Bring the Family. ASBPE’s conference hotel is near Chicago’s Navy Pier on the lakefront, with 50 acres of parks, shops, restaurants, and other attractions. Photo: Chicago Conventiaon and Tourism Bureau

Plan to Attend National Editorial Conference July 20-21 in Chicago

Ethics solutions, blogging trends, covering public firms, digital mags among session topics.

So many ethical issues surround us these days, ranging from advertisers seeking product mentions in editorial to writers who accept gifts from the companies they cover.

If you’re looking for constructive solutions to the ethical problems editors face, look no further than ASBPE’s upcoming National Editorial Conference.

The conference is set for Chicago, July 20–21, at the Embassy Suites Hotel, Chicago Downtown Lakefront, located in downtown Chicago between Navy Pier and the shops of Michigan Avenue.

Ethics session

The highlight of the meeting will be a special ethics session, which will consist of three parts:

1) a discussion of ASBPE’s exclusive member research on editorial ethics,

2) an overview of the Society’s revised Guidelines of Preferred Practices, which will be based on this research (a summary of the findings is here), as well as the ethics codes of numerous journalism associations and publishing companies, and

3) a special attendee interactive discussion of more specific ethical scenarios editors have and the potential “take-home” solutions to those problems.

More attendee interaction

Special attention will be paid this year to attendee interaction, with most sessions specifically organized to have audience participation. This may come in various forms, some of which are described below, but are still a work in progress at this time.

Other session topics

Also on the agenda will be sessions about how to write about public companies, blogging, launching new products, making your covers work harder, and digital magazines.

• Covering Public Companies: Digging Up the Numbers and Information That Matter. This session will include an attendee exercise and discussion of facts revolving around a case study. We expect to examine what the focus of the article ought to be, where to find information, and include a discussion of SEC filings and the hidden information that is useful for the business writer to generate a solid, useful story.
• Hard-Working Covers. Some magazines have more print competition than they can handle, but all magazines are competing for time against all media. This session will show you how to get a leg up by focusing more comprehensively on your cover, including your logo, cover lines, and image.
  
  Audience involvement will come in the form of a special benefit for members, who may submit their magazine covers to the speaker in advance for a critique in front of the attendees.
• New Product Launches: Understanding the Metrics. The session will help attendees discover and justify their ideas for new products. You’ll find out the steps to take when analyzing a market, and circulation, and putting together a proposed budget.
• Digital Magazines. These trendy publications are hot now. A number of vendors offer services to publishers to make these happen. There are significant implications for circulation, editorial, and production. Here’s your chance to learn whether a digital magazine may be for you.
• B-to-B Blogging. You’ll not want to jump into starting a blog without first hearing from our expert panel about the trends, ethics, ways to set them up, the benefits and risks involved, the skills necessary, and other best practices.
• Open Forum: Editorial and Design Tips & Tactics. Didn’t get all your questions answered? In our traditional ending session, attendees and ASBPE staff and board members will be available to answer any Society or publishing question you may have.
• ASBPE Magazine of the Year Case Histories. They received their awards at the Awards of Excellence banquet. Learn firsthand about the strategies and secrets for success from the magazines’ top editors in this most popular session.

More to come

Other developments about the conference program will be announced as they become available, including more information about audience participation and keynote speakers.

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