SPA London Regional Conference 2017 brochure

#SPALondon17 Join us from 10am to 5pm for a day filled with journalism workshops, speakers and debate!

Limited tickets available now at just ÂŁ5.

Kindly sponsored by:

Schedule

10.15am: Registration (for 10.30 start) 10.30: Introductions and swap shop 11.00: Interview technique – Adrian Seal (Press Association) 11.45: Break 12.00pm: Journalism as a career – Brian Williams (The Guardian) 1.00: Lunch 2.00: Student media – Bree Allegretti (The Huffington Post) and Rosie Hunnam (NUS) 2.45: Break 3.00: Life as a freelance – Natasha Clark (freelance/The Sun) and Jem Collins (freelance/i Paper, Metro.co.uk) 3.45: Break 4.00: Finding your niche: personal branding in the digital age – Brenda Wong (Debut) 5.00: Pub

Meet the speakers Aubrey Allegretti is a political journalist at The Huffington Post. He was editor of his old student newspaper The Badger, and spent more time in the media office and SU bar than lecture theatres. He did an NCTJ after graduating, before getting a job on The Times as a political researcher. Since then, he’s enjoyed ambling around Westminster writing exclusives on hard news, such as Labour leadership-hopeful Owen Smith’s ’29 inch penis’ (or lack, thereof). @BreeAllegretti Natasha Clark is a freelance journalist who mainly works for The Sun covering British politics. She also does shifts for the Sunday Times, and previously worked for The Times, Twitter and PoliticsHome. She did an MA in newspaper journalism at City, University of London and a BA in history and politics at the University of Warwick. @NatashaC Jem Collins is an online, video and social media journalist who freelances in London.

In the last year she's worked with the i Paper, Metro.co.uk, PinkNews, London Live, The Media Society and others. She's also a trustee of the SPA, which she used to be the chair of. She's still passionate about helping young people start out, and runs Journo Resources. Previously she was a video reporter at Politics.co.uk and a video journalist at KMTV, Kent's local TV station. She loves gin way too much. @Jem_Collins

Rosie Hunnam is the Student Opportunities Consultant at the National Union of Students (NUS). She manages NUS’ programmes for developing societies, sports, student fundraising, student media, and volunteering. Rosie works across Wales, England, Northern Ireland and Scotland, supporting students’ unions in delivering quality opportunities for their students. The National Union of Students is a voluntary membership organisation with 600 member students’ unions representing 7 million students in the UK. @RosieHunnam

Adrian Seal is a journalist with more than 30 years’ experience including holding a number of senior editorial positions on regional newspapers with Trinity Mirror, the UK’s largest newspaper publisher. Editor in Chief of newspaper groups in Surrey, Sussex, Berkshire and West London and Bucks and prior to that a news and sports @SealAdrian reporter, he now works as a journalism trainer and tutor for the Press Association (PA) teaching the PA NCTJ diploma courses. @SealAdrian

Brian Williams has been a journalist for more than 40 years, the past 27 of which have been spent on the Guardian, where he is chief sub-editor of the paper’s personal finance section. Before that he worked for the Reading Evening Post, Titbits magazine and the Daily Express.

He is the journalists’ union rep at the Guardian and Observer, the largest chapel in the National Union of Journalists. He is also author of Nearly Reach The Sky – A Farewell to Upton Park, and co-editor of a new venture called AsPerceived, a quarterly ebook and paperback featuring original long-form journalism by writers who might not otherwise get the chance to have their stories published. @BrianWill26 Brenda Wong is the Social & Community Manager at graduate recruitment app Debut. She is the Acting Editor-in-Chief of Debut's Insight section, a dedicated careers resource for students and young professionals. Her side hustle is running Mythical Millennial, a fortnightly newsletter discussing all things millennial marketing. Brenda is a proud Malaysian immigrant, and is the recipient of the prestigious Tech Nation Visa (Exceptional Promise). Previously, she managed communications for youth consultancy Voxburner, and was a staff writer for lifestyle website Hexjam/Student Beans. @brendaisarebel

Meet the organisers Zaki Dogliani graduated from the University of Bristol in 2015 with a degree in Politics and Italian after spending a year as Editor of Epigram, the independent student newspaper at Bristol. He has worked for BBC Countryfile Magazine, BBC Who Do You Think You Are? Magazine, Times Higher Education and Wonkhe. He is co-chair of the National Union of Journalists’ London Freelance Branch. He is also a qualified football referee. He has been the SPA’s London Officer since 2015. @ZakiDogliani

Formed in 2012, the Student Publication Association (SPA) is the national body that represents student publications and journalists across the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. It aims to support, train and showcase student journalists and their work, both on a national and regional level. Its team of five committee members work with regional officers across the UK and Ireland to run training events, conferences and provide swift support to student journalists in difficulty. It has answered hundreds of queries, run dozens of campaigns and organised a wide range of prestigious awards. Student journalists can enter the 2017 awards here. @SPAJournalism Since 1922, the National Union of Students (NUS) has worked tirelessly on behalf of students and students’ unions. Its campaigning work has resulted in many positive changes within higher and further education, improving the lives of thousands of students. NUS has played a key role in liberation and anti-apartheid movements. In 1973, it was the first national body to pass policy in favour of gay rights. It has run hundreds of campaigns over the years, from lobbying government to improve access to universities to fighting for an end to exploitative unpaid internships. @NUSUK

Meet the sponsor The Press Association (PA) is the national news agency for the UK and Ireland. PA Training is Europe's leading journalism and media training company providing learning programmes to clients across the world. Our journalism courses have been the starting point for many of the UK’s leading journalists including; Andrew Marr, Tom Newton Dunn, Lionel Barber, Christian Fraser and Nils Pratley – to name a few.

We provide externally accredited training courses in news, sport and magazine journalism. Our 17-week news and sports journalism courses are accredited by the NCTJ and the PPA accredits our nine-week magazine journalism course. Both offer excellent routes to a successful career in journalism.

Delegates on our courses will be trained in the Press Association head office in London with access to the PA newsroom. By working in these newsrooms, delegates have access to our main news desks and facilities used by leading journalists. We pack a huge amount into the 17-week NCTJ course; from day one you start working towards achieving 100 words per minute Teeline shorthand speed. From week five, you will begin your weekly news drive where you will be expected to find and write stories for publications in and around London. On most courses, we get more than 100 stories published. By the end of the course, we would expect you to reach the NCTJ gold standard and have a portfolio full of published work.

Our NCTJ sports course includes everything that is on the news course but also offers you the opportunity to cover real matches and have your reports published by our partner publications across London. You will have the full support of PA Sport, the biggest sports agency in the UK, and will be able to attend Premier League press conferences to help further build up your portfolio of published work.

Our part-time NCTJ course is action packed and spread over 38 weeks this course covers everything that is included in the 17-week course.

The magazine course provides the quickest possible route to a job as a journalist.

And with a success rate close to 100 per cent, there is no better course on which to learn the essential skills required to work in the industry. During the course, you will be taught how to build a website, construct a mobile app and produce a complete magazine. You will also spend two of the weeks working in a real magazine newsroom, gaining valuable hands-on experience and industry contacts.

Location and other info

Macadam House is a 2-minute walk from King’s Cross St Pancras (Northern Line, Victoria, Piccadilly, Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith & City and National Rail), they are also 10 minutes from Euston (Northern, Victoria and National Rail). King’s Cross is also served by various bus routes (see right).

Lunch is not provided, but there are plenty of food options around King’s Cross which delegates will have time to visit during the lunch break. Tea, coffee and light refreshments, however, will be provided.

The Twitter hashtag for the day is #SPALONDON17.

Please avoid using #SPALONDON or your tweets might get buried in ads for a London spa.

Please bring copies of your student newspaper or magazine for the swap shop. Those from online-only publications are welcome to show off their websites on laptops.

Email london@spajournalism.com or call Zaki on 07981986121 if you have any questions about the event and trouble finding the venue.