Des Kelly, Janine Self and Andy Dunn provide the headline “acts” for an exciting innovation from the Sports Journalists’ Association and Press Association Training in the coming months, as we stage SJA Masterclasses for members, colleagues and students.
Staged at PA’s offices at Victoria in central London, the Masterclasses will see the experienced and respected journalists talk about their careers in newspapers, on television and radio in sessions lasting about an hour, which will also see them taking questions from the audience.
Dunn, the trenchant football columnist with the Sunday Mirror and regular on Sky Sport’s Sunday Supplement, begins the season at 7pm on Tuesday, October 29.
Kelly, the Daily Mail columnist and now presenter of his new sports chat show Life’s A Pitch on BTSport as well as fronting TalkSport’s Press Pass programme each Sunday evening, is our Masterclass guest on February 25, 2014.
Self is the SJA’s vice-chairman who has worked as a sports reporter with The Sun and the Mail, as well as being a ghost-writer for Robbie Savage’s autobiography. Self will make her presentation on May 20 next year.
“The committee is always looking to stage new activities which appeal to members and other colleagues,” Steven Downes, the SJA Secretary, said. “We feel we have a strong programme of sports awards, sports journalism awards, sporting lunches and Sporting Question Time events. But we agreed that we could do more to showcase the work of our members. Until now.
“There’s greater interest than ever in the work of the SJA – we have more than 21,000 followers on Twitter. And it is clear that many of our followers are students or new to the business. We hope that our Masterclasses will appeal to this large group of people, as well as provide existing members something which will appeal to them, too,” Downes said.
There is limited space – so if you want to attend, we recommend that you book promptly.
Priority for places will be given to SJA members (including associate members), with places allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Tickets are £10 per person for SJA members, £15 for non-members of the SJA; we are offering a “season ticket” for all three sessions at £25 for SJA members, or £40 for non-members of the SJA.
The venue is at the Press Association, 292 Vauxhall Bridge Road, SW1V 1AE.
Payment needs to be made in advance, by cheque payable to “The Sports Journalists’ Association”, and sent to “SJA Masterclasses, Start2Finish Event Management, Unit 92, Capital Business Centre, 22 Carlton Road, South Croydon, CR2 0BS”.
Please include a covering letter, including your name, contact phone number and email address, and SJA membership number (where applicable), stating which date or dates you wish to attend.
- Between now and the end of 2013, anyone wishing to join the SJA may apply, with their initial fee covering their membership through until the end of 2014 – effectively 15 months’ membership for the price of 12. Click here for more details.
OTHER UPCOMING SJA EVENTS
Thu Dec 12: SJA 2013 British Sports Awards. Venue and ticket booking details to be announced soon
2014
Mon Mar 24: SJA British Sports Journalism Awards, Grand Connaught Rooms, London
Mon Apr 14: SJA Spring Golf Day: Croham Hurst GC, Surrey. Booking details to be announced