The Western Washington Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) is once again offering an outstanding Continuing Education Series. The sessions are open to members and nonmembers, and will cover a variety of topics, from building community online, to taking professional quality photos with your phone, food blogging and more.

All sessions of the Continuing Education Series will be held from 7 to 9 p.m. at Fisher Plaza, 140 Fourth Ave. N., Seattle. Admission is free for members and $10 for nonmembers.  Payments of cash or check will be collected at the door.  Credit cards will not be accepted.  Pizza will be provided.

This eventbrite event is being used only for RSVP purposes, we will collect payment from non-members at the door (cash and check only).

Please RSVP for any of the sessions you plan to attend so we know how many to expect (and how much food to order)

The full schedule for SPJ’s Continuing Education Series is as follows:

01/09/2012, Building Community in the Digital Age
You’ve got a successful website or blog, now how do you get your readers to engage with your content and each other? Learn how to build community in the digital age with Tracy Record of West Seattle Blog, Amy Duncan of My Green Lake and Breaking News and KING 5’s Evonne Benedict. Moderated by Monica Guzman of GeekWire.

01/23/2012 Photos for Phones

Want to take great pictures but don't have a bulky, expensive SLR camera? Learn how to take impactful news photos with your mobile phone from award-winning Seattlepi.com photographer (and phonographer) Josh Trujillo.

01/30/2012 Writing for SEO
Search Engine Optimization: What it is, who does it well (and not so well) and how to make it work for you. Whether you’re a blogger, freelancer, journalism professor or newsroom reporter, everyone has to know about keywords, metadata and headlines that grab the attention of Google bots and humans alike. Learn tricks of the trade, ask those questions you've been afraid to ask and compete in headline writing contests with online journalists from about town in this hands-on session.

02/06/2012 Beyond Journalism
From researching, reporting and interviewing to writing, tech know-how and critical thinking skills, journalists make great employees in just about any communications job. And in this shifting ecomony many of us are moving in that direction. So how do you leverage your years in the news room in a new job market? What can journalists bring to public relations firms, tech start-ups and nonprofits (and what should we leave behind)? What are employers looking for and how do you adjust to a new career? Join us for a panel discussion with journalists in our region that have answered those questions for themselves. This session also includes one-on-one career change counseling.

02/13/2012 Going Deeper than Google
Bring your laptop and four media professionals will show you how to get the information you need through the web. A hands-on session that takes you beyond simple searches. Scheduled presenters include Kellie Cheadle, KING-TV; Kathy Gill, University of Washington; Cheryl Phillips, The Seattle Times; Matt Rosenberg, Public Data Ferret.

02/27/2012 Food Blogging an International City
Seattle is a city full of flavor. Join food bloggers Keren Brown (Frantic Foodie, frantic foodie.com and author of “Food Lover’s Guide to Seattle) and Jess Thomson (Hogwash, jessthomson.wordpress.com and author of “Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts: Secrets and Recipes for the Home Baker”) in a discussion about how they got started and where they’re going in blogging and beyond. Learn how to discover your niche, build an audience and how to turn your passion into profits. Moderated by Ethan Chung of 425 and South Sound magazines.  

As the largest journalism organization in the United States, the Society of Professional Journalists is dedicated to the perpetuation of a free press, promoting the free flow of information and providing information to the public in an accurate, comprehensive, timely and understandable manner. SPJ also offers continuing education, ethics and diversity training and relevant programs for journalists and the public it serves.

For more information about SPJ, visit spjwash.org.

For more information about SPJ’s Continuing Education Series, contact ethan@premiermedia.net.