As the Online News Association annual conference unfolded last weekend, my coworkers and I were eagerly watching and griping at the same time. It would have been awesome to be there.

As tightly scheduled, financially struggling journalists, these big industry conferences seem more and more out of reach to attend but they also offer the greatest payoff in an industry where networking and skill sharpening is nearly the only way to stay afloat.

Lori Todd and I coauthored a blog post about how the expensive cost associated with these beneficial industry events ends up hurting several areas of our business in the long run, in ways that industry leaders may or may not realize. A tidbit:

Expensive conferences put out-of-work journalists at an even greater disadvantage. Attending industry events and keeping skill sets up-to-date are all we can rely on to market ourselves in a suddenly flooded field of applicants. Attending a conference is resume material. Following a conference online is not.

The rest of the post is over at Lori Todd’s blog. We’d love to hear feedback on other ways or ideas to establish more affordable training and networking opportunities that don’t necessarily involve staying connected through social media. Another 10,000 Words post from Mark Luckie stresses the importance of real-life relationships. I couldn’t agree more, I just wish they were more affordable.

Find us on Twitter: @malcolli, @loritodd. Let’s strike up a conversation.

You already know me. Lori Todd graduated in 2006 from the University of Miami and has worked at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Austin American-Statesman before returning to the Miami Herald as a news page designer in September 2008.

We know it’s been about two months since our first #HeraldTweetup (which totally rocked because of all of you lovely people) and South Florida is getting antsy. In case you haven’t heard, we’ve set a date, so you should save it! Set a reminder alert on your cell phone and RSVP on our twtvite for Thursday, Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. at Crazy Pianos (@CrazyPianosMIA) in Coconut Grove. The Miami Herald staff of reporters, bloggers, designers, editors, producers and tweeters are looking forward to happy hour with our followers on Twitter.

We ask that you RSVP so we can get an estimate of how many people to expect. We will be announcing some very exciting events that the Herald is planning and there will be plenty of people on hand to demo our new Dolphins ‘09 iPhone app if you want to check it out (come find me or @loritodd and we’ll show it off).  Hope to see you there!

Just a quick note to share this article from New Times Broward-Palm Beach about my stomach-testing experience on a pizza crawl with one of my favorite buddies, who also happens to be THE pizza celebrity of South Florida.

I took a mini pizza tour with John Linn, who wrote the article, and Craig Lapp (his alias) of WorstPizza.com.

I’d go into more detail but Linn summed it up better than I ever could:

Mallory’s Hawaiian was completely off-base, with huge chunks of pineapple and undercooked, cheap-tasting ham. (The later surprised me because I had previously enjoyed La Fontana’s salumi, including speck, a smoked, cured Italian ham.)  …read the rest

Had a blast, stuffed myself silly, got to eat a pizza that isn’t on the restaurant’s menu and only made for Lapp and got a mention in the article. What can I say. It’s pays to be pizza expert!

The power of Twitter shined bright again yesterday as I sat in the conference room at Burson-Marsteller PR on Brickell Key, surrounded by about 15 public-relations minds that were ready to pick my brain apart.

I was scouted on Twitter by Felix Leander (@fleander), the lead digital strategist for their Latin American division, to come and take part in B-M’s NewsFeed program, coordinated by Senior Associate Bradley Gerber (@bradleygerber).  About four times a year the company brings in journalists from all backgrounds to give a little inside scoop about the nature of the current state of business.

They’ve welcomed guests in the past who have given the company insight into the online realm of media like Joachim Bamrud from LatinBusinessChronicle.com. In keeping up with the ever-changing landscape, B-M wanted a glimpse at how journalists are using social networks like Twitter and Facebook in their day-to-day work routine.

I couldn’t help feeling nervous. This was the biggest interrogation I’d ever been the target of.

But I’ve got to hand it to them. I was met with some fantastic questions that not only gave them a peek into the duties of an online producer in the media world but I learned a ton about my job’s importance to public relations associates. Who knew that there actually ARE people up at 3:30 in the morning waiting to see the stories from the morning’s print edition go live on the Web? Now I know better.

We discussed everything from an average day at work for me, to the strategies I use when I tweet for @MiamiHerald, to the guidelines we give ourselves for moderating comments on our stories.  All completely relevant to PR folks who are keeping a watchful eye on what the media are saying about their clients.

Most of the associates had joined Twitter but were nervous about the inevitable first-tweet and still hadn’t sent it. This is an issue I hear all the time, even among my personal friends who have yet to succumb to the grips of Twitter addiction. I used to not understand it, but the more I realized that PR people are the epitome of what representation means, I laid off a bit. Their personal image IS the image of their clients. The disconnect is fuzzier so I can see the apprehension.

One of the strongest points we touched on to counteract first-tweet-phobia is to approach your tweeps as if you are already buddies, putting business tweets on the back burner until you can garner some real personal connections with fellow users. There ARE things to tweet about other than business (I like to tweet about music, our garden, my niece and nephew, South Florida) and the Twittersphere is much more likely to embrace newbies who don’t start out by blasting us with what they do for a living. Once I get to know you, I’m more likely to care about your line of work because it is important to you. In this case, PR.

There are plenty of PR associates who use Twitter successfully from personal accounts without saying anything that would harm the image of their clients.  Toby Srebnik (@FSUToby) and Heather Whaling (@PRtini) are some great examples from Florida, check them out. If you know of others please add them to the comments.

So don’t be scared to tweet, PR peeps. Just don’t scare me away with a pitch stream either.

Big, giant, huge, monstrous thanks for the opportunity to learn and discuss with smart minds at B-M.  I hope to see all of you at our next Herald Tweetup!

P.S. I just thought this was too cool. My picture on their digital welcome sign!

All I can really say is “Wow.” When the idea to host a tweetup had been thrown around months ago between @loritodd, @Heraldsports and I after I attended the @Sun Sentinel’s first #SoFlaTweetup, we were slow getting started but once the ball started rolling it only took two weeks to see the RSVP list on our twtvite explode.

We were slightly nervous about the attendance, hoping the casual nature of tweetups didn’t result in too many last-minute “I’m-so-swamped, can’t-make-it” replies. But Miami, boy did you deliver. The Miami Herald staff was thrilled to have been able to socialize and meet you all face-to-face, the people behind the voices in our paper and online and the readers who’ve stuck with us through challenging times.

You blew us away by making #HeraldTweetup such a fantastic success.

Most of the other tweetups (RefreshMiami, BarCampMiami) and meetups I’ve attended in Miami have been tech-based, chock-full of geeks and developers, iPhone geniuses and Web designers. The community is flourishing and it’s exciting that the barriers to hang and mingle with these sharp minds are few.  After a while though for us media folks it feels a little over our heads. I’m a tech-groupie, but I can’t talk serious shop with the talented geeks in Miami.

We hope to continue to host tweetups in the future as a vehicle for community interaction, uniting readers from all professions and backgrounds, and hopefully with changes in venue more readers from the tri-county area.

From our estimates about 150 of you fine folk were kind enough to spend your Tuesday night with us at Tobacco Road. You braved the heat, mosquitoes and a standing-room-only setup and for that we cannot thank you enough.

Please, please, please let us know if you have suggestions for future venues or ideas on what we can do to make these continually fun for all of you. Check out The Miami Herald’s South Florida Twitter Directory for more fun peeps to follow and keep checking it regularly, as the list will always be getting new names.

If you have photos from the event, we’d love it if you added them to our Flickr pool (thanks @loritodd!) and keep your eyes peeled for an event video on its way. We’ll tweet it at you.

Here are some of the shots from last night:

What bloggers are saying:

Carlos Miller on old media organizations with new media tricks

Miami Herald Tweetup at Tobacco Road – @ GoLiveMiami.com

Miami Herald Tweetup Round-up! -  @ holy crap my hair is on fire