ive and on stage you can see me doing the public speaking thing that I used to win awards for back when I was in grade four and five. Granted my voice has broken and I've gone through puberty since then so I will warn you that it's not quite as melodious as it once was nor will I have a graphic of the human heart to refer you to. However I will probably have had my hair cut before then, at least if Lydia has her way. So that should add some kind of fashion flash to the proceedings. No graphs though. Sorry.
What will I be talking about? How much are tickets? Will there be punch and pie? Are there any audience participation chants or songs that will be needed?
To go you'll need to register at a Canadian college or university and quickly get a job at the student newspaper before this weekend because I'll be talking at the Canadian University Press's 72nd annual conference this year titled Natural Selection [cup]. I'm actually doing a few sessions, to help justify the cost of them flying me out there. The first one, and main one, I'll be talking with Matt Attwood who works in Bioware's [wp] media relations department on tech writing and how to work with PR departments of tech companies. Next I'll be on a panel discussing new media with Matt Frehner, Matthew Ingram, Bryan Murley and hosted by CUP's Chris Berube.
This is the panel that a fist fight is most likely to break out in, since I tend to be a bit crotchety about the term "new media" and the idea that "old media" is dying. Newspapers might be dying, but I don't think that's what people mean by "old media".
The next day I'll be a part of a panel discussing freelance writing with Iain Ilich, Erin Millar, Elizabeth McMillan, Karen Unland hosted by Nick Taylor-Vaisey.
These are all names that I'm going to have to Google in the next day or so.
Meanwhile I've come down with the sort of head cold that used to kill people back in the middle ages. It essentially feels as though someone has stuffed my head full of phlegm and at night it starts leaking out my nose. It's quite a mess. Of course given that I'll be exposed to CUP Conference SARS this weekend probably means that I should work on my will. A combination of head cold and whatever ailments a few hundred university students fighting their livers with weapons of mass intoxication are carrying will be a most interesting experience.
Now if you'll excuse me, my face is leaking.
