Wyoming Press Association Convention Here This Weekend

January 9, 2012

University of Wyoming Department of Communication and Journalism faculty members and staff members from Institutional Communications are organizing and participating in the Wyoming Press Association's (WPA) winter convention this weekend at the UW Conference Center.

This is the first time the WPA has held its main convention in Laramie, and more than 200 members of Wyoming's newspaper association are expected for meetings and workshops Jan. 13-14. WPA members will have two full days of workshops, culminated by Saturday night's awards banquet where the top newspapers in three divisions (daily and large and small weekly newspapers) will be named. Individual award winners also will be announced.

Six Department of Communications and Journalism instructors are leading workshops for the WPA's newspaper members Friday and Saturday. They are  department chairman Ken Smith; Professor George Gladney; Kristen Landerville and Cindy Price, both associate professors; Professor Conrad Smith; and Lecturer Eric Wiltse.

They will cover such topics as editing, headline writing, social media, digital photography, community journalism, basics of news writing, advertisement design and writing for the web.

UW President Tom Buchanan will give opening remarks during Friday's dinner. Earlier in the day Gov. Matt Mead will "meet the press" during a luncheon question and answer session.

UW Institutional Communications Specialists Jim Kearns and Milton Ontiveroz, along with Kim Deti, information officer for the Wyoming Department of Health, and Steve Miller, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources information specialist, are organizing a day-long session Friday for WPA associate members.

Presenting workshops are Stan Skrabut, UW Extension, on social media and also Gladney on the basics of editing. Mark Collins, UW associate vice president for operations, and Ontiveroz will lead a campus bus tour for both the associate and WPA members Friday afternoon.

Associate members have their own contest where news writing, design, photography and publications will be judged.

The public can view the WPA and associate members' winning entries displayed in the UW Conference Center.

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