The Regional Technology Corporation will host a series of five seminars this year on blogs and podcasting. The first seminar is coming up on Friday, January 26, 8:30 to 10:00 am, on the basics of podcasting, and will take place at STCC Technology Park, sponsored by Court Square Data Group, which last month launched a blog with a December 11 post.
The seminar will cover "compelling business reasons to start a podcast as well as basics including software, content designs and marketing techniques," according to an RTC announcement. "Attendees will leave with the basic knowledge and tools necessary to get their first podcast posted and available."
The seminar is free to RTC members, and $20 for non-members. Contact April Cloutier at acloutier@rtccentral.com to register and find out how to locate the "tele-classroom."
A recent column in the Reminder announces the upcoming fourth annual Valley Press Club conference at Springfield’s Western New England College, "Getting Noticed in the 21st Century." The conference with marketing professionals, reporters, and editors takes place on Tuesday, January 9, 8:00 am to 2:30 pm. From the article, by press man G. Michael Dobbs:
There are 11 different workshops ranging in topics from public speaking, Internet resources for communications, design techniques, Photoshop basics and two different media roundtables with people who can explain how to get your news to the press.
The luncheon that day [at 11:45 am] will be the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Valley Press Club to the late Jack O’Neill. People can attend the luncheon separately from the conference.
According to WNEC’s Web site, the conference is "intended for business professionals, members of non-profit organizations, and students as an opportunity to build skills including how to communicate effectively through various media, and to network with industry experts and colleagues."
Topics will include interviews, Internet resources, internal communication benefits, and design software for photography and Web. It’s not clear whether you can actually learn to blog at the VPC conference, but you can probably talk to people who know people who blog, or something like that.
Registering now will cost $100 for a business professional, $80 for a member of a non-profit, and $60 for a student. Register two or more people from the same organization at the same time and get a discount, either online or call (800) 660-9632.
Last but not least, I will teach a "Start Blogging" class at the central branch of the Springfield Library on Saturday, January 20, 10:00 to 11:30 am. It’s free and open to the public, and you don’t have to pay any membership fees or know anything about business, marketing, or how to make things compelling. You don’t even have to want to get noticed. But you do need to have some basic computing skills for the class to be of any meaning. We’ll use a publicly available, free Web-based blogging tool.
Library classes take place on the ground level, 220 State Street, in the computer lab. You can register at the reference desk there, or call (413) 263-6828 ext. 213, or e-mail askalibrarian@springfieldlibrary.org.
