Tales of a journo conference newbie

It’s 1:30 a.m., exactly 4.5 hours before I’m supposed to be leaving my house and driving to Indianapolis for the Society of Professional Journalists National Conference, and I can’t sleep. Naturally.

I’ve made copies of my clips, updated my resume and ironed my clothes.

I’ve written down a dozen seminars I want to attend. I’m signed up for two writing critiques.

You’d think that I’d feel ready to go and able to relax, but nah. It’s not surprising, though. I can’t remember a first day of work, the beginning of a school semester, or the night before a job interview where I’ve gotten more than 5 hours of sleep.

But I did use my insomnia to tackle a project:

Business card labels

I printed a sheet (about 30) of these bad boys and attached them to the back of my already-printed business cards. The front of my cards have my paper’s information and my work contacts. The back now has my personal web site and my twitter handle.

Unnecessary? Absolutely. Fruitful? We’ll see.

I’m going to meet lots of journalists this weekend, and everyone’s Twitter handles and web site names will be floating around. I figured I’d have all of mine in one place. Plus, no one ever knows how to spell my last name.

I’ll be at #spj100 through Sunday. I’ll be sure to share my thoughts and observations. Stay tuned.