MediaFest25 Convention Director Michael Koretzky (photo by Bob Butler)
Complicated is the first word MediaFest 25 Convention Director Michael Koretzky used to describe this year’s event. Three partner organizations are hosting the convention: Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP) and College Media Association (CMA).
“It’s kinda like asking three friends where they want to go for dinner. You’re not going very far, very fast,” said Koretzky. “The moving parts, the more organizations, it’s kinda like an oil tanker trying to execute a three-point turn. It’ll happen, but it won’t be graceful, and it won’t be quick.”
Typically, ACP and CMA host a joint conference every fall, and SPJ decided to join the convention this year for the second time. Koretzky is the volunteer convention director for SPJ and has executed CMA’s spring and fall conventions, so he was hired separately by CMA for Mediafest 25.
After many years of conventions, Koretzky’s advice to attendees is simple.
Convention Director Michael Koretzky greets an old friend at MediaFest25 (photo by Bob Butler)
“If the session is boring, you walk out,” Koretzky said. “None of these people are getting paid to present a session, and they don’t get a commission. If anything, it tells them they’re going to have to change the way you do things,” he said. “The presenters are journalists at our conventions, most of them, and they need to learn that lesson.”
The way some speakers introduce themselves is a red flag to Koretzky.
“As convention director, one thing that makes my butt pucker are the sessions that start off with ‘well, let me tell you about my career,’” Koretzky said. “Who cares?”
Koretzky, who describes his current role at Debt.com as a “boring business editor,” thinks it is important for students and professional journalists to mingle. He says most college journalists will not end up in newsrooms because there are not a lot of jobs, but professional journalists should hear their perspective.
“Students want to do journalism,” Koretzky said. “They [also] want to commit acts of journalism in other industries. I think it’s good for professional journalists to actually see and hear from the next generation of journalists that may not work in a newsroom.”
His biggest frustration at conventions is when attendees do not make an effort to talk to one another.
Convention director Michael Koretzky stops by SPJ News (photo by Bob Butler)
“Journalists talk to people for a living, but they will not talk to each other at a convention,” Koretzky said. “The journalists walk in and look around the room, they find someone they know, and then they make fun of whatever everyone else is wearing. They don’t talk to each other.”
Professional newspapers and college organizations spend a lot of money sending members to conventions hoping they bring back a laundry list of new action items for their teams, but Koretzky said that type of information can be done via Zoom.
“I think the one thing that’s most valuable, at least from a student’s end, is just seeing other students for emotional support,” Koretzky said. “Not the professional support, not the sessions that are going to teach you like, copy editing or how to frame a photo. [The] real importance is talking to people directly and hopefully talking to other students.”
His favorite moments from previous conventions are rooted in the interactions between journalists, which are impossible to replicate. One time during a midnight snack gathering, he overheard a student editor stressed about her responsibilities.
“It’s the first time you’ve really been in charge of something,” Koretzky said. “One mistake represents like one fifteenth of your entire leadership experience, which can suck. But it’s really not a big deal. And sometimes you just need to hear from somebody directly looking you in the eye and saying, ‘It’s okay.’”
Tagged under: ACP, CMA, Mediafest 25, SPJ, SPJNews25, mediafest25, michael koretsky