Registration Ends Today for Nov. 1 TAB Newsroom Workshop

- Award Winning Journalists Share Cutting Edge Practices

Registration closes Wednesday evening for Saturday's TAB Southwest Broadcast Newsroom
Workshop being held at Texas Tech University in Lubbock where some of the nation's top broadcast and multiplatform journalists are slated to share their newsgathering strategies from 8:30 AM to 6 PM.

The day-long workshop on Nov. 1 features nationally recognized newsroom trainers and respected local journalists presenting sessions on newsgathering for Texas broadcast news professionals and developing student journalists.

The professional registration fee is $76 and includes lunch, morning coffee, and pastries. Register online and see the workshop schedule here.

Presenters include Al Tompkins, national RTDNA Edward R. Murrow award winners Brendan Keefe (WANF-TV) and Josh Hinkle (KXAN-TV), regional RTDNA Edward R. Murrow award winner Shaley Kidwell (KCBD-TV), Pulitzer Prize winner investigative reporter Michael Braga, IRE executive director Diana Fuentes, past RTDNA chairman Kevin Benz of Kevin Benz News, and many more.

Nearly 20 sessions will explore the technique and craft of newsgathering. A few of the sessions are career-oriented for the college and university students who will also be attending the workshop. This Saturday's topics include:

Artificial Intelligence and Newsgathering: Two sessions will explore how AI is currently impacting newsgathering, both good and bad, and what's in the future for newsrooms.

Mastering MMJ Skills: Two sessions will help attendees develop and build on their MMJ skills. Learn the need-to-know basic techniques in shooting, sound, lighting, and editing. Then go beyond the basics with advanced skills including multi-camera shoots on a budget. It's a chance to learn from a national Edward R. Murrow Award winning MMJ Brendan Keefe.

Enterprise Reporting: Beloved national news trainer Al Tompkins will bring ideas and techniques to uncover and develop original stories not generated by a news release. Al's premise for this session is no matter what technology emerges during your career in journalism, if you know how to find stories that nobody else can, you will have a job.

Using FOI Laws to Generate News: KXAN's Josh Hinkle and IRE's Diana Fuentes, two Texas FOI experts, will show attendees ow to use the Texas Public Information Act (TPIA) and the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to break stories and add context to daily news coverage.

Data-Based Investigative Reporting: The workshop has three sessions on using spreadsheet data to uncover stories. Two of the sessions will cover the basics of using spreadsheets in investigative journalism. A third session will explore award-winning stories that were told using spreadsheet data.

Connecting with Audiences: Kevin Benz will demonstrate how to hold and grow audiences by writing and reporting with authenticity.

Mastering Live Shots: This session will explore the planning and execution of memorable and meaningful live shots.

Multi-Platform Reporting: National RTDNA Edward R. Murrow Award winners Hinkle and Keefe will demonstrate how they expanded coverage of important investigative stories by going online and elsewhere beyond the over-the-air broadcast platform. The session offers valuable insights for presenting important stories on multiple platforms.

Creativity on Deadline: This session will show how to overcome daily obstacles for memorable storytelling.

Building Audience Trust: Explore how local news has damaged its relationship with the audience and what local newsrooms need to do to earn trust back.

Battling Bias: Al Tompkins will show attendees how to navigate around and through their own biases to accomplish everyone's journalistic goal of reporting without fear or favor.

Work/Life Balance: Today's broadcast newsrooms are very stressful places. In this session, Kevin Benz explores strategies for managing mental well-being in and out of the newsroom.

In addition to the sessions noted above, the workshop also will have career-oriented panels to help students learn the do's and don'ts of seeking jobs, transition from the classroom to the newsroom, and navigate a career in the ever-changing media landscape.

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