Gina Davies

FEJS.co.uk now available

December 9, 2008

The website is now up and running folks, still under improvement of course but do keep checking it.

Applications go live Monday 15th December whoop whoop!

www.fejs.co.uk

Big post

November 19, 2008

This is a big post mainly because I haven’t done one in a while and also that I’ve got so much to tell you!

The more contact I make with companies over this conference the more I think i’ll jinx when I talk about it - but the time has come to delegate. I realise I just psychically can’t do it all by myself.

So in the past month I’ve met up with SKillset (amazingly helpful and if I was 14 I would soooo do their creative media diploma). Nokia, who live in the seedier part of London but next to the best coffee shops (ironic I feel). And a few journalist friends who have suggested so many outlets I really don’t know where to start.

There’s things that have taken me by surprise, people’s enthusiasm for the conference is one, even if their pockets are empty.

But also some strange surprises too. Like Lincolnshire County Council, who deliberated for a while and decided that the opportunity wasn’t worth getting involved. It actually stunned me. I’ve just come back from Gent with the same oganisation where we finalised the conference agreements - the council paid for all public transport whilst we were there and invited us to City Hall to meet the major. The head of comms in Coca-Cola Europe came to talk to us - as did local media. I can promise workshops given by the BBC and Press Association, draw in 120 journalists from nearly 30 countries and major national and international press and Lincolnshire CC don’t think it’s in their interest? This could be the biggest thing to hit the county since the earthquake! It amazes me how short sighted these people are that they actually referred me to the universities internal conferencing office, who I’ve been working with for over a year. Geez.

Going back to Gent - it was nice, but scary. As I realise there’s now only time in the way of 100 people coming to Lincoln in 5 months.

Whilst I was in Gent I was thinking about the internet - a lot. Not having internet causes serious withdrawal symptoms and makes a loan computer have the same allure as a classified substance. So, I wondered if maybe we could get in touch with a phone company who would lend us some dongles for us to try out. I know I’m dying for one as a Christmas present and think it would be a great solution for our conference - anyone know a good company?

Update (and good news!)

October 18, 2008

This week I met with a few interested organisations - here are the results:

BT Innovate - This is the division responsible for ‘predicting’ future user trends and technology so quite apt. I was passed my contact from a fantastic friend of mine who edits a communications magazine which was a great influence. The lady I met with seemed very interested in the conference and asked questions about a possibility of holding some sort of BT session on where they think the future of journalism/technology is heading (which was actually an initial lecture I’d planned for). She gave me a positive impression and I hope to be hearing from BT soon.

EU Commission, London office - Had a lovely coffee with the Head of Media who seemed interested, and I was sure that we ticked quite a few boxes of her remit - youth orientated, promoting cross-cultural diversity etc. and I was delighted to hear from her the next day offering to commit to paying for perhaps a dinner event and/or a bus to bring some of the participants up from London. We’re to speak more in January.

Press Gazette - Met with some lovely guys in the ads division, they are quite happy to provide a link to us on their home page (once we get a website up and running, hopefully November), and suggested that their Editor give me a call so we can do an editorial. I am more than happy about this considering the massive amount of hits Press Gazette get, I think that by having something in their now monthly magazine it covers quite a few bases. The thing I am most scared of is having other organisations in this country stand up in April and say ‘I didn’t know anything about it’. Hopefully with the help of PG we can avoid this.

Radio Academy - Met with a fantastic young lady who gave me some stellar advice of who to approach. We realised the dates might possibly class with Radio 1’s annual Big Weekend - but - she suggested a possible Radio Academy masterclass with journalists from BBC2 and BBC4 which would be fantastic and a major draw to any potential visitors.

ITN - This has to be the highlight of my week, I met with the Communication’s Manager who I’m sure had had more of a hard week than anyone given recent Ofcom revelations! However, he gave me a brilliant tour of the building (I got to meet Jon Snow!) and was invaluable in some of his advice. ITN were behind some of the original mobile phone content launched quite a few years ago now. I explained it would be great to get someone to come and speak about how they saw a market in that area - and how they envisage it in the future. He seemed really keen and has a few ideas of potential speakers which I’m keen to follow up.

In other news - I’m meeting with the BJTC next week, and have talks lined up with both Orange and Siemens. Plus I have a new cohort of people interested in helping me out.

My next big tasks are to persuade the Tourism office to give me some literature to take to Ghent with me next month when I meet the final committee to decide on conference arrangements. These are the people who will be taking the news back to their relevants countries and urging them to apply so I would like to also talk about the benefits of staying in the city a big longer. When I met the Croatians last year they also gave us something traditional from the city - but I think the local tourism office might struggle on that slightly.

My final task this week is to look at outside catering which at the moment seems to be the biggest part of my budget and see if I can get local suppliers to undercut in house. I will also finalise the accommodation arangements.

I plan to go down to London again in a few weeks to meet with the NUJ, BECTU, Thompson-Reuters, Skillset and BBC World Service.

Sorry for the long update!

Opening speaker confirmed

September 2, 2008

I’m delighted to announce our opening speaker – Dr. Julian Kucklich.

He has a very impressive background but currently works in the Knowledge Transfer Partnership team at the Press Association. With key principles similar to our conference, the team is tasked with looking at new ways of integrating media to tell stories in interesting and innovative ways. He is a regular conference speaker and I’m sure will provide a very thought provoking presentation on the topic of transferable media.

Of course there will also be time for a question and answer session so get thinking!

Once our website is launched in November we will have a biog and a photo of Dr. Julian so you can see just who will be explaining more in this important topic and what developments we can expect in the changing world of media.

In the meantime – September will be our new recruits month so if you’re interested in helping the FEJS happen in Lincoln next April, or maybe you want to get involved then email me at gina_davies1(at)hotmail.com

We need your help to make this happen.

Explaining the topic

August 28, 2008

A lot of my job at the moment seems to explaining what transferable media is all about - and why developing it is so important.

To illustrate this I thought I’d highlight a debate that has been going on in the UK for over a year now. Read the rest of this entry »

FEJS Annual Conference 2009

August 25, 2008

First thing, this is a personal blog about one of the biggest student journalism conferences to ever happen in the UK - and I’m organising it.

This blog will document how I go about it, and I’ll be honest with it. How much help I’m getting - how much money we need to fund it, who am I emailing etc. Sometimes it might stray in to the unprofessional… However, once November comes there will be a nice sparkly website with all the relevant information needed but this cannot happen until this years regulations are agreed by the General Assembly.

See below for the most recent blog posts or click the jump for the back story.

Read the rest of this entry »

TFM-OK!

August 25, 2008

Have just returned from a task force meeting in Switzerland where I gave an update on the progress of this Annual Conference to the Secretariat and the Supervisorary Board. They seemed impressed with how we are rolling along which made me feel pleased that it isn’t all in vein.

For anyone that doesn’t know the history of the FEJS - www.fejs.org - there is a Geneal Assembly aside from the core Annual Congress that dictates the rules and regulations of the organisation and oversees elections.

This usually happens Oct/Nov time but we felt that this year some of us should get together for a smaller discussion about practical things like the deposit scheme and the solidarity fund.

Needless to say it was nice to bounce ideas around with the other guys and to update them on our progress - with the official report to come in November when we meet in Ghent for the General Assembly.

More emails to be sent out this week, I’m afraid these posts are getting less frequent but I’m loathe to jeapordise securing sponsorship by shouting about who we’re talking to before anything is confirmed.

However, once it is you will be the first to know about it.

Au Revoir!

It’s all so quiet…

August 8, 2008

This week has been admin week.

We all have to have one eventually. I’ve been researching shed loads of sites about past and present conferences in the media sector. Most of the websites have a delegate list which is something of a godsend and I’ve got some of the Scooby Gang to track down relevant members and find email addresses/phone numbers etc.
Read the rest of this entry »

First speaker confirmed

August 3, 2008

I’m delighted to say that professional journalist and Shiny Media guru Diane Shipley is our first confirmed speaker for the conference.

She is hoping to conduct a workshop in the online section of the programme, more details to be made available at a later date.

Diane has tons of experience in online journalism, both as a writer and an editor, in distinguished outfits such as The Guardian, Shiny Media and many others. Combining this with a wealth of experience in print journalism counting publications such as The Telegraph, Prima, Easy Living and Woman’s Weekly amongst her many publishers.

She is the perfect person to show you just how to sharpen up those writing skills to fit an online environment, and how to interchange between the two almost as smoothly your morning coffee (unless you like your coffee frothy and then I’ll have to find another cliche…).

And if you are still finding yourself without a blog (where have you been?!?) then prepare to be inspired and perhaps just a little more wise about the world of online diaries.

We welcome her onboard the team and will be delighted to hear what she has to say come April 2009

For more info on Diane - check out http://www.dianeshipley.co.uk

Wow

July 31, 2008

Just seen this - www.themediafestival.co.uk

Looks exciting and quite promising too.

Everything is a bit slow at the moment - waiting for people to come back off holiday.

It seems I’m still getting a few hits to this blog though so if anyone would like to help by sending a few emails or phone calls it would be much appreciated!

At the moment I’m just working on this in an evening as I work full time so I find myself struggling slightly, oh and I just had 250 of the most dodgiest business cards ever made!

Let me know if you want one - it’s worth the 30p stamp just for a laugh.