Charles Apple

Shreveport Louisiana, that is. (Is there another? I don’t think so.)

The fine folks of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association have apparently not yet grown tired of my The Art of Being Brilliant presentation that went over so well in several cities last year. They invited me to teach Brilliant in Shreveport, Thursday, Jan. 15.

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WHAT IS ‘THE ART OF BEING BRILLIANT’?

This is a presentation about creativity and risk-taking in visual journalism. Exactly what we need more of these days. The show is geared to papers big and small. In fact, that’s one of the main points we’ll cover: It ain’t the size of your paper that matters; it’s the size of your ideas.

We’ll start things off with an inspiring look at visually brilliant pages and how you can make your pages brilliant, too. After a brief break, we’ll come back with nuts-and-bolts tips you can take home and use in that night’s edition.

That’s me –wearing the impossibly loud Apple shirt my wife
made for me — teaching ‘The Art of Being Brilliant’ in Dallas
last April. We’ve also presented ‘Brilliant’ at SNPA events in
Atlanta, Lexington, Ky., and Gastonia and Cary, N.C.
—

We’ll discuss topics like the nature of creative ideas, how to brainstorm, what you need in order to do brilliant work and how even resource-starved small papers can produce top-notch visuals. We’ll look at lots of brilliant examples and a number of case studies.

And, hopefully, we’ll have some fun, too.

The session will last three hours. We’ll start at 9 a.m. and end at noon. At 1:30 p.m., we’ll do it all over again for folks who can’t be there early.

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WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

Designers, copy desk staffers, graphic artists, editors, photo editors, managers… just about anyone who has a stake in how your paper looks or comes together.

One three-hour presentation, given at two different times that Thursday. No matter what hours you work, you should be able to fit one of these sessions into your overloaded schedule.

Part of our audience in Dallas.

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HOW MUCH DOES ALL THIS COST?

That’s the best part. It’s absolutely free.

Make sure you tell your boss that when you tell her you need to be there.

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WHAT ELSE IS THE SNPA DOING IN SHREVEPORT THAT DAY?

My humble but loud show is just one segment of a three-day extravaganza sponsored by the Southern Newspaper Traveling Campus:

—
WEDNESDAY, JAN. 14

Alternative Storytelling - Michael Schwartz
9 - 10:30 a.m., repeats at 1:30 - 3 p.m.
Covers the difference between stories and information, formats more easily accessed by readers and easily transferred to the web. Schwartz is a reporting and editing veteran of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Dayton Daily News and the St. Petersburg Times.

Outbound Calling and New Business Development - Carol Richer Gammell
9 - 10:30 a.m., repeats at 1:30 - 3 p.m.
Developing skills necessary to cold-call and develop new advertising clients. Gammell has taught classified sales techniques at more than 400 newspapers nationally.

Writing for Print in an Online World - Michael Schwartz
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., repeats at 3:30 - 5 p.m.
Reporting and writing techniques that focus on the ‘how,’ ‘why’ and ‘what’s next’ to push stories forward.

Motivating Your Ad Staff in a Down Economy - Carol Richer Gammell
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., repeats at 3:30 - 5 p.m.
How to motivate your sales reps in an economy in which fewer customers have ad money to spend.

—
THURSDAY, JAN. 15

The Art of Leadership - Gus Gonzalez
9 a.m. - noon, repeats at 1:30 - 4:40 p.m.
Principles and skills of motivation, teambuilding, decision-making and interpersonal communication. A former Air Force officer, Gonzalez is an educator and management coach based in Texas.

The Art of Being Brilliant - Charles Apple
9 a.m. - noon, repeats at 1:30 - 4:40 p.m.

—
FRIDAY, JAN. 16

Why newspapers? - Charles Kolsky
9 - 10:30 a.m.
Combined with a paper’s web site, the newspaper is still the No. 1 way to reach local customers. Learn how to sell this better. Kolsky is a former vice president of marketing for the Pulitzer chain.

Customer service - Gus Gonzalez
9 - 10:30 a.m.
Focuses on onflict resolution, problem solving and how to profit from complaints.

Maximizing Your Online Revenue Opportunities - Charles Kolsky
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
How to embrace the web with revenue-growing ideas that can be used by any newspaper.

Stress Management - Gus Gonzalez
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.
Coping with stress at home and at work and how to prevent burnout.

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WHERE DOES ALL THIS HAPPEN?

It should be easy enough to find: The Holiday Inn West is right by the Shreveport Regional Airport, where I-20 and I-220 come together.

The address is 555 Financial Plaza. You can’t miss it.

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HOW DO I SIGN UP?

Like we said, the show is free. All SNPA asks is that you register in advance, if you can. You can find all the info you need here.

Or, contact my pal Graham Kimbrough at the SNPA: (404) 256-0444 or: graham [at] snpa.org

SNPA is making a big push this year to get more weekly papers involved. So if you design pages at a weekly — or supervise someone who does — here’s your chance to receive a little design inspiration.

We’ll look for you then!

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WHERE ELSE ARE YOU SPEAKING THIS WINTER?

Graham tells me SNPA received a request for me to make a repeat appearance at this year’s North Carolina Press Association’s Winter Institute in Cary, N.C., Feb. 12. We’ll post more when we have details.

And there may be other opportunities to catch The Art of Being Brilliant. The SNPA has a number of Traveling Campus events lined up around the South this year; find the whole schedule here. If you’re anywhere close to any of the cities listed there and would like a little Brilliant time, let Graham know.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 5th, 2009 at 11:36 am and is filed under Charles Apple, News design, Resources, Small papers, VizEds Blog, Workshops. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.