West Coast Workshop & 2019 NPPA News Video Awards
The first ever West Coast Workshop and 2019 NPPA Video Awards are June 1, 2019 in San Diego! Come for a weekend of inspirational presentations, meetings, and fun. This conference is for professionals, veterans and rookies, and students looking to improve their use of video. Then head over to Stone Brewing, one of San Diego’s greatest breweries, for dinner and drinks to see who is crowned by NPPA judges as the 2019 Ernie Crisp Photojournalist of the Year, Editor of the Year, Stations of the Year, and Reporter of the Year.
The weekend starts with Meet-and-Greet Karaoke Friday night, May 31. Point Loma Nazarene University, NBC7, and Telemundo 20 will host the WCW Saturday, June 1 at PLNU’s Crill Performance Hall. The 2019 NPPA Video Awards sponsored by Sony will be at Stone Brewing in Liberty Station Saturday night. The WCW will conclude Sunday morning, June 2 with small group sessions at NBC7 and Telemundo 20.
You can also watch the 2019 NPPA Video Awards sponsored by Sony LIVE on NBC7.com Saturday night. Just click the BLUE.
NBC7 and Telemundo 20 are also awarding two scholarships at the WCW! One student and one active duty military service member or veteran will receive a $500 scholarship to be applied towards future NPPA workshops.
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for speaker announcements and updates.
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/WestCoastWorkshop
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/WCWSD2019
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/WCWSD2019/
Registration is CLOSED
Travel Details
West Coast Workshop Saturday
Crill Performance Hall, Point Loma Nazarene University
3900 Lomaland Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
West Coast Workshop Parking
Parking Structure, Point Loma Nazarene University
3900 Lomaland Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
2019 NPPA Video Awards sponsored by Sony
Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens
https://www.stonebrewing.com/visit/bistros/liberty-station
2816 Historic Decatur Road
Unit 116
San Diego, CA 92106
West Coast Workshop Sunday (must make appointment)
NBC 7 & Telemundo 20
9680 Granite Ridge Drive
San Diego, CA 92123
West Coast Workshop Sunday Parking
The lot DIRECTLY ACROSS THE STREET from NBC7
9665 Granite Ridge Drive
San Diego, CA 92106
Airport
San Diego International Airport
https://www.san-diego-airport.com
Transportation
Uber, Lyft, and taxis are available
Your hotel may have a shuttle
San Diego Trolley
https://www.sdmts.com/schedules-real-time-maps-and-routes/trolley
Event Schedule
Meet-n-Greet Karaoke Hosted by Karaoke Superstar Eric Sander
May 31, 2019, 7:00 PM
The Hole in the Wall
https://theholesandiego.com
2820 Lytton Street
San Diego, CA 92110
Let’s get together Friday night, toast each other, and sing a few songs in one of San Diego’s bars off-the-beaten-path. Eric Sander, one of the karaoke world’s great photographers will be your Host and MC. This is not mandatory. You must be 21 or older and there is no cover charge. Drinks and food are on your own. The (bad) entertainment is free.
West Coast Workshop Saturday
June 1, 2019, 8:00 AM
Crill Performance Hall, Point Loma Nazarene University
8:00-8:50 – REGISTRATION & BREAKFAST SPONSORED BY 10News
9:00-9:10 – INTRODUCTION
9:10-10:00 – Lisa Berglund
10:10-11:00 – Greg Bledsoe
11:10-12:00 – Joe Little
12:00-1:30 – LUNCH & BREAKOUT SESSIONS SPONSORED BY The Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation
1:30-2:20 – Noelle Walker & Ryan Oliveira
2:30-3:20 – John Larson
3:30-4:20 – Miguel Almaguer
2019 NPPA Video Awards sponsored by Sony Saturday Night
June 1, 2019, 6:30 PM – 10:30 PM
Stone Brewing World Bistro & Gardens
West Coast Workshop Sunday (Optional)(PLEASE WEAR YOUR WCW BADGE/LANYARD)
June 2, 2019, 9:00 AM (Must Email joe.little@nbcuni.com to add name to security list)
NBC7 & Telemundo 20
9:00-10:30 – Guided Tour of NBC7 & Telemundo 20
9:00-10:30 – Meet the News Director: Greg Dawson, Vice President of News, NBC San Diego
9:00-10:30 – Meet the Chiefs: Steve Reusch, John Wilson, & Grant Hansen
9:30-10:30 – Joseph Huerta & Andy Wallace: Finding Inspiration Outside the Newsroom
9:00 – 10:30 – 30 Minute Schedules One-on-Ones (Please email joe.little@nbcuni.com to request/schedule)
Speakers
Miguel Almaguer is a National Correspondent for NBC News. Miguel is based in Los Angeles and travels globally for the network. He reports for all platforms of the news division including “NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt” and “Today.” Starting his career in Salinas, California for KSBW, Almaguer worked for KCRA in Sacramento and WRC in Washington, DC before joining the network in 2009.
An Edward R. Murrow award winner for his coverage of California’s Firestorms, Almaguer has several Emmy nominations ranging from contributions to political coverage to a series of reports on tsunami debris. A native of Berkeley, California and a graduate of San Francisco State University, Almaguer’s global coverage of world events has included countless major unfolding stories on several continents.
Specializing in breaking news, Almaguer has covered riots in Rio, hurricanes in Houston, typhoons in Taipei, flooding in Florida, the largest and most destructive wildfires in Colorado, California, and Arizona, mudslides in Oregon, major earthquakes in Ecuador, Haiti, Nepal, Mexico, and California, as well as covering the five deadliest mass shootings in U.S. History (Las Vegas, Orlando, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and Sutherland Springs). Almaguer has also been deployed to cover terror plots and attacks around the world.
John Larson
As a correspondent for NBC and PBS, John Larson’s work has been among the most widely acclaimed in the industry. In 2014, he won the National Emmy for Investigative Reporting for his investigation of immigrant deaths. His investigations of the US Border Patrol resulted in two federal grand jury investigations, a call for action from the United Nations, and a change in US Border Patrol policy. He was recently nominated for “Best Writer” for “Flying Coach” – his series about people he sits next to on airplanes.
Of Larson’s PBS series on “Main Street America” Bill Moyer’s said, “Such focused journalism puts the networks to shame.”
A woman from California once watched a story Larson produced about micro lending, and wrote a check for a million dollars.
Larson has won multiple Peabody’s, and four DuPont Columbia Awards – arguably broadcasting’s Pulitzer Prize – for investigations of the insurance industry, racial profiling, Mexican drug cartels in California, and coverage of Hurricane Katrina.
As West Coast Correspondent for Dateline NBC beginning in 1994, Larson excelled in investigative, breaking and feature reporting for NBC News. “Paper Chase,” his investigation of the insurance industry remains one of the most honored broadcasts in broadcast journalism history.
Larson is also a much sought after speaker, teacher and motivator. In 2009, he began working as a special correspondent for PBS, and consulting for media companies. He co-authored “Television Field Production and Reporting” – one of the most widely distributed broadcast journalism textbooks in the country.
His career has taken him to the corners of the world: to investigate the sinking of a ferry in Indonesia, a 5-year-old Buddhist Monk in Nepal, corrupt police in Mexico City, a terrorist attack in Central Africa, snake handlers in Appalachia. He is especially drawn to personal stories, and their ability to draw us together.
John began his career in Anchorage, Alaska, at one of the smallest TV stations in the nation. He calls that experience, “the greatest break of my career.” John lives with his wife and son in San Diego California.
Greg Bledsoe is a two time NPPA Solo Video Journalist of the Year, and 23 time emmy winner for writing, editing, reporting and photography. He currently anchors weekday mornings for NBC in San Diego.
Greg grew up in Denver admiring and learning from the storytelling at KUSA where he eventually interned before graduating from the University of Colorado’s school of journalism. He later completed the Mississippi State Broadcast meteorology program for a brief stint in weather before landing on the anchor desk in 2016.
While he spends most of his time on the desk these days, Bledsoe still shoots, writes and edits the weekly Your Corner series for NBC 7 News Today featuring interesting and inspiring people around San Diego.
“The best storytellers are our subjects themselves,” he says. “My goal is simply to help them tell their own stories.”
Greg lives in downtown San Diego with his wife and their two young children.
Drop Greg a line: greg.bledsoe@nbcuni.com
Or find him often on Instagram @bledsoe.nbc
Noelle Walker
I was telling stories long before I remember doing it. When my sister and I cleared out the attic of our childhood home years ago, we found a portfolio with my name on the outside and “reporter” notebooks — actual reporter notebooks — inside. The pages had notes and stories about our neighborhood and friends, all written in my unsteady childhood handwriting. I was either going to grow up to be your nosey neighbor, or a news reporter.
I’ve been a reporter at KXAS-TV, the NBC O&O in Dallas since 2016. Before that, I freelanced for NBC Network, and worked at stations in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Santa Barbara. My first job was at KMIZ-TV in Columbia, MO as a weekend weather anchor/reporter. In my interview, I told the News Director, “The only thing I know about weather is if there are clouds, it might rain.” She asked if I could talk without a script. I could. I leave the weather forecasting to the professionals now.
I feel fortunate to have picked up a few awards for writing and reporting along the way. You donʼt see them on air or hear their names, but the photographers I work with are a big part of those awards. Storytelling is a team sport.
They say if you love what you do, youʼll never work a day in your life. By that standard, Iʼve never really worked.
Ryan Oliveira is returning to California to talk about teamwork with reporter Noelle Walker. Ryan has been shooting stories from California to Nevada and now in Texas since he was a senior in high school.
17 years later, Ryan is an award winning photojournalist at 2019 Station of the Year finalist KXAS in Dallas, Texas. He has been named a regional Photographer of the Year multiple times, he’s been awarded eight Emmys, and he was a finalist for the coveted NPPA Ernie Crisp Photographer of the Year in 2009.
Joe Little is an MMJ and the Director of Storytelling at NBC7 in San Diego, CA. He also travels the country with his Garden Gnome teaching his strategies for better storytelling, on-camera performances, and time management.
Joe has been awarded 12 individual Emmys and was a finalist for the NPPA’s Photojournalism Award for Reporting in 2017. His creative stories have taken viewers as far away as Pakistan; to a story completely contained inside a dumpster.
Joe’s mantra: “If your ship doesn’t come in, swim out to it.”
It has served him well since 1999 as he zigzagged across the country as a television news reporter and anchor with stops in Hagerstown, Maryland; Johnstown, Pennsylvania; San Diego and Carlsbad, California. Joe has taught journalists and students from around the world how to improve their visual storytelling. He joined the faculty at the NPPA News Video Workshop in Norman, Oklahoma in 2013. Coincidentally, that was also the last year Joe used a stick mic.
His coverage of the 9/11 attacks is among Joe’s greatest accomplishments. He was four miles away from Shanksville, Pennsylvania when United Flight 93 crashed. Joe was one of the first reporters on the scene. His accounts are included in a book called Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report on 9/11. Joe’s expertise has also been included in a number of journalism textbooks.
Joe received his Masters from Syracuse University in 1999. But he credits George Mason University with building a strong foundation for his career. In 1998, he earned his BA in Speech Communication. While at Mason, Joe was a proud member of the Men’s Basketball Team (Career Totals: 2 points, 3 rebounds). In 2010, the Department of Communication and the College of Humanities & Social Sciences named Joe the Alumnus of the Year.
The father of two amazing sons is engaged to fellow NBC7 Reporter Audra Stafford.
Questions
Please contact Joe Little at joe.little@nbcuni.com