Lineup as of Sept. 28 The most extensive ONA conference, set for Oct. 5-7, is in place with a chock-full lineup of industry leaders that promises to deliver prescient insights into the current state and bright future of online news.

The schedule remains subject to change. Check the site frequently for updates. Register now

The official start of the Washington conference will be preceded Oct. 5 by a full day of workshops and seminars, aimed at content creators, strategists wrestling with citizen-generated journalism and educators and newspaper executives focused on convergence.

Noted cyberleaders will lead a "what's next" discussion at American University in the early evening. A welcoming cocktail hour, sponsored by USA TODAY and The Washington Post, will fill the evening hours, starting at 7 p.m. at the Capital Hilton.

Friday morning events commence with coffee, discussions and a daylong job fair, kicked off by 9 a.m. remarks from one of two major keynotes, Adrian Van Klaveran of the BBC. In the post-lunch Q&A, expect Mark Cuban, the controversial media mogul, to stir debate. A full afternoon of panels precedes an evening reception.

Saturday starts with another coffee session and a full slate of panels starting at 8:45 a.m. A state-of-the industry keynote panel will conclude the afternoon, before delegates assemble for a reception prior to the 7 p.m. banquet honoring the winners of the Online Journalism Awards.

GENERAL SESSIONS
Opening Keynote: Adrian Van Klaveren, deputy director and controller of production for BBC News, will discuss how this large, international media company is pioneering the revolution in broadcast news. 9 a.m., Friday, Oct. 6. Read more about him on the BBC site.

Friday lunch keynote: : Mark Cuban is founder of HDNet.com, the blogging owner of the Dallas Mavericks and the key investor in Sharesleuth.com, a new blog aimed at exposing securities fraud. Recently dubbed "The South’s New Mouth," Cuban will discuss his latest ventures and answer questions from the audience after lunch, shortly after noon, Friday, Oct. 6. Read some of his blog and learn more
about him on the Mavericks' site.

Spotlight on youth: My Digital Day: Young people and the future of online news and information.
A video explores media use by young people, followed by a panel discussion with students, preteen through college, about how they use the Web. Moderator Jennifer Carroll, Gannett vice president/new media content, asks the multi-taskers about creating content, reading content and explores just what kind of information grabs their attention. Has texting trumped e-mail? Is gaming news the only news? Stop by and see.
Panelists: Drew Costley, Howard University, Washington; Alex Foster, 12, Fairfax County, Va.; Jordan King, 15, Washington; Mary Specht, American University; Elsi Wu, 15, Silver Spring, Md. 9:30 a.m, Saturday, Oct. 7.

Blogger spotlight: Zeyad Kasim, famed as the "Iraqi blogger" whose entries from Baghdad have provided bold daily perspectives from inside the war-torn country, has enrolled in the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and will address ONA delegates. 11:35 a.m., Saturday, Oct. 7.

State of the industry super panel: "What’s Next?" Online gurus Michael Arrington (Tech Crunch), Mike Davidson (Newsvine) and Jeff Jarvis (Buzzmachine, Daylife) discuss their latest projects, share lessons learned and talk about what lies ahead, with an emphasis on user-generated content. The session, moderated by Leslie Walker, tech editor of The Washington Post, will also include a Q&A segment, giving audience members ample opportunity to interact with some of Web 2.0’s most interesting players. 3:15 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 7.

COMMERCE PANELS
The church/state challenge: When content and sponsorship dollars collide
It's getting harder and harder to pin down the moving line between editorial content and advertising and sponsored content. Church/state guidelines have softened, as publishers look for ways to monetize content. As online content increases (podcasts, webcasts, video, lead-generation, etc.) advertisers want sponsorship opportunities and publishers want those advertising dollars. As content editors, what can we do to maintain our integrity but keep up with the demand to monetize everything? Come to this panel for some answers.
Participants: Kevin McKean, Consumer Reports (moderator); Jon Fine,BusinessWeek.com; Tom Brew, MSNBC.com; Linda Yurche, Baltimore Sun

Big stories can have a big impact (yes, positive) on the bottom line: Make money on enterprise journalism
Online editors constantly battle for resources just to keep the site going -- and many only dream of doing the "big story" journalism they want. Evaporating travel budgets, high costs for one-offs, database and IT projects, shrinking cash for freelancers -- you know the story. What are approaches to doing great journalism that still contributes to the bottom line, helping to grow your newsroom and your company?. We'll take a look at some success stories and learn that good stories are good business -- if you know how to do it.
Participants:
Retha Hill, BET.com (moderator); Fiona Spruill, NYTimes.com; Paul Maidment, Forbes.com; Neal Scarbrough, AOL

What about WAP? Mobile news is the future
Whether you target growth in the youth market or others on the go, logical ways to extend your brand is to leverage your content to alternative devices. In this panel, you will learn the basics of text messaging, WAP and video delivery, how databases put Web sites in the forefront for wireless applications, and how mobile news is reach varied audiences. You’ll also explore advertising opportunities and consumer-to-consumer business models that allow news organizations to become a necessary network for two-way communication.
Participants: Linda Barrabee, Yankee Group (moderator); Matt Jones, USATODAY.com; Mike Zarrilli, Weather Channel; Joe Cohen, Reuters; Sarah Lumbard, WashingtonPost.Newsweek Interactive; Logan Molen, Bakersfield Californian/Bakersfield.com

We’re laying down the law again --- Internet version --- for you: The latest
from the legal realm
A blue-ribbon panel of Internet law experts, hosted by Jon Hart, author of Web Law: A Field Guide, will discuss the legal issues that are on your mind ... or should be. When are you liable for content that your readers post? Are you better off policing user postings or remaining hands-off? Is it OK to buy (or sell) advertising that is triggered by keywords that happen to be someone else’s trademarks? Can other sites really post your headlines without your permission? What can you borrow from other sites? Come armed with questions; this session will go where you want to take it.
Participants: Jon Hart, Dow, Lohnes & Albertson (moderator); Cliff Sloan, WashingtonPost.com/Slate; Barbara Wall, Gannett; Ken Richieri, New York Times Co.; Andy Mar, MSN Video and MSN Entertainment

Transforming media: Leading in light of bottom-line realities
This panel offers creative strategies that grow online news efforts without breaking the bank. The discussion will include a look at the importance of industry research and Web analytics, techniques for breaking down barriers across your organization and tips on making savvy decisions in the dance between coverage, innovation and technology.
Participants: Staci Kramer, PaidContent.org (moderator); Joan Walsh, Salon.con; Fraser VanAsch, McClatchy; Ron Stitt, Fox Television

CONTENT PANELS
Energizing storytelling: Taking narrative to new levels
How do you best take stories apart and reconstruct them in a multimedia format? What works, what doesn't and what's next? Does text still rule? Are video and multimedia graphics worth the investment of staff hours? And how does one get a staff accustomed to thinking of news as words and images to take better advantage of the online medium?
Participants: Chuck Rose, USATODAY.com (moderator); Jane Ellen Stevens, UC-Berkeley; Brian Dunbar, NASA.gov; Emily Murphy, Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AJC.com; Sarah Stuteville, Common Language Project

Made for the medium: Best of the Best
An engaging overview of the year's most creative and effective uses of the medium. What does the cutting edge of online news look like in 2006?
Participants: Ashley Wells, MSNBC.com (moderator); Kevin Ball, ESPN.com; Seth Gitner, Roanoke Times/Roanoke.com; Alberto Cairo, University of North Carolina;
Joris Evers, CNET

Using the net for good: Best of the Best
From disaster awareness to watchdog journalism. A look at the year's strongest online packages, especially those using
databases, that provide some helpful service to the public.
Participants: Kurt Greenbaum, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (moderator); Jonathan McCarthy, Newsday; Tom Planchett, New Orleans' WWL-TV; Joris Evers, CNet.com; Stanley Farrar, seattletimes.com

Automating genius through tools: A practical look at streamlining production methods
We'll take a close look at how to maintain quality while freeing human minds and hands for more creativity and innovation. In other words, can we build a smarter shovel?
Participants: Ken Sands, Spokane Spokesman Review (moderator); Adrian Holovaty, washingtonpost.com; Amy Webb, Dragonfire; Ron Parsons, Yahoo! News

Developing voices: Enriching perspectives, from underserved communities and citizen journalists
With citizen journalism having become a reality, how can we effectively incorporate the voices of regular folks into our news coverage? What are some successful models of engaging interactivity, especially among younger news consumers? Should the mainstream media become as personal and interactive as Flickr and MySpace? And what are the possible pitfalls in all this?
Participants: Jan Schaffer, J-Lab (moderator); Courtney Lowrey, NewWest.net; Mary Lou Fulton, Baktopia.com; Maureen Mann, Deerfield Forum; Manuel Perez, CNN.com

CONVERGENCE PANELS
Web skillsets: Training and re-training journalists for today's digital realities
Newsroom managers increasingly expect reporters, editors, photographers and designers to produce content across platforms. How are journalists being trained or retrained to not only write and edit, but serve the needs of Web sites, as well as television and radio? What are the costs involved – both in finances and in quality?
Participants:
Jim Iovino, NBC4.com (moderator); Pankaj Paul, Delaware News Journal; Chet Rhodes, washingtonpost.com; Maria Thomas, NPR.org

MoJo lessons: Examining skillsets, gear, approaches and lessons learned in sending journalists into the field to do it all
From the blogoshere to the mainstream sites toil solo journalists, -- the mobile journalists who are reporting, writing, broadcasting stories as one-person operations. Some have opted for dual journalist teams, or DoJos. What challenges do they face?
Participants: Christina Pino-Marina, washingtonpost.com (moderator); Kevin Sites, Yahoo; J. Carl Ganter, mediavia.com; Kate Marymont, Fort Myers News Press

Staffing and structure: How to best organize your team Organization charts, talent levels, job scopes. How to balance it all in the new multi-platform universe. Many media organizations are having to teach their staffs on the fly how to balance demands on their time but want staffers want to know, asking, "Where do I fit in the organization?"
Participants: Neil Chase, NYTimes.com (moderator); Nedra Weinstein, Catalyst Consulting Team; Rob Curley, formerly Naples Daily News; now of washingtonpost.com; Patrick Steigman, ESPN

Election 2006: As newsrooms and Web staffs prepare to cover the midterms, it is a dry-run for 2008? Entering this political season, with so much of the discourse occurring online, how will news outlets use beat specialists, online packagers and citizens to explain and interpret the political landscape? What are the strategies of shops big and small, from all media disciplines? The panel will include journalists ranking from large international and national news sites to independent sites focused solely on politics.
Participants: Scott Anderson, CNN.com (moderator); Rachel Nixon, BBC News; Jeff Mayers, WisPolitics.com; Jennifer Sizemore, MSNBC.com; Ron Fournier, HotSoup.com

Breaking news: Deconstructing Best of the Best nominees and examining other showcase examples
Participants: Tom Mallory, San Diego Union-Tribune (moderator); David Katz, CFO.com; Suzanne Levinson, MiamiHerald.com; Jim Roberts, New York Times

Oct. 5 WORKSHOPS Crafting multimedia
content: A hands-on ONA workshop
The focus of this session will be on editing and packaging multimedia stories. In the morning, Stan Heist, the NPPA television photographer of the year, will show how he begins the editing process in the field as he creates tightly crafted natural sound-driven stories. Participants are encouraged to bring an example of multimedia from their site. Heist will critique several stories. In the afternoon, Will Yurman, a photographer and multimedia producer from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, will guide a hands-on session on packaging multiple stories. The example for this session will be produced with SoundSlides in a Flash wrapper.

Citizen Media Summit II: Citizen Ventures
How are they being launched? Who’s writing for them? Are they making enough money to survive? Are they journalism
or social networks? Hear from the hands-on pioneers blazing new trails in the growing field of user-generated content. Presented by J-Lab.

Digitizing the Print Newsroom: An ASNE-ONA seminar: How to prepare your newsroom for the digital future
This ASNE-ONA seminar is a special workshop for top print and online editors that will focus on strategies to handle the convergent present and prepare for a unified future. The partial list of session leaders includes representatives of USA TODAY, Yahoo, Delaware News Journal, Roanoke Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly and Orlando Sentinel.

Classroom Convergence: The future is here, now what?
American University and USA TODAY provide a free day of programs designed to help educators bring converged and online media into curriculum and research. Day includes a visit to USA TODAY's converged newsroom, a close-up look at American's online production and an evening reception and panel discussion.