Guidelines for Reporting on Conferences, Meetings and Seminars

Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand wants to ensure that all NZNO national and regional section conferences, seminars and other important gatherings are reported in the magazine. Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand staff are able to attend very few of these conferences and believe it is good for those attending to report on them. These guidelines are designed to help you write a short news report on the conference/meeting/seminar to be run on the section/ college news pages of Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand. If all the information requested in these guidelines is contained in the report then that makes our job much easier and ensures accurate coverage of the event. And it is important to get the report to Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand staff as soon as possible after the event to ensure topicality.

A short news report (maximum 500 words) does not have to include the contents of papers presented at the conference.  If there were outstanding presentations worthy of further coverage in Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand we would like to be told so we can negotiate with the author about publishing part or all of such papers. Those with a strong nursing focus are obviously of most interest.

• What organisation/committee/section ran the conference?
• What was the theme of the conference?
• How many attended the conference?
• Where was it held? (Just the city not the venue)
• Did anyone special open the conference eg. a Government Minister, a life member of the section?
• Who were the main speakers? What are their positions? Where are they from ie. Hospital, university, research institute, polytechnic? What were the topics of their papers/speeches?
• Please ensure the spelling of names is correct. Check with the speaker.
• If any of the papers/speeches contain something of major significance, highlight that eg, if a leading authority on nosocomial infections told the infection control nurses' conference that a prophylactic dose of penicillin given to every patient on admission dramatically reduced nosocomial infections over a trial period, thats NEWS and is worth covering.
• If there are any photos from the conference please post or email them to Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand as photos make a story much more interesting.
• Whoever writes the report should include their name and contact phone numbers, email address or fax numbers so we can query any details if we need to.
• Kai Tiaki Nursing New Zealand staff retain the right to edit copy as they see fit.