It's not always easy to get away for a convention, but those who have made it know it was worth the trip.

Learning new and better ways to edit, design and work with people is part of conventions, but another part are meeting people who go through the same troubles and how they survive.

There is something for everyone at a convention.

Here's what a few people had to say about past conventions with a few ideas for the future tossed in for good measure.

Neil Pascale
The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)

I attended my first national convention last year in Dallas and came away with numerous ideas. We wound up redesigning our prep football preview coverage thanks to some inspirations at the APSE Best Ideas seminar.

I also attended a great writing conference on the importance of clarity in writing. A simple subject that simply is often forgotten. So I came back and led a discussion on some of the principles that were discussed. (I've also pledged to revisit that issue this summer in further discussions with my staff.)

What would I like to see added to the convention? Probably more in-depth analysis of our own sections. I actually sought two people out to help me get different thoughts on our product. And both were extremely helpful and insightful.

Mark Conley
Santa Cruz (Calif.) County Sentinel

The best thing for me about the two conferences I've been to has just been meeting people who know my pain.

I've learned that everyone's in the same boat, relatively speaking: too much to do, too few qualified bodies to do it; quirky managements that often don't understand our little world; prima donna writers; too little space; too many people who don't know what a stylebook is. And on and on and on.

Through those I've met at APSE, I've also received some great leads on hires and now have great people to bounce ideas and questions off — as well as commiserate with.

As for changes or additions ... maybe hold the thing in Vegas. (Oh, that's already a done deal. Cool.) Seriously, I was surprised at the efforts made to accommodate the smaller papers that attend. I just hope APSE continues that outreach and continues to keep the little guys' needs in mind when formulating session topics.

Charles Bingham
Juneau (Alaska) Empire

The Juneau Empire is a small six-day-a-week paper (no Saturday edition) with a circulation of about 7,500 to 8,000.

Developing something like the Flying Short Course — a series of about five to eight regional seminars — might help a lot of us from smaller papers who either can't afford to go from Alaska to Philadelphia to the APSE convention because of cost or time off work.

I have a two-person staff, and there's rarely a chance I can leave on a Friday or Saturday to attend a convention. Most of our main sports stuff takes place on those days, and I need the manpower. My days off tend to be early in the week, so holding the convention or a regional seminar on those days works better for a lot of us small-paper folks.

The only APSE convention I've been able to attend was the 1992 event in San Francisco, and the reason I went to that one was because the Anchorage Times had just folded and I was looking for work (I stayed at the YMCA, not the Embarcadero where the convention took place). Even though I've wanted to go to another convention, attending one means I have to use at least 10 days of vacation time to get there and I usually have to fund my own trip.