2006 NATJA Conference & Marketplace Stowe, Vermont May 30 - June 2
Professional Development Programs
NATJA has put together an educational and entertaining schedule for the Stowe 2006 Conference & Marketplace.
SPEAKERS
Special Guest Speaker
Neal Petersen
Neal Petersen will take you on a journey you will never forget of how he overcame physical disability, poverty and the humiliation of apartheid to compete in one of the most dangerous of all sports - solo sailing around the globe. While many of his well-heeled fellow competitors sail in the latest technological marvels, Petersen built his own yacht, scrounging materials and supplies. Quite simply, this is a fascinating story of the sea, and one man's hope, determination and joy for life.
Keynote Speaker
Peter Yesawich
Peter Yesawich is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, America's leading marketing, advertising and public relations agency serving travel, leisure and lifestyle clients. Yesawich is an expert on travel trends and will speak about how to find travel industry information that is reliable, how to get the most from trade shows if you go or don't go and how to better integrate the internet and your publication.
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINARS
Seminar 1 - Travel Editors Panel
Steve Millburg, Coastal Living
Steve Millburg is a senior editor at Coastal Living magazine, where he assigns, edits, and writes travel stories. He has also worked on the staffs of Southern Living, Southpoint, Cooking Light, and Travel South magazines. Before that, he spent 16 years working for newspapers, doing everything from copy editing to sports writing to reviewing rock concerts. A native of Illinois, he has lived for the past 16 years in Birmingham, Alabama, trying to master the correct use of the verb "fixin' to."
Lisa Gosselin, formerly Islands Magazine
As the former editor in chief of Islands, Audubon and Bicycling magazines, and executive editor of SKI, Lisa Gosselin has written and edited travel stories on worldwide destinations and her freelance features have appeared in Town & Country, Men's Journal, Spa and the Associated Press, among others. She now divides her time between Stowe and Santa Barbara where she serves as deputy editor for Yachting.
Karen Avitabile, AAA Journeys Magazine
Karen A. Avitabile is the editor of Journeys magazine, representing AAA clubs in Hartford, Conn., Southern West Virginia, Kansas, Cincinnati, Ohio, and Miami County, Ohio. Prior to that, she spent 15 years in the newspaper industry as a reporter, editor-in-chief and executive editor. She is the former executive editor of The Berlin Citizen and The Plainville Citizen. She has also served as an adjunct teacher in the Journalism Department at the University of Connecticut.
Dan Patrell, Maryland Life
Dan Patrell is President of Great State Publishing, LLC, and Publisher and Editor of Maryland Life magazine. Maryland Life, which recently won a major award from the Maryland Tourism Council, honoring its efforts in covering Maryland tourism, celebrates the state-its people, history, culture, art, destinations, and dining-in every bi-monthly issue.
Bill Purpura, Home and Away
For the past 19 years, Bill Purpura has served as editor of the Ohio edition of Home & Away magazine. In addition, Bill serves as director of Corporate Communications for AAA Ohio Auto Club. He is a past president of the Worthington CVB board, and currently serves on the Ohio Travel Advisory Council. His work has earned awards from the Ohio Division of Travel & Tourism, the International Association of Business Communicators, and the Press Club of Cleveland. He has also earned several national marketing awards from National AAA for developing unique and effective marketing programs supporting travel, business development and AAA's Show Your Card & Save program.
Seminar 2 - Photo/Text Packaging
Michael Defreitas
Michael DeFreitas has been a photographer for almost 40 years and travel writer for 20 years. Each year hundreds of his images appear in many North American and International magazines including covers for Caribbean Travel & Life (Oct/04), Interval World (Fall/04), Canadian Traveller (June/04 & Nov/04), Coast To Coast (March/04) and Geographical UK (March/04). His topside and underwater images regularly win TMAC and SATW awards. Michael was just awarded the 2005 North American Photographer of the Year Award by the Caribbean Tourism Organization.
Dave Houser
New Mexico-based writer-photographer Dave G. Houser is often cited as a master of the self-illustrated travel article, i.e., photo-text packaging. He won a Lowell Thomas Gold Award in that category in 1992 and for six of the last seven years Dave has netted first place honors for his self-illustrated magazine features in SATW's Western Chapter travel writing competition. He has also earned four NATJA awards for his writing and photography since joining the organization two years ago.
Seminar 3 - Working with CVBs
DeAnn Hazey, Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland
DeAnn Hazey has been writing for as long as she can remember. From being co-editor of her high school newspaper to writing for the Armed News Network at Field Station Berlin during her duty as a U.S. Army soldier, her love for writing and travel has led her down many roads leading to her current position as the Director of Communications for the Convention & Visitors Bureau of Greater Cleveland.
Christine Tibbetts, Tibbetts Communications
Christine Tibbetts is a New Jersey native who directed the Georgia Association of Educators statewide communications program in the early '70s in Atlanta, and then figured out how to thrive in the rural south with a home-based communications firm, a big family and plenty of volunteerism and political activism. On assignment, she produces full page newspaper travel features twice a month and quarterly magazine destination pieces, plus occasional pieces for Travelworld International magazine.
Seminar 4 - Becoming a Successful Freelance Writer
Wendy Knight
Wendy Knight is an award-winning writer and editor who contributes to the New York Times, Outside Magazine, Shape Magazine and the Toronto Globe and Mail, among other publications. She is the editor of Far From Home: Father Daughter Travel Adventures (June 2004, Seal Press) and Making Connections: Mother Daughter Travel Adventures (August 2003, Seal Press), which was awarded a 2003 Lowell Thomas Award for Best Travel Book by the Society of American Travel Writers Foundation.
Seminar 5 - Associations, Travel Agencies and Other Resources for Writers
Cathy Keefe
Cathy Keefe currently serves as the manager of media relations for the Travel Industry Association of America (TIA). Ms. Keefe serves as official spokesperson for the association and is the main point-of-contact for all media calls. She has been with TIA since 1992 and has held positions in their market research and tourism awareness departments.
FOR EXHIBITOR ATTENDEES
Seminar 6 - Working with the Media
Note: offered on Wednesday May 31st at 9:30 AM-10:45 AM only
Carrie Wilkinson-Tuma
Carrie Wilkinson-Tuma has over twenty years in designing, implementing, and managing public and community relations programs on a state-wide basis. She has collaborated with industry, business, and organizational leaders and groups in developing strategic, public and community relations events, plans, and cooperation in enhancing economic impacts. Carrie initiated, promoted, and delivered seminars statewide in marketing and public relations topics of value to constituents and organizations, to increase local capacity.