CONVENTION KEYNOTE: GREG KOT

Since 1990, Greg Kot has been the music critic at the Chicago Tribune.

With his Chicago Sun-Times counterpart Jim DeRogatis, he cohosts Sound Opinions, "the world's only rock 'n' roll talk show," on radio (WBEZ-FM
91.5) and the Web (http://www.soundopinions.net).

Kot’s recent biography of Wilco, “Learning How to Die” (wilcobook.com) was acclaimed in publications ranging from Rolling Stone (4-star lead review) to the New York Times Book Review. Kot has contributed music criticism and journalism to numerous other books, including Encyclopedia Britannica, “Cash: By the Editors of Rolling Stone”; "The Trouser Press Guide to '90s Rock"; “The New Rolling Stone Album Guide,” and "Harrison: a Rolling Stone tribute to George Harrison." He has been a regular contributor to Rolling Stone since 1992, and has written for a dozen other national publications. He lives on Chicago's Northwest Side with his wife, two daughters and far too many records.

Kot's ICPA keynote address will provide a warts-and-all account of how
he got into journalism and landed his dream job at one of the biggest
daily newspapers in the world. He'll recount the best and worst of his
interviews with major artists, including Bono, Kanye West, Kurt Cobain,
Paul McCartney and Neil Young. And he'll reveal the mistakes and
pitfalls to avoid on your way to a writing career.

ICPA CONVENTION PROGRAM HIGHLIGHTS

A senior systems engineer with the Adobe Corp. will give a demonstration and answer questions about using InDesign for graphics.

The hoax played on The Daily Egyptian last year will be deconstructed by a panel of Egyptian editors, advisers and reporters. How can newspapers avoid running false information from a seemingly valid source (like the erroneous reports from the recent West Virginia mining accident)?

Updates on the controversial Hosty v. Carter case -- a ruling that impacts press freedom on all college campuses -- will be reviewed by legal experts and journalism professors.

The state of affairs for political cartoons in America today and how college newspapers can best utilize cartoons will be discussed by Scott Nychay, the award-winning editorial cartoonist for the Northwest Herald.

New (and returning) faculty advisers can get advice on staff recruitment and retention as well as general newsroom management from veteran adviser (and ICPA official) Jim Killam of Northern Illinois University.

Sessions for advertising, sports journalism, investigative reporting and writing in general are also in the works, along with the usual roundtables for editors and reporters.