Letter from the CWA President
New CWA President Bill Wilson to Focus on Using New Technologies to ‘Expand Our Wings’
Welcome to the Construction Writers Association (CWA). Thank you for your interest in our association. When members think about CWA, perhaps they envision an organization that has brought journalists and marketing/communications professionals together for more than 50 years, offered enriching educational workshops and led tours of some of this country's finest construction projects.
As the new CWA president for 2011-12 and editorial director of Roads & Bridges magazine, we plan on building on these strengths and qualities and use new technologies to take CWA into the 21st century. It's time for CWA to take the next step and elevate its game. We need to expand our wings. CWA can be so much more.
We will introduce the use of webinars to provide cost-effective continuing education opportunities to teach CWA members - journalists, marketing and communications professionals, freelance writers and public relations professionals - how to do their jobs better. Our industry now requires multimedia professionals who have writing, social media, video and other skills. CWA has served a valuable purpose over the past several decades, but our jobs have changed significantly. We have a responsibility to show our members a path to do these new jobs and to do them better.
CWA foresees hosting webinars on a variety of subjects, such as where to find sources, the fundamentals of the investigative news story, tips on improving interviewing and headline writing skills, copyright laws, social media best practices and how to translate news and products using video. CWA needs to offer a balanced mixture of introductory topics for younger professionals and advanced topics for more experienced professionals. We have to give veterans more reason to attend webinars and meeting.
By drawing in veteran journalists and marketing and communications professionals, CWA also aims to attract younger professionals, who will benefit from networking and learning from the veterans. CWA brings professionals together who may not otherwise come together. Colleagues - even competitors - coming together and getting to know each other: this is the heart and soul of CWA.
At the same time, I envision using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to provide more opportunities for members to interact and get to know each other better, as well as to engage in discussions about topics and issues facing today's construction industry. As a leading construction industry organization, we have to move beyond networking and offer more. CWA now has a presence on these Top 3 social media sites. Look for CWA to become even more active using these social media tools. The goal will be to foster better communications among CWA members and cultivate thought-provoking discussion through these channels.
CWA will continue to provide prestigious awards to recognize the best of the best in the construction industry, and the organization will continue the popular construction site tours as expected. But look for new, energizing ideas and opportunities. For example, how will the construction industry respond to the next big crisis or catastrophe? How can we work together to get the news out - to get the right information out there? How can we learn from real-life experiences?
This new movement will take time. I hope I can start it. But I think everyone on the Board will do everything they can to get it rolling and put the pieces in place.
Our 2011 annual conference, CONNECTED, will provide our CWA members and industry colleagues an outstanding opportunity to network and continue to explore ways to work together. The 2011 annual conference will be held at the Westin Riverwalk in San Antonio on October 24-25, 2011. See you at CONNECTED! Please feel free to contact me at info@constructionwriters.org.
Sincerely,
Bill Wilson
CWA President 2011-2012