At the end of September, I had the chance to attend the Online News Association’s annual conference, not as an attendant, but as a member of their Student Newsroom. Every year ONA fills a newsroom of student journalists from across the country to produce content for the conference’s website. This year, it was held in Boston at the Copley Marriott. I was one of 20, only three of were local. We all had extensive journalism backgrounds and were incredibly talented.
The 20 of us were picked from roughly 150 applicants that applied online last spring. The majority of us had connected via social media, getting to know each other, share work and excitement about actually meeting in person. Our main focus for the weekend was to produce as much conference coverage and original content as possible for ONA’s website so that those not in attendance, or those at other breakout sessions, could follow along without missing a beat. The conference was structured like any other: each hour had various different sessions, keynotes, panels and workshops happening all at one. Sessions focused on everything from new social media uses to paywalls to webpage design to augmented reality to a video confessional booth. Physically being at each session was impossible but missing anything wasn’t an option.
That’s where the student newsroom stepped up. We teamed up, broke down and produced pieces varying from sit down interviews with executives at Facebook and Google, to a team that developed a web app to play Buzzword Bingo, to my pieces on other students in attendance and a recap of an augmented reality demonstration to coverage of the closing award ceremony (where one of our fellow student newsroom-ers accepted an award on the behalf of a project he worked on with classmates).
The experience of being at the conference and working with other student journalists outside Northeastern was more amazing than I could have expected. It opened my eyes to what is actually happening in this field and how it’s ever changing. As cheesy as it sounds, I have a better grasp on what’s going on in our field and there the options lie about. They are just as endless as ever and with graduation approaching in only 14 months (one of those awkward December ’12 graduates here), I want to experiment as much as possible before jumping into the real world.
I thought I knew what I wanted to do on my final co-op this coming spring, and in life, but I might have to keep thinking. I’m ready for something new and different. We left each other and the Student Newsroom on the 3rd floor of the conference hotel late Saturday night, all promising to keep in touch. I’ve done better with some than others via Twitter, but I hope we actually do or at least keep sharing our current projects. My recommendation for anyone, journalist or not: if you hear about a conference that is halfway up your alley, take a harder look at it.
What could you learn from it? Who could you meet? You won’t know until you go.