This is how we do - professional development at #CAJ15

OTTAWA, May 25, 2015 /CNW/ - Today is the final day to take advantage of the most-affordable rates for top-rate professional development for journalists available in Canada.

This year's #CAJ15 conference has plenty of sessions geared to help working journalists become better at their craft, with tips and tricks passed along from the podium as well as live demonstrations and hands-on workshops. Sessions are scattered throughout the program scheduled to take place at the Hotel Atlantica in Halifax on June 5-6.

This professional development starts off on Friday morning, as Metro Halifax's Jeff Harper shares his top tips for taking a better picture with any camera – a skill that is now part of the default set of expectations for any journalist working in any medium. A demonstration on using drones for newsgathering, led by CBC PEI's Pat Martel and Flitelab's Mark Langille follows immediately afterwards.

The list goes on as the schedule continues. Other examples include sessions on finding the money in any story with Carleton University's Carty Chair in Business and Financial Journalism Chris Waddell; How to avoid making yourself ill when assigned your first health-care story with a panel of Canada's leading health journalists – Pauline Dakin, Andre Picard and Trudy Lieberman; How to cover protests with CTV's Liam Hyland; How to spot a fake video or photo with Buzzfeed Canada's Craig Silverman, Filing FOI requests made ridiculously easy by CBC's Dean Beeby – the list goes on and on.

"The CAJ has a strong history of offering conferences where professional development is a priority – particularly in an era where the amount of in-house training has dropped and the budgets to support external training have dried up," CAJ president Hugo Rodrigues said. "We're proud to continue to offer the lowest conference rates in Canada – making this top-notch training as accessible as we can to working journalists."

Rates for the conference — unchanged since 2012 — start at $239 plus HST for CAJ members for the full weekend, including a ticket to the awards gala. Student member rates start at $75, with single-day registration starting at $100. These rates will go up on May 26 – that's tomorrow!

All this information along with a link to our online registration site is posted on the main #CAJ15 page of our website. The conference program and information on our presenters, panelists and workshop leaders are also available through our website.

The CAJ is Canada's largest national professional organization for journalists from all media, representing over 600 members across the country. The CAJ's primary roles are to provide public-interest advocacy and high-quality professional development for its members.

SOURCE Canadian Association of Journalists

Hugo Rodrigues, CAJ president, 613-330-8396 cell, [email protected]; Conference co-chair Nick Taylor-Vaisey, [email protected]; Conference co-chair Paul Schneidereit, [email protected]; Registration questions can be sent to: [email protected]; www.caj.ca/caj15 | www.facebook.com/CdnAssocJournalists | www.twitter.com/CAJ