Friday, 7 September 2012
Happening in the Region ...
Wednesday, 22 August 2012
REGIONAL FALL CONFERENCE UPDATES ...
GREAT NEWS ...
due to strong event support the early bird savings rate continues!
due to strong event support the early bird savings rate continues!
Connect,
Celebrate, & Collaborate at the PWAC Regional Event this fall
Date: September 22, 2012
Location: The Refinery, 607 & 609 Dufferin Avenue, Saskatoon, SK
Time: 9:00 am registration with program to begin at 9:45 am
Early Bird Fees: PWAC members $75; Saskatchewan Writers' Guild member $90; supporting organization members $100; and general public $120 - lunch inculded
Location: The Refinery, 607 & 609 Dufferin Avenue, Saskatoon, SK
Time: 9:00 am registration with program to begin at 9:45 am
Early Bird Fees: PWAC members $75; Saskatchewan Writers' Guild member $90; supporting organization members $100; and general public $120 - lunch inculded
*Early Bird payment extended
to Sept. 7, 2012, due to
positive support from funding agencies.
From September 8, 2012 until September 21, 2012
the cost for all participants is $120.00.
*
To register last minute up to the event day please contact pwacLethbridge@gmail.com
The Professional Writers’ Association
of Canada (PWAC), Prairies and North Region, invites you to Connect,
Celebrate, & Collaborate with the professionals this September 22,
2012.
PWAC-SK
is hosting a full day of professional writing workshops and discussions. Learn
about best practices in the business of writing, social media strategy, and
niche writing from successful writers working and making a living in markets
across the prairies and the world.
This
full-day conference features:
Your Next Travel Story Might be Right in Your Own Backyard by Doreen Pendgracs:
In this 2-hour workshop, Pendgracs will help attendees learn how to spin a travel story from virtually any experience, whether at home in your own backyard or halfway around the world. You'll learn how to find markets for your work and how to create your own! Doreen, PWAC National Vice President, has worked as a freelance professional writer for 19 years. She has authored dozens of non-fiction magazine, newspaper articles, and books. Her latest title, Chocolatour:A Quest for the World's Best Chocolate, is expected to be released within the next year.
·
Breaking In: Taking Stock of the Marketplace by M E (Marie) Powell :
Learn from over 20 years of experience as
Regina-based professional writer Marie Powell helps us examine the current
print and online marketplace, how to choose a market, how to approach
those markets, and how to ensure success in the changing marketplace.
Marie is the founding president of PWAC-SK.
Regina-based professional writer Marie Powell helps us examine the current
print and online marketplace, how to choose a market, how to approach
those markets, and how to ensure success in the changing marketplace.
Marie is the founding president of PWAC-SK.
·
You're going to pay me to play on social
media?: How to become a PAID social media strategist by Katrina German : Learn how
to make money using social media with Katrina an online producer who
specializes in social media and web content development. She plays online with
websites, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and others to connect her clients to the
public in a fun and engaging way. Check out her portfolio at www.KatrinaGerman.com
Niche Writing: Your Ticket to Success: Join us as we learn from experts currently working in diverse markets across the prairies. James Romanow (PWAC / SWG member), Michelle Greysen (PWAC Prairies and the North Regional Director / SWG Member), Darrell Noakes (PWAC / SWG member) and RoseAnna Schick (PWAC Manitoba member) will discuss the challenges of finding a niche, their successes as niche writers, and address where and how to publish their passions.
Niche Writing: Your Ticket to Success: Join us as we learn from experts currently working in diverse markets across the prairies. James Romanow (PWAC / SWG member), Michelle Greysen (PWAC Prairies and the North Regional Director / SWG Member), Darrell Noakes (PWAC / SWG member) and RoseAnna Schick (PWAC Manitoba member) will discuss the challenges of finding a niche, their successes as niche writers, and address where and how to publish their passions.
Door
Prizes:
·
All
non-PWAC members will be entered in a draw to win a one-year PWAC membership (over $200
value). Draw to
take place at 5:00 pm. You must be present to win.
Support:
We wish
to thank our supporters, PWAC Writers.ca, Saskatchewan Tourism, the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild, the Saskatoon Writers' Coop and the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research
Unit, for sponsorship and continued support.
Thursday, 19 July 2012
Connect, Celebrate, & Collaborate at the PWAC Regional Event this fall ...
Date: September 22, 2012
Location: The Refinery, 607 & 609 Dufferin Avenue, Saskatoon, SK
Time: 9:00 am registration with program to begin at 9:45 am
Early Bird Fees: PWAC members $75; Saskatchewan Writers' Guild member $90; supporting organization members $100; and general public $120
*Early Bird payment deadline is August 15, 2012*
The Professional Writers’ Association of Canada (PWAC), Prairies and North Region, invites you to Connect, Celebrate, & Collaborate with the professionals this September 22, 2012.
PWAC-SK is hosting a full day of professional writing workshops and discussions. Learn about best practices in the business of writing, social media strategy, and niche writing from successful writers working and making a living in markets across the prairies and the world.
This full-day conference features:
- Breaking In: Taking Stock of the Marketplace by M E (Marie) Powell (http://mepowell.com/blog/): Learn from over 20 years of experience as
Regina-based professional writer Marie Powell helps us examine the current
print and online marketplace, how to choose a market, how to approach
those markets, and how to ensure success in the changing marketplace.
Marie is the founding president of PWAC-SK. - Your Next Travel Story Might be Right in Your Own Backyard by Doreen Pendgracs (http://doreenpendgracs.com/): In this 2-hour workshop, Pendgracs will help attendees learn how to spin a travel story from virtually any experience, whether at home in your own backyard or halfway around the world. You'll learn how to find markets for your work and how to create your own! Doreen, PWAC National Vice President, has worked as a freelance professional writer for 19 years. She has authored dozens of non-fiction magazine, newspaper articles, and books. Her latest title, Chocolatour:A Quest for the World's Best Chocolate, is expected to be released within the next year.
- Niche Writing: Your Ticket to Success: Join us as we learn from experts currently working in diverse markets across the prairies. James Romanow(PWAC / SWG member), Jillian Bell (Saskatchewan Publishers Group),Michelle Greysen (PWAC Prairies and the North Regional Director / SWG Member), Darrell Noakes (PWAC / SWG member), and RoseAnna Schick (PWAC Manitoba member) will discuss the challenges of finding a niche, their successes as niche writers, and address where and how to publish their passions.
Door Prizes:
- All non-PWAC members will be entered in a draw to win a one-year PWAC membership (over $200 value).
- Draw to take place at 5:00 pm. You must be present to win.
Support:
We wish to thank our supporters, PWAC Writers.ca, Saskatchewan Tourism, the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild, the Saskatoon Writers' Coop and the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, for sponsorship and continued support.
Friday, 15 June 2012
Report from MagNet 2012
------------------------------------------
A report back on PWAC@MagNet12 from Calgary Member Jacqueline Louie:
MagNet 2012 and PWAC AGM
This was a great opportunity to connect with PWAC members from across Canada and attend some excellent professional developmentsessions. I was very pleased with the 4 PD sessions that I attended - it was really interesting to hear what the presenters had to say and a good look at what's going on in the wider industry. Also PWAC Toronto and head office did a great job of making delegates feel welcome and find their way around, with a lot of wonderful social events, as well as tours of Toronto.
PWAC Calgary and PWAC-SK PWAC Prairies and the North regional conference Sept. 22 in Saskatoon, it sounds like an excellent day of professional development sessions including a 2-hour workshop on travel writing and a panel of writers with various specialities. Early bird rate until Aug. 15 is a very good deal. They may be able to arrange billeting for members coming from out of town. (more to come later).
Check out the new writers.ca - everything from the previous website has been migrated to the new site. They want feedback this summer on how the site works for members. (currently still has some bugs in it).
Resources - PWAC Toronto newsletter apparently has some good ideas for events, and reaching out to the community. i.e. reaching out to colleges and universities and offering journalism students a student rate - it's a good way to give PWAC exposure to up and coming journalists and possibly encourage them to join PWAC as members. By linking with other organizations PWAC can do some good cross promotion of various events.
Thank you for the opportunity to be a Calgary chapter delegate to the PWAC AGM. It's definitely worthwhile for members to attend the PWAC AGM and MagNet, which will both be held in Toronto again next year as well as in 2014.
Writers.caThe new writers.ca - it's where writers and clients connect.
Check it out! It's PWAC's new tool for writers, publishers, editors and corporate buyers.
It's in stage one now and PWAC needs its members to try it out and provide feedback on how the site works for them. (provide feedback over the summer with formal launch this fall).
You can enhance your PWAC member profile - use lots of keywords so that people searching for a writer in your specialty can find you. What kind of companies do you want to serve and what services do you offer?
There will be room to include testimonials as part of your updated profile.
There will be forums - one private for PWAC members, one for the public. Visitors will include potential PWAC members and potential clients. You can use the public forum to announce things like professional development events, book releases, etc. etc. The site will include online work tools, boilerplate contract to offer clients, a database of clients, a digital repository where writers can post material to resell (thanks to Access Copyright support); paypal payments for resales as a convenience to clients ... a FAQ page is in the works. The main steps for members now is to update your profile;
use the forums to discuss things you are interested in; and you can create forums as well.
Members can still use existing PWAC list serves. Note: the new site is still a little buggy.
- Jacqueline
PWAC Calgary and PWAC-SK PWAC Prairies and the North regional conference Sept. 22 in Saskatoon, it sounds like an excellent day of professional development sessions including a 2-hour workshop on travel writing and a panel of writers with various specialities. Early bird rate until Aug. 15 is a very good deal. They may be able to arrange billeting for members coming from out of town. (more to come later).
Check out the new writers.ca - everything from the previous website has been migrated to the new site. They want feedback this summer on how the site works for members. (currently still has some bugs in it).
Resources - PWAC Toronto newsletter apparently has some good ideas for events, and reaching out to the community. i.e. reaching out to colleges and universities and offering journalism students a student rate - it's a good way to give PWAC exposure to up and coming journalists and possibly encourage them to join PWAC as members. By linking with other organizations PWAC can do some good cross promotion of various events.
Thank you for the opportunity to be a Calgary chapter delegate to the PWAC AGM. It's definitely worthwhile for members to attend the PWAC AGM and MagNet, which will both be held in Toronto again next year as well as in 2014.
Writers.caThe new writers.ca - it's where writers and clients connect.
Check it out! It's PWAC's new tool for writers, publishers, editors and corporate buyers.
It's in stage one now and PWAC needs its members to try it out and provide feedback on how the site works for them. (provide feedback over the summer with formal launch this fall).
You can enhance your PWAC member profile - use lots of keywords so that people searching for a writer in your specialty can find you. What kind of companies do you want to serve and what services do you offer?
There will be room to include testimonials as part of your updated profile.
There will be forums - one private for PWAC members, one for the public. Visitors will include potential PWAC members and potential clients. You can use the public forum to announce things like professional development events, book releases, etc. etc. The site will include online work tools, boilerplate contract to offer clients, a database of clients, a digital repository where writers can post material to resell (thanks to Access Copyright support); paypal payments for resales as a convenience to clients ... a FAQ page is in the works. The main steps for members now is to update your profile;
use the forums to discuss things you are interested in; and you can create forums as well.
Members can still use existing PWAC list serves. Note: the new site is still a little buggy.
- Jacqueline
Award winning news!
For a great follow up on the PWAC@MagNet12 - AGM and Magazine Canada
Conference – click on the Calgary Chapter link in the header above and read a
great follow up report by Calgary Chapter member Jaqueline Louie. It was a
great conference and I hope to see many of you there next year!
 |
| Bonnie Zink, left, with PWAC VP Doreen Pendgracs |
Congratulations to the new President
of the Saskatchewan Chapter, Bonnie Zink – winner of you REGIONAL VOLUNTEER AWARD this year at
presented at the PWAC Awards Banquet at MagNet12.
Her nominee has this to share
about her: “Bonnie has been dedicated to infusing new life into PWAC-SK for the past
two years. She has been relentless in contacting members, new and old, to keep
the PWAC fires burning. As member-at-large this year, she has lent her social
media expertise to initiate ideas such as the PWACsask Facebook site and
Twitter account. Through both, she has been energetic and supportive in sharing
information and ideas among PWAC members of all regions. She has also
volunteered her home to host a regional meeting, spent hours developing
resources for PWAC members, and used new media such as "Doodle"
meeting sign-up forms, and newsletters designed with such programs as
MailChimp. She's an excellent role model for us all.”
Also from our Region was the
Larry Jackson Award, the highest
honour we bestow each year on a volunteer that has consistently gone beyond the
norm in providing time, energy and intelligent leadership to PWAC over a span
of time. The board of directors recognized Edmonton’s Cynthia
Dusseault for her contributions as a past chapter president
(Edmonton), a Regional Director (Prairies and the North) and most recently
leading the task force that accomplished our constitutional renewal in Montreal
last year. Here is what
her nominees had to say about her: Cynthia
was a remarkable RD for our region for two years, and we believe she deserves
the recognition of this award. As RD, she emailed us all once a month or more,
with information about conferences, job opportunities, and many other regional
concerns and ideas. She was instrumental on the board in addressing larger
issues as well, including the recent constitutional change. In 2010, she managed
to help plan the best PWAC AGM in Toronto - while living in Edmonton, running a
successful freelance business, emailing promptly with answers to questions from
a fledgling PWAC chapter in the region, and being the an all-round great
Prairies Region RD. She even started discussion groups on regional concerns,
such as a Prairies website for communication across geographical distances.
Prior to this, she won the regional volunteer award in 2005. She was a chapter
president in Edmonton, and helped plan and run an AGM in that city in years
past as well. And she manages this super-human schedule with grace and good
humour. She's a credit to PWAC and a role model for all of us.
Tuesday, 29 May 2012
PWAC@MagNet Conference fast approaching!
Hello all
PWAC members in the Prairies and the North Region!
Just
writing to let you all know I am off to the National Conference and AGM as part
of MagNet conference in Toronto next week (Canada’s Magazine
Conference Jun 5 – 8, 2012 Magnet.MagazinesCanada.ca)
Some of you
are also attending and I look forward to meeting with all our Regional
delegates.
Our Regional meeting is set for Thursday June 7th in the Courtyard Marriott host hotel in the Bay Room from 12:30 to 1:45.
I look forward to welcoming you all in attendance but also I would ask those who are not able to attend the PWAC@MagNet this year to feel free to send along any concerns or questions you wish to be raised during our Regional meeting at the conference. I will report back to everyone on the notes of that session. There was a request that perhaps those not attending be able to skype into the meeting – I am not promising that could work but we could try – so if you are wanting to do that please contact me with your skype details and perhaps a few of us there can make that happen!
Our Regional meeting is set for Thursday June 7th in the Courtyard Marriott host hotel in the Bay Room from 12:30 to 1:45.
I look forward to welcoming you all in attendance but also I would ask those who are not able to attend the PWAC@MagNet this year to feel free to send along any concerns or questions you wish to be raised during our Regional meeting at the conference. I will report back to everyone on the notes of that session. There was a request that perhaps those not attending be able to skype into the meeting – I am not promising that could work but we could try – so if you are wanting to do that please contact me with your skype details and perhaps a few of us there can make that happen!
The annual
regional Board reports, committee reports, budget and full annual report package
will be available and sent from head office shortly. I encourage you all to read
them and again please feel free to voice any concerns or comments to me to bring
to the AGM on your behalf. The AGM is set at the end of the MagNet conference on
Friday Jun 8, 2012 at 4 p.m. in the Courtyard Marriott host hotel. Again I will
follow up with a post conference and AGM report following the events.
For those
attending I look forward to meeting you all in person. For those not able to
make it consider planning to attend next year as PWAC@MagNet is a rewarding annual conference. If
Toronto seems to far and costly sets your sights on planning to attend the first
Regional conference coming in September hosted by the Saskatchewan Chapter in
Saskatoon – this will be a great event and more details from Chapter President
Bonnie Zink:
Presenters include Doreen Pendgracs (two-hour travel writing workshop) and Marie Powell-Mendenhall, a successful Saskatchewan professional members. Delegates include PWAC members, professionals working in the creative industries, members of other writing related organizations, and anyone who is interested in learning how to develop best practices and how to apply them to their own success.
Date: September 22, 2012With the support of PWAC National, this event has the potential to become a hallmark annual event that will encourage membership growth while developing stronger ties between chapters within our region as well as promote PWAC members as accomplished professional writers ready to put their expertise to work for potential clients from local communities and business sectors. Sponsors currently include PWAC National, Saskatchewan Tourism, and the Saskatoon Writers' Coop.
Location: The Refinery, 507 & 509 Dufferin Avenue, Saskatoon SK
Early Bird Fees (available until August 15, 2012): PWAC members $75; partnering organization members $100; general public $120
Thank you to all our Chapter President and members who help make our PWAC
Prairies and the North region a great place to be!
More news later this month when I return from Toronto, Board Meetings and
MagNet.
Happy summer just around the corner!
Michelle Greysen
Regional Director PWAC Prairies and the North
Thursday, 3 May 2012
NATIONAL & REGIONAL Conferences scheduled
PWAC NATIONAL CONFERENCE & AGM / MagNet 2012
Canada's Magazine Conference - JUNE 5-8, 2012
FOCUSING FORWARD - LEARN, CONNECT, CELEBRATE AND GROW
PWAC is a participating organization at MagNet and hold the PWAC AGM during the conference as well as hosting many exciting events and sessions.
It is not too late to be a delegate for your Chapter!
http://www.pwac.ca/eventsandresources/pwacnationalconferenceagm
or
http://magnet.magazinescanada.ca/
SAVINGS for early bird rate your registration must be received by 5:00 pm (EST) on May 4, 2012.
UPDATED NEWS on the fall REGIONAL CONFERENCE:
Join PWAC Prairies and the North as members come together in sunny Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to connect, collaborate, and celebrate with PWAC professionals about bestpractices and travel writing.
This full-day conference features:
Canada's Magazine Conference - JUNE 5-8, 2012
FOCUSING FORWARD - LEARN, CONNECT, CELEBRATE AND GROW
PWAC is a participating organization at MagNet and hold the PWAC AGM during the conference as well as hosting many exciting events and sessions.
It is not too late to be a delegate for your Chapter!
http://www.pwac.ca/eventsandresources/pwacnationalconferenceagm
or
http://magnet.magazinescanada.ca/
SAVINGS for early bird rate your registration must be received by 5:00 pm (EST) on May 4, 2012.
UPDATED NEWS on the fall REGIONAL CONFERENCE:
Join PWAC Prairies and the North as members come together in sunny Saskatoon, Saskatchewan to connect, collaborate, and celebrate with PWAC professionals about bestpractices and travel writing.
This full-day conference features:
- Learning about best practices in the
business of writing from Marie Powell-Mendhall and Darrel Noakes, two successful
PWAC-SK members.
- A two-hour workshop, delivered by
Doreen Pendgracs, that will help attendees learn how to create a
travel story from virtually any experience, whether at home in their own
backyard or half way around the world. The workshop will also focus on
developing markets for travel writing and how to seize the many opportunities
that are right in front of you.
- learn how to develop your skills and apply them to your success as a freelancer from the professionals: This panel discussion features professional writers living, working, and making a living in a diverse range of markets across the PWAC Prairies and the North region.
- Date: September 22, 2012
- Location: The Refinery, 507 & 509 Dufferin Avenue, Saskatoon, SK
- Time: 9:00 am registration with program to begin at 9:45 am
- Fees: PWAC members $75; partnering organization members $100; and general public $120
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