CI training session on international media coverage ...

CI is once again pleased to offer a training/lesson sharing session focusing on The international media & environment coverage and the challenges we face in getting our stories placed. This will be discussed as a give-and-take session with lots of questions and discussion of what works and what doesn't. This training session will be held on the 27th June, at the KRC seminar room, starting at 9am (8:30 for tea) and ending at 11:30

We are please to have as our host for this session, Mr. Tom Cohen, Conservation International's media relations Director who joined CI in February 2005 after 20 years as a professional journalist. Tom is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, with an undergraduate degree in English from Tufts University and a Master's in journalism from the University of Missouri. During graduate school, he worked as an intern for The Associated Press (AP), then joined the Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune as city government reporter in 1983. A year later, Tom joined AP as a reporter in St. Louis, and he was promoted to an editing post on the International Desk in New York in 1986. In 1990, Tom was assigned to the AP bureau in Johannesburg, where he spent eight years covering stories throughout sub-Saharan Africa including South Africa's first all-race election and Nelson Mandela's presidency, Mozambique's first democratic election, regional drought, Swaziland's pro-democracy movement, the fall of Mobutu Sese Seko in the former Zaire, a coup attempt in Burundi, and Somalia. He became news editor for southern Africa in 1994.

In 1998, Tom became the AP Central European correspondent based in Warsaw, from where he covered the Kosovo conflict and other regional stories. He was promoted to bureau chief for Canada in 1999 and spent four years writing news stories and features about the country before taking a sabbatical from AP in December 2003 to write and travel. Throughout his AP career, Tom also was assigned to cover major international sports events including the 1990 and 1998 soccer World Cup tournaments, and the 1996 and 2000 Summer Olympic Games. When the CI job became available, Tom decided to change from the neutral world of journalism to an advocacy role for protecting the Earth. Tom is married to Lesley Wroughton, a journalist for the Reuters news agency. His hobbies include wilderness canoeing, visiting African game parks, and playing ice hockey.

As you can see, Tom brings to us a wealth of experience as a communicator and I would like to stress that this session is open to anyone who is interested in communicating more effectively about their research, project or programme.

For logistical (and tea&coffee) purposes please confirm your attendance
with me by the 24th June.
I look forward to seeing you there.
Kind regards

Tessa Mildenhall
Communications Manager
Conservation International
S A Hotspots Programme
082 415 2902