Austin, TX 2005

The Austin conference, hosted by The University of Texas at Austin, brought hundreds of SEJ'ers together September 28-October 2 for a mix of entertainment, education, soul-searching and tributes. The conference, SEJ's 15th, provided an opportunity to remember SEJ legend Kevin Carmody, and to comfort reporters caught in hurricanes this year. It was a chance to sample an incredible array of live music, from salsa to blues to country, and to hear presentations ranging from Molly Ivins' salty monologue about politicians she considered under-performers to energy views from top oil company executives, including Lynn Laverty Elsenhans, Executive Vice President of Global Manufacturing, Shell Downstream, to Bill Moyers' thoughts on the future of environmental journalism. Winners of SEJ's fourth annual Awards for Reporting on the Environment were announced. This year's Stolberg Award went to Denny Wilkins, the SEJournal workhorse who has copyedited SEJ material for free, for years. Field trips included the aerial parade bats in downtown Austin and the sights and sounds of the Alamo and Riverwalk in San Antonio, and many more. The conference wrapped up with a memorial service for Carmody, an SEJ leader from the start, who died earlier this year.

Conference host / co-chairs: The University of Texas at Austin / Dina Cappiello and Randy Lee Loftis

MP3 audio files and transcripts: 

• Molly Ivins' welcome-to-Texas talk (MP3/17.7MB)
  Wednesday, September 28, Opening Reception at the Driskill Hotel
• "Is Journalism — Environmental or Otherwise — a Dying Idea?" Part I (MP3/11.4MB). Part II (MP3/11.1MB).
  Friday, September 30, Opening Plenary
• Session with Congressman Pombo (MP3/16.6MB)
  Saturday, October 1, Concurrent Sessions 4, THE LAW: What's in a Name? Updates on Clear Skies, Healthy Forests and Others
• Audio file of Bill Moyers' talk (MP3/17.0MB)
  Saturday, October 1, Lunch and Keynote Address
  • Transcript of Bill Moyers' talk (PDF/requires free Adobe Acrobat ® reader)
    Important: To preserve the integrity of this talk as it was originally delivered to SEJ's conference and formatted for publication October 6, 2005, by Bill Moyers, SEJ asks those wishing to share it with others to observe the following protocols:
    To pass along the talk in its entirety through the Internet, please link to it here on www.sej.org at http://www.sejarchive.org/confer/austin/PenguinsandthePoliticsofDenial.pdf. To arrange for printed publication (entire talk or excerpts), please contact Karen Kimball, submit text in writing for confirmation of its accuracy, and let Mr. Moyers know where and when you plan to print it.
• "Blogs, Feeds, Wikis, and Podcasts: What Are They, and Why Should Reporters Care?" (MP3/17.9MB)
  Saturday, October 1, Concurrent Sessions 3, THE COMPUTER LAB, presented by Amy Gahran

Web-savvy participants in SEJ's 15th annual conference in Austin have weighed in with (almost) instantaneous online reports and commentary about the five-day extravaganza. Check out Amy Gahran's conference blog; Dick Russell's firsthand account; and three articles in the October 2005 Environment Writer: Strong Start, Strong Finish ... and Strong In Between by Bud Ward, Wide-Ranging Advice Offered at SEJ Conference by Bill Dawson, and SEJ Austin Conference: Impressions by Bob Wyss. Bear in mind, though, that the views expressed on any of the above web sites are the individual authors' and do not reflect the position of SEJ or its members.

Check out the English-language agenda (or la agenda en Español); speaker bios (English and Spanish/Ingles y Español); photo gallery, and exhibitors and independent hospitality events. Please contact the SEJ office with any comments or questions you have about the conference.