Save me: I've volunteered to lead an ACES discussion

tommangan · **Posted:** Fri Aug 15, 2003 10:21 am

I got an email from an ACES honcho asking me if I'd like to lead a seminar at the upcoming ACES convention in Houston. Some of y'all have done these things and I'm wondering what I need to know before getting up there in front of actual people and talking about stuff.The topic will be Web-related, since that's where so much of my energy goes. Blogging, perhaps, and maybe how to get the most use out of Google. Any suggestions would be welcome.

tooleman · **Posted:** Sat Aug 16, 2003 9:50 am

Bring candy and a handout. Avoid being boring or self-important. You'll be fine. I've always wanted to learn how to blog, so I'll be there.

dmfugitive · **Posted:** Sun Aug 17, 2003 5:54 pm

If you're using slides, the audience can read them. You don't have to read what's on the slides. I'm serious about this.

pzicari · **Posted:** Sun Aug 17, 2003 10:37 pm

You could do a lot by asking for a computer projector and displaying your best choices of where to look up abstruse information. Google is impossible if you're looking up things that include common words. It'd be a good idea to offer some rules on how to be skeptical of what you find, and don't leave out snopes.com or one of the urban-legend sites -- not necessarily because you'll find your favorite current legend on it but because it'll raise people's consciousness.The legendary ACES conference people use humor and drama to hold a crowd, just as any good speaker does. Hank Glamann leans toward the funny, for example, while John McIntyre is dramatic. If you're doing Web stuff, you might look for tips on how to do things quickly. You could also point out to people that they don't have to have a formal intranet to build Web pages that will give people links to some of the best sites. Useful tips, like holding down alt-F4 till the porn-site popups go away, are also appreciated.Good luck. Be sure to provide handouts, so people can take them home and write something to justify the trip ...

tommangan · **Posted:** Mon Aug 18, 2003 12:35 am

Thanks folks. Here's my current plan: I've gone to blogger.com and reformatted my homepage into a blog for newspaper copy editors. I'm planning to do this for the next several months and I'll report the results at the ACES conference. If anybody has any suggestions for additions to the blog, please drop me a line.On edit: if you've bookmarked the blog, I moved it so it's not the first thing visitors to my site see (helpful for aunts & siblings uninterested in copy desk stuff). new address is http://tom.mangan.com/printsthechaff[ August 18, 2003: Message edited by: tom mangan ]

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Save me: I've volunteered to lead an ACES discussion

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