Registration is now available for the fall Society of American Business Editors and Writers conference, to be held Oct. 20-21 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Registration, which is $175 before Sept. 14, can be completed online here.Â
This year’s fall conference will feature a number of sessions designed to improve the quality of business reporting and editing around the country. There will be panels on covering hedge funds, writing about short selling and accounting issues, covering activist investors, and learning how to provide business news in a more timely and Internet-friendly fashion. There will also be sessions on covering private companies and finding news in SEC filings. A tentative schedule can be found here.
Given that UNC is home to one of the best college basketball teams in the country, SABEW is also planning a panel on covering the business of college sports that will feature former Tar Heel and NBA players Hubert Davis and Eric Montross. Davis is now an ESPN commentator, while Montross, the center on the 1993 NCAA national championship team, is the color commentator for the Tar Heel Sports Network. UNC basketball coach Roy Williams has also been invited to participate on the panel, but has yet to confirm.
For health care reporters, confirmed speakers at the conference will include two top CEOs from the industry – LabCorp’s David King and GlaxoSmithKline’s J.P. Garnier.
In addition, SABEW is bringing in two top editors from the world of business magazines. Kim Kleman, editor of Consumer Reports, will speak about the issues surrounding writing about consumer products, while James Glassman, editor of The American, will talk about the launch of his new business glossy.
Finally, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at UNC will be offering a two-day “Business Journalism 101.� The workshop is the only program taught by top-ranked journalism and business school faculty, is designed to help reporters and editors understand the financial side of business. Business journalists will learn more about financial issues they cover and take away practical information they can use to produce stronger business stories. The program also gives business editors and reporters a chance to interact with professors about current issues in corporate America.
More information about Business Journalism 101 can be found here. Its registration is FREE and is limited to the first 25 journalists who also register for the SABEW conference.
For questions, contact the SABEW staff at sabew@missouri.edu or at 573-882-7862 . For Business Journalism 101, contact the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication toll free at 877-668-674 or execed@unc.edu.
