ACES conference

Now is the time to register for the ACES conference, April 21-23 in Hollywood.

They've extended the early registration deadline to Feb. 8, so you have a little over a week to scrape $150 together (if you're a member, $325 if you're not). After that, it goes up to $210.

Why should you go?

First, some of my favorite people in copy editing will be presenting. There's:

* Phil Blanchard, Washington Post copy editor and Testy Copy Editor No. 1: "Listen Up"
* William G. Connolly, New York Times styleguide co-author: "Jimmy's World: How a Copy Editor Could Have Averted Disaster"
* Alex Cruden, chief of copy desks at the Detroit Free Press: "First Reader, Second Reader: An Approach to Organizing the Copy Desk"
* Craig Lancaster, executive sports editor of the San Jose Mercury News: "Getting Into the Game: How to Elevate Your Sports Report"
* John McIntyre, ACES president and AME for copy desks at the Baltimore Sun: "Making the Copy Desk a Force"
* Merrill Perlman, director of copy desks at the New York Times: "If I Only Knew"
* David Sullivan, AME for copy desks at the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Survival Strategies for Copy Desks"
* Bill Walsh, "Elephants of Style" author and copy chief of the Washington Post's national desk: "Rules That Aren't Rules"
* Chris Wienandt, business copy chief at the Dallas Morning News: "The Scalpel and the Cavalry Sabre: Methods of Cutting Texts"

Second, I'll be there for the first time! It would be great to meet some of you who are familiar to me only online. And, really, what better place than the ACES conference?

Third, I'll be presenting a session on blogging with Doug Fisher of the University of South Carolina.

So ... plan on attending. Here is a tentative schedule. Here is the conference page from ACES.