SPRING CONVENTION REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

February 17, 2025

SPRING CONVENTION REGISTRATION IS OPEN!

MSPA’s fall and spring statewide conventions are the largest gatherings of high school journalists in Mississippi. This is YOUR day! We’ll have more than 30 sessions geared toward ALL publication types, including yearbooks, lit mags, online-only programs and those of you who kinda do it all.

Here are all the need-to-know details…

Matt Laubhan to Deliver Hamilton Keynote Speech

Matt Laubhan is the Emmy® winning Chief Meteorologist for the WTVA Weather Authority and Northeast Mississippi’s first Certified Broadcast Meteorologist™.

Originally from the small Kansas town of Russell, Matt graduated from the University of Kansas with a Bachelor of Science degree in Atmospheric Science After college, Matt spent seven years forecasting for TV stations in Lubbock, Texas, before moving to Tupelo in 2011.

Matt and the WTVA Weather Authority Team have received numerous awards and distinctions over the years, even being formally recognized by the Mississippi State Senate for their life-saving severe weather coverage. Among their accolades, they have been recognized with 8 Emmy® Awards and 18 Emmy® nominations for their weather coverage.

Matt is blessed to work alongside his beautiful wife, Emily Leonard, who is the evening anchor at WTVA. They ave two (intelligent and exhausting) children, a cat, a dog and a perpetual sleep deficit.

REGISTRATION

The registration site is up and running!

It’s also linked under ‘State Conventions’ on our main site.

Registration is $25 per student for MSPA members. For non members, it is $35 per student. Advisors attend for free. Breakfast and Lunch will be provided.

We’re not collecting any payments online or via mail.

You’ll need to bring payment with you to the check-in table on the morning of the convention.

We will only be accepting cash or check (personal or school, your pick). Checks should be made out to MSPA or UM Foundation.

One disclaimer about this:

Even though you’re not physically paying for your attendees until you get to Oxford, you will be required to pay for the number of attendees you pre-registered for. I know things happen. I know students flake on you at the last minute. But because of food and other event costs, it has been our longstanding policy not to refund any registration fees for students who don’t attend. You can always sub in someone else in their place, and you can always add an additional student or two later if you need to, but we’ll expect your school to pay in full for the number of students registered.

The registration deadline is March 21

Please register your school as early as possible. Early registrations really help us in planning appropriately for the necessary number of sessions, etc.

This schedule mirrors that of previous years.

You’ll check-in at UM between 8-9 a.m., drop off any publications you brought for the swap table and have breakfast. At 9 a.m. we’ll have a brief welcome and overview of the day before dismissing students to three rounds of breakout sessions starting at 9:30 a.m., 10:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., respectively. Then lunch. The student lunch will start at 12:15-ish (whenever they’re dismissed by their 11:30 instructor). The adviser luncheon will start buffet service at noon with a brief awards ceremony once we’ve fixed our plates. We’ll wrap up the day with the Hamilton Keynote and the Best of MS awards program.

You should be able to be on the road headed home no later than 2:30pm.

OVERNIGHT TRAVELERS

If you are traveling from a far enough distance to necessitate hotel accommodations, MSPA has secured discounted rates on blocks of rooms at the hotels listed below. These are by no means the only lodging options in Oxford, and you’re of course free to book anywhere you like, but these are the closest ones to campus.

The Inn at Ole Miss
120 Alumni Drive
University, MS 38677

Guests can make reservations by calling 1-888-486-7666 and referencing the MSPA Group. Reservations may also be made online at www.theinnatolemiss.com and reference the group code 0424MSPA.

Holiday Inn
112 Heritage Dr.

Oxford, MS 38655
(662) 236-2500

To book at the Holiday Inn, just mention the MS Scholastic Spring Conference block when you call.

Best of Show Contests

These competitions are something we started long ago in order to honor the good work your students published after our February 15 Best of MS deadline, like this month’s newspaper or broadcast, or stuff that’s still “in progress”, like unpublished yearbook or lit mag spreads, or simply stuff you thought was awesome but couldn’t quite squeeze on a published page somewhere or into another contest, like cool photos or videos. These contests are only for those schools attending our fall convention, though the actual students who produced the work aren’t required to be present. A full list of categories is attached below.

Each entry is $5 (paid during registration or at check in) and there is no limit to the number of entries you can submit.

Entries will be accepted via Google Drive until Friday, March 21.

Contest Categories