcast newsroom staff and students seeking broadcast newsroom careers will take place in Austin on Saturday, Nov.7.

This year’s day-long Southwest Broadcast Newsroom Workshop will coincide with the evening Emmy awards ceremony of the Lone Star Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

For several years, TAB and NATAS have discussed the idea of staging both the daytime workshop and the nighttime awards gala on the same day to create a “destination weekend” for those working in Texas broadcast newsrooms.

Those who want to attend just the newsroom workshop can still do so – the events are separate but both take place at the JW Marriott in downtown Austin.

In addition to the Lone Star Chapter of NATAS, the Southwest Broadcast Newsroom Workshop will also be sponsored by the Texas Associated Press Broadcasters, a longtime partner with the annual workshop.

TAB has already lined some great national trainers for the seminar including:

• Boyd Huppert and Jonathan Malat of KARE-TV Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
• Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, St. Petersburg, FL
• Deborah Potter, NewsLab, Washington, DC

Huppert and Malat are nationally-recognized presenters on storytelling and have received numerous national and local awards for their stories.

Malat is a two-time winner of the National Press Photographers Association’s Photographer of the Year award.

The duo will conduct extended afternoon sessions on mastering storytelling as well as individual sessions on broadcast writing and broadcast videography skills.

Potter and Tompkins are returning favorites to the newsroom workshop.

Potter will present sessions on utilizing social media in newsgathering and dissemination, facing the challenge of reporting on stories in which race is a key component, and best practices for developing stronger stories.

Tompkins will offer a special session for newscast producers to hone their specific writing abilities and story order skills.

The longtime Poynter Institute veteran will also do sessions on critical thinking skills, enterprise reporting and “cool tools” that can help anyone in the broadcast newsroom.

Professionals from Texas broadcast newsrooms as well as Texas media law scholars will also be on hand to present sessions during the day.  

Workshop registration and the preliminary schedule of sessions is available here.

Information will be posted soon at www.lonestaremmy.org for those interested in attending the nighttime Lone Star EMMYS ceremony or staying overnight at the host hotel at a special room rate.

Questions?  Contact TAB's Michael Schneider or call (512) 322-9944.

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