I’m back in the States after the Canadian University Press Conference. The first day, I talked about blogging and social media promotion. Students seemed genuinely interested, and asked some very thoughtful questions about ethics, privacy, how to promote your content, and personal branding. Both sessions were well attended. And the Internet access was non-existent. Sigh.

One of the unique aspects of CUP as compared to U.S. student media conventions is that it’s entirely student-run, which means there are some traditions that are worth mentioning. One such tradition is that students run for election to national offices. The students who are candidates have to wear something on their head during the conference. One year it was a tiara, for instance. This year, candidates have to wear pink cowboy hats. Here are some examples. All of the candidates can be found here, apparently I only missed one of the pink hat brigade:

Danielle Webb is running for National Bureau Chief.

Erin Cauchi is a candidate for president of CUP.

Jacob Serebrin is running for national bureau chief.

Gemma Karstens-Smith was running for CUP National Bureau Chief.

The students who are elected serve for a year at the national CUP offices in Toronto as paid staff members of the organization.

It would be interesting to have a similar structure in the U.S. for one of the student-oriented organizations to have student input into the decision-making process.

Late edit: Just found out via Twitter user @Chrisberube that Cauchi was selected as president, and Webb as national bureau chief.

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Another live blog post from NewsTrain Day 2.

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College students are liveblogging from the APME Newstrain sessions in Norman, Okla. There are two “tracks” – one hands-on, one more theory-based. This liveblog is for the hands-on sessions. Click here to go to the theoretical sessions.

Click on the coveritlive box below to follow along with the proceedings. You can also follow along with the Twitter hashtag #newstrain.

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This weekend, I’ll be in Norman, Okla. with Mid-America Press Institute and the APME NewsTrain for a seminar. I’ll be working with a number of students who will be covering the seminar [edit] for later reports and shooting some video. If you’re there, stop and say “hi.” I’ll provide a link to the coverage as soon as the details are set.

Next weekend is Online News Association in San Francisco. No rest for the weary.

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The Nevada Sagebrush is covering “J Week” at the University of Nevada-Reno this week with streaming video. Here’s a link to the stream. Archived videos are going up too, I noticed. And here’s a link to the j-school’s “J Week” web site. There, you can read a liveblog of today’s session with Newsosaur Alan Mutter.

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Whew. I’m already tired and I haven’t even started yet!

Feb. 20-22 – Illinois College Press Association – panel discussion on new media.

Feb. 26-March 1 – ACP National Convention, San Diego, CA – Thursday workshop (with the CICM Intern Lauren Rabaino!), three sessions (social networking, web site improvements, and liveblogging/livestreaming)

March 6-8 – Mid-America Press Institute/APME News Train – “When to do what with the news”/ tag-teaming with Brian Johnson from U of Illinois.

There are others coming soon. I’m not complaining, just noting that it’s going to be a busy time of year.

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