The SNDCle workshop is off and running. The opening reception was held Thursday night in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, a stunning museum with tributes to the world’s great rock artists. See for yourself on our opening day Designers from around the world descended on Cleveland Thursday for the annual Society for News Design conference. This year’s conference, hosted by The Plain Dealer, started with some events Thursday, and the opening reception at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
We’ll be feeding our dispatches from Cleveland on sndlive.tumblr.com, so check it out. Also, follow the #sndcle tag on Twitter to stay updated.
In an effort to bring the workshop attendees together more often, we are announcing winners of SND’s major awards. This morning, SND33 Best of News Design coordinator Josh Crutchmer announced the World’s Best Designed newspapers and web site.
Read about the other World’s Best designed papers and website:
• Soren Nyland talks about how Politiken maintains its unique voice.
• Creativity and teamwork at The National Post, with managing editor Gayle Grin.
• Go behind the scenes at The Grid, with creative director Vanessa Wyse.
• Read an interview with Peter Breul, art director of Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
• Read an interview with Miranda Mulligan, formerly of the Globe, about BostonGlobe.com 2011 World’s Best Designed website. Read more here.
Before the workshop each year, the SND board holds one of its twice-a-year meetings. More than twenty board members gathered at the Cleveland Plain Dealer Wednesday, Oct. 10. Board members came from as far away as China, Argentina, UAE and California. Board members from England, France, India and Russia Skyped in.
The board’s job is to review SND’s direction, finances and endeavors, including workshops, competitions and publications. With the exception of our executive director Stephen Komives, it’s a board of tremendously devoted volunteers. They give their time and energy to try and bring the news design community together.
The focus of this fall’s meeting was education and training. Directors representing SND’s 21 regions hashed out a training plan for 2013 that will bring coding, video, mutlimedia, news design and creativity training all across the U.S. as well as to India, China and Lebanon. If you are interested in bringing SND training to your part of the world, reach out to your region director.
The board also talked about SND’s finances. In the last few years, the leaders of of the Society have built a lean, flexible organization, one that can navigate the challenging times we fave. Our workshops, office, competitions and publications are built to reach the most members with the smartest financial risk. We are also making a push to use technology in a much smarter way. The things that traditional drove SND are changing and SND is working hard to change with them.
Two actions the board took Wednesday to keep pushing forward are to establish a corporate rate so newsrooms can sign up to join SND and get the benefits of our discounted member training, book and network in a new way. Stay tuned for details. The board also approved a motion look for new ways to seek additional grant funding, something SND has done to a relative degree of success, but wants to do better.
