Grab a drink from the bar (dutch treat) and join your SCPA friends and staff for networking before we head out for the evening's festivities!  

Group Dinner
The Silo at RJ Rockers

Located across the street from the Herald-Journal, The Silo at RJ Rockers offers a relaxed drinking and dining experience. Join SCPA staff for craft beer, Southern-inspired food and even a tour of this beloved local craft brewery. After dinner, guests can venture across the street to the AC Hotel’s rooftop bar or stick around RJ Rocker’s where the taproom will have live music and plenty of March Madness. 

Cost to attend: $30

Heritage Foyer, The Marriott

SCPA Business Meeting & Election of Officers
includes presentation on newsprint tariffs with Susan Rowell, President of NNA and Publisher of The Lancaster News 

Looking for a few story ideas you can start working on immediately? Tim Schmitt of GateHouse Media offers up creative ideas in a session that will be fast-paced. The presentation will include references to the original stories as well as some great techniques to help you execute these stories in any size newsroom.

Tim Schmitt has spent decades in various newsrooms — some print, and some broadcast. He was a sports reporter, news reporter, and then managing editor of his hometown paper, the Tonawanda (N.Y.) News, where he led an award-winning editorial page. He's worked as an editor, staffer or longtime contributor with the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff, the Mesa Tribune, the Arizona Republic, the alt-weekly Buffalo Current, and the Niagara Falls Gazette, where he was executive sports editor over four dailies — spearheading coverage of the Buffalo Bills and Sabres. He also worked as a weekend anchor and reporter at Buffalo's ABC-TV affiliate, WKBW, and was the news director of WLVL-AM in the Buffalo market, where he hosted a daily two-hour talk show covering local politics and current events. He moved to Austin to join GateHouse in early 2015. 

From how we can best serve our growing mobile audience to what to do about fickle Facebook, tune in to learn what you can actually do in these wild times to ensure your readers see your best work and engage with it.

As senior director of content, Jean Hodges develops strategy and works with newsroom leaders on digital transformation, from newsroom structure to using analytics to inform news decisions. As journalists face myriad challenges, the best are experimenting with new ways to draw readers in, while fearlessly tackling watchdog reporting and sticking up for the underdog. Hey, there's hope for us yet. 

Bill Church, a longtime editor and GateHouse Media's senior vice president of news, mixes zen thinking, data nibbling and Southern cooking into a how-to guide on resurrecting your newsroom. You'll come away completely stymied ... or invigorated. This is a how-to session filled with why-nots.

Bill Church is GateHouse Media's Senior Vice President of News. He is a two-time Pulitzer jurist and joined GateHouse in 2013 as the executive editor of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He recently served as southeast regional editor for GateHouse. Church was named GateHouse Media’s 2014 national Editor of the Year. The Herald-Tribune has won numerous national awards during his tenure, including a Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting in 2016. 

Following the Daily Awards Dinner, the Marriott's MESH bar and patio will stay open for celebratory cocktails. Or venture out into downtown Spartanburg, where there are several bars and restaurants within walking distance of The Marriott.