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Freelancing in the Media
TRUE STORIES OF TRIUMPH & TRIBULATION
» Thursday 6 November 2008 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing people and ideas featured in Okanagan ARTS. Join us as Leanne Allen, Karin Wilson and Robert MacDonald explore the role of freelancers in the constantly-changing modern broadcasting and publishing landscape.
» This is a free event. Refreshments will be available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE
Creative Insiders Compare Survival Strategies
There's a scene at the beginning of the movie The Incredibles where Elastigirl suggests to her future husband that he should be more "flexible". If ever there was a metaphor for surviving in the Okanagan media landscape, flexible would certainly cover it.
This week, the Okanagan Institute's Express series reaches into the media world with a look at how local media players have flexed their creative thinking muscles to keep themselves vibrant players in an industry that sometimes appears to be all locked up.
The Okanagan Institute Express series continues its creative explorations, presenting Freelancing in the Media: True Stories of Triumph and Tribulation. The event takes place Thursday, November 6 at 5 pm at the Bohemian Café. Featured at the event are three high-profile self-employed media people who have watched their work morph and change in reaction to a media world continually hungry for something new.
 Leanne Allen is the former publisher and editor of Off-Centre Magazine, the only urban, independent magazine in the Southern Interior targeting the 20-45 demographic. A brazen risk-taker, Allen launched the magazine with a whopping four-pages that quickly grew to become the region's answer to the Georgia Strait tackling local issues with an edge. Along the way, Allen expanded her media vision with a foray into creating live television under the banner Off-Centre Omnimedia. Since the sale of her magazine last fall, has been working on a pilot project Citizen Jane for CBC Radio along with her sister. A creative entrepreneur, Leanne blames her Bachelor's degree in English on Margaret Atwood.
 Karin Wilson has worked in the Okanagan media since she arrived in Penticton in 2002. She started out as a news reporter and columnist for the local daily news covering courts, crime and aboriginal affairs. After the birth of her daughter, she migrated into new media and broadcasting, working for Bridges.com in Kelowna and then for CBC Radio. Most recently she added magazine writing to her repertoire working for Okanagan Arts, Okanagan Home, and Okanagan Life, along with freelancing for the Vancouver Sun, all while balancing her role as Associate Director of the Okanagan Institute and organizing and hosting the weekly Thursday Express series.
 Robert MacDonald is another media sojourner who has taken the path from graphic design, advertising and marketing into magazine and book publishing. MacDonald was the Director of the Publishing Workshops at the University of Toronto and the Banff Centre for fifteen years, and a founder of the Canadian Periodical Publishers Association and the Graphic Arts in the Public Service Foundation. He has been involved in the launch and repositioning of numerous magazines, and several book publishing companies. He is the publisher, editor and designer of Okanagan Arts and Okanagan Home magazines, and consults with media and technology companies, universities and associations in Canada and the US.
Freelancing in the Media: True Stories of Triumph and Tribulation is a free event, and takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 65th event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007. Since that time, the series has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet and professor John Lent, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, architect Jim Meiklejohn, broadcaster Mari0n Barschel and others from a wide range of creative fields.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE
Where Enquiring Minds Gather. Okanagan Institute at the Bohemian Café A hearty feast of lectures, presentations, workshops and showcases celebrating our culture and community. Produced by the Okanagan Institute in association with Wheat King Publishing magazines: Okanagan Arts and Okanagan Home. Express is sponsored in part by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan, Wood Lake Publishing, UBCO-FCCS, and in support of Project Literacy Kelowna.
The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that have gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.
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