Top multimedia journalists and producers will headline our next two-day Visual Journalism Bootcamp on May 27 – 28 at the Langley Center for New Media in Langley, Wa., located on Whidbey Island and sponsored by Fusionspark Media Inc.

Featured speakers and presenters including Tom Kennedy, former WashingtonPost.com director of multimedia, Brian Storm, founder of MediaStorm.org, Los Angeles Times’ director of video Scott Anger, MSNBC’s interactive director Paige West, and more.

(NOTE: This program ran in May 2010; new dates are TBD)

Visual Journalism Bootcamp  – Langley, WA

Description / Program & Fees / Speaker Bios /

Check-in: 8 AM to 9 AM

Program: 9 AM to 4:30 PM (both days)

Networking Party: 5:30 to 7:30 PM, May 27

Venue Location: Whidbey Island Center for the Arts (WICA)

Map to Venue

The workshop, “Visual Journalism: Building a Sustainable Future for Multimedia Journalism and Communications,” is intended for journalists, photographers, film producers, writers, communications professionals and communications students and will focus on trends in new media storytelling, business and beijing job opportunities, and include a full-day hands on multimedia workshop run by Media Storm’s Brian Storm.

Day 1 Presentations:

Inspiring Hearts and Minds through Multimedia Storytelling

Keynote speaker Brian Storm, MediaStorm.org Founder, will offer an inspiring discussion of the state of visual journalism today, using projects from the MediaStorm portfolio to “reinforce why visual journalism will have a vital role in the future of journalism.”

Multimedia/Visual Journalism: Reshaping the Future of Communications

Tom Kennedy, former Director of Multimedia at WashingtonPost.com and consultant with Kennedy Multimedia, will discuss how society’s growing reliance on visual communications can reinvigorate visual journalism and multimedia storytelling.

“Looking forward, visual journalists will be empowered to create in-depth, emotionally inspiring work,” says Kennedy, “This storytelling will offer stories that create meaning and provide relevance to an audience, leading to a better-informed citizenry making the wisest possible choices.  Visual journalists embracing this model will find much greater job satisfaction while also being more creative.”

Storyteller Uprising: Surviving the Amateur Disruption as Trusted Communicator

Hanson Hosein, Director of the University of Washington’s Master of Communication in Digital Media and President of HRH Media Group will use his personal transformation from NBC News journalist to award-winning independent filmmaker as a model for how entrepreneurial visual storytellers can survive the noisy digital age.

“Twenty years ago, trust was associated with power and resources of a recognizable institution that benefitted from high barriers to entry.  Today, thanks to cheap media technologies, anyone is able to play in the communication space.  But this increase in voices has created confusion around who to trust.  This presents an excellent opportunity for skilled storytellers to lay the groundwork for an ongoing relationship of credible communication with a community — without institutional backing.  I will explain how I recovered from losing the benefit of my NBC affiliation by building my own personal brand through social technologies, convincing both story subjects and an international viewership that I could serve as a trusted storyteller.  Within this experience emerges a path ahead for the professional, independent media maker that I’d like to share.”

Evolving Skills and Business Models for Visual Journalism

Q Media Lab’s Tony Deifell, author of ‘The Big Thaw: Charting a New Future for Journalism,’ “I will draw upon my research and writing to provide context about how the landscape for visual journalism is changing, what new competencies will be required to work in this field and what new business models may emerge.”

Paying the Rent with Your New-Found Multimedia Skills

Dan Lamont, photographer and multimedia business consultant, will explain why visual journalists need to focus on reframing their business processes, approaches, and thinking.

Lamont says he’ll emphasize that “visual journalists have to be mindful, in a rapidly changing landscape, of what it takes to gain competitive advantage, keep doors open, work as part of multimedia teams and pay the rent.”

Collaborations to Cover the News and Our Communities

Leif Utne, VP of community development for Zanby.com, will describe how citizen journalism and social media “are giving rise to new forms of collaborative news coverage that make the professional journalist’s job easier and point the way to new revenue models for news.”

Seeding the Clouds: Instant Access to Multimedia Communications

John Gauntt, founder of Media-Dojo, a cloud computing and media consultancy, says that “next generation storytelling will directly bundle functionality and data with narrative.”

“The story will ‘behave’ differently, not just ‘display’ differently, depending on the given medium and context an audience chooses to engage with it,” says Gauntt, “and these new story forms will likely live on a computing cloud rather than a cable channel, a film reel or a print run. That’s why cloud computing matters to journalists.”

Using Interactives and Animations to Drive the Point Home

Paige West, Director of the Interactive Studio for MSNBC, will describe why graphics offer just as much potential as photos, audio, and video to tell a story.

“Data may tell a story that you aren’t able to capture effectively with your camera,” says Paige, “Interactive maps, calculators, or simulations may make a story personally relevant and immediately actionable to the user. During the Bootcamp, I’ll show examples of how interactive graphics and explain how to integrate these elements into a larger narrative.”

Exploring the New Frontier of Transmedia Storytelling

Brent Friedman, Writer/Producer with Electric Farm Entertainment (interview), will explain how Transmedia storytelling is helping Hollywood and corporate sponsors “spread” narratives across multiple platforms.

“I will show how this approach provides the documentary and journalistic storyteller with opportunities to reach new audiences, and develop new models for sponsorship and revenue creation that are new concepts to funding traditional journalism,” says Friedman.

Applying Visual Journalism Lessons to Corporate, Nonprofit and Government Communications

Russell Sparkman, CEO of Fusionspark Media and Founder of the Langley Center for New Media, will describe trends in business communications and marketing.

According to Sparkman, “emerging concepts such as ‘Content Marketing’ and audience perceptions of and attitudes about media are presenting visual journalists with new revenue opportunities through non-traditional channels, such as coporate, non-profit and government communications.”

Day 2 Workshop

Multimedia Storytelling Workshop with Brian Storm

Brian will lead an all-day multimedia workshop on multimedia storytelling approaches while engaging participants in discussion about the most appropriate ways to create a multimedia story.

Through real-world examples, Brian Storm will share tips and techniques to improve reporting and editing and discuss the most effective tools for specific jobs.

This workshop is designed for anyone interested in multimedia storytelling. No experience is necessary. We will be looking primarily at multimedia methodology and theory. This is not a workshop to learn how to use your new audio recorder. It’s a workshop where you will be asked to look deeper, into the when and why of different storytelling techniques and approaches.

Registrants for the workshop may sign up for one or both days. See description of fees below.

Our most recent “Content Strategy for New Media Success” workshop sold out. So don’t wait! There is limited space for this unique event.

Visual Journalism Bootcamp – May 27-28, 2010 – Langley, WA

Description / Program & Fees / Speaker Bios / Registration

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