Now that you’re done making the year-end lists and have finished curating the Best NSFW Photos of 2012, it’s time to look ahead to 2013 as the year you finally learn to stop worrying and love digital.
Step One: Sign up for the 2013 AAN Digital Conference in San Francisco, January 24 – 26, and prepare to move beyond the web browser and dive deep into mobile and digital revenue strategy.
Here are eight indisputable reasons attending the digital conference will be the best decision you make in 2013.
8. Reinvigorate!
It’s not easy being you. Always on deadline. Feeding the beast. Fighting for ad dollars. Balancing the competing demands of putting out a print publication while finding new sources of revenue online. That’s why every once in awhile you need to step back, look at the big picture, talk with others who are in the same boat, and come back to the office with fresh ideas and a renewed sense of purpose.
7. Learn from the best!
Come hear from some of the most creative minds and successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and beyond. And since no one understands the unique challenge of running an alt-weekly in the digital age, you’ll also hear from some of your peers who are having success online.
6. ONACamp!
Get ready for a full day of intensive digital journalism training from the Online News Association. At ONACamp, you’ll get tips on how to improve your newsroom’s workflow, how to think like a startup, and how to use web analytics to guide your editorial and business strategy.
5. Your kind of people!
There is no substitute for face-to-face conversation with your friends and colleagues from across AAN. Make new friends over drinks, trade war stories with old colleagues in between sessions, and benefit from the exchange of ideas that you just can’t get from a 140-character-burst Twitter conversation.
4. Wine Hour!
What better place to talk shop than at Kimpton’s complimentary wine hour, every day in the lobby from 5 to 6 pm?
3. Location, location, location!
There’s a reason we continue to hold this conference in the same place every year. Not only is the San Francisco Bay Area home to tech industry pioneers, but it’s also near a high-concentration of AAN members, which means that many of you can hop in a car and skip the airport security lines. It doesn’t hurt that the Argonaut Hotel is just a steps away from the waterfront, and that the city is home to a diverse variety of dining and drinking options.
2. Just get it over with!
Make a New Year’s resolution to stop procrastinating! Rooms are filling up fast, airfare isn’t getting cheaper, and the early registration discount ends in two weeks. You’re going to do it anyway, so why not just do it now?
1. The fiscal cliff!
No one can predict what consequences may befall us as a result of U.S. leaders’ failure to come to agreement on taxes and expenditures, but wouldn’t you feel better registering and booking your travel now, before the inevitable Journalism Conference Tax Grand Bargain is signed into legislation at the eleventh hour? Don’t leave your future in the hands of Congress. Take control of your own destiny and sign up now before the feds come to take your Constitutional right to alt-assembly away.
