Organised by Kent County Council and Medway Council, it involves using the web and other technologies to improve your area.

You can read more about it on Simon Wakeman’s blog. Simon is Head of Communications and Marketing for Medway Council.

Might be a perfect chance for the CfJ to plug an idea for a hyperlocal website which will incorporate any ideas raised at the event..?

Anyone want to come? If only to get a story for your portfolio…

Unfortunately this time, Little’s visit was declared ‘off the record’ by the gods of journalism at the CfJ. This therefore ruined my planned blog for the day. However, Little did advise never giving excuses for failing to get a story. So whilst I won’t report on the more topical issues discussed in a Q&A session, I will point out five of his top tips for student journalists as his talk was largely covered on the BBC College of Journalism website anyway:

1. Have something to say. He recollected a time at Edinburgh University when he wrote an essay without doing any background reading. He received it back with a note from his teacher saying “You have a pleasing turn of phrase, but nothing much to say.”
2. Read. He highlighted the need to read more than just newspapers and online. You need to read books, fiction and even poetry. Poetry can be a brilliant example of short words creating powerful meaning.
3. Add up the number of words in your work then divide that by the number of sentences. If the average is more than 15 words, then your sentences are probably too long.
4. Avoid using metaphors if you don’t understand exactly what they mean.
5. Always have a notepad on you because often things people say off the record are the most important. Jot things down; don’t leave it in your mind.

You can watch Allan Little give more advice on ‘good writing’ on the BBC College Journalism website.

You can also watch highlights from his first visit to the CfJ below:

You can view the CfJ’s coverage on our website.

And you can read my piece on Journalism.co.uk too.

If you scroll to the end of the Cover It Live section you’ll find Ian Reeves’ question unanswered. Seeing as the CfJ itself hasn’t actually enlightened you on Thompson’s answer – I will. However, someone seems to have taken my notebook, thus it will be from my rusty old memory.

Thompson started by posing the rhetorical question of whether or not BBC executives should expect to get a smaller salary than commercial equivalents.

He then went on to explain that they apply a 50-80% discount to the corporation’s executive salaries.

So let’s do the math:

Mark Thompson’s current salary = £834,000

If this was a 50% discount, Mark Thompson believes he should actually be on:

£1,668,000

80% discount:

£4,170,000

Now for a summary:

Mark Thompson thinks his salary should really be somewhere in between £1,668,000-£4,170,000.

Shocking. I could pay my monthly rent somewhere between 4830-12087 times with that salary.