What: A scholarship reception to celebrate 2012′s Northwest Journalists of Color scholarship winners (winners will be announced within the next week). Event sponsored by Comcast.

Where: KOMO-TV headquarters in Seattle

When: Friday, May  18, 2012 at 6:00 p.m.

Featuring keynote speaker Hari Sreenivasan, a PBS NewsHour correspondent and former NJC scholarship recipient.

RSVP HERE: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/3467971797

The talented trio asked us to blog about our five top takeaways. My list:

Interact. Subscribe to blogs. Follow people who are doing what you want to do.  Comment on their posts. Lauren shared an anecdote from her student days how she posted on a Big-Shot Journalist’s blog and he responded, much to her delighted astonishment. It marks you as someone who contributes to the discourse and helps establish you as a credible source of information.

Use your name or a consistent alias across all platforms. To build the brand, you need a unified naming convention on Twitter, your website, Facebook, LinkedIn.

Tweet where you’re at. Beaming out that you’re at a school board meeting, tech conference (or AAJA event!) builds credibility that you’re covering what’s important, doing the footwork.

Don’t sweat the SEO. People will find you if you write well about what matters to you, said Lauren. Brilliant strategy.

Always have visuals – makes posts more shareable. To wit: Fueling up for the drive home to Bellingham, I stopped afterward at Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream for a triple hot fudge sundae (salted caramel, Scout mint and vegan coconut chunk!). Noticed they had a map showing their ingredients’ origin. Noticed their milk and cream come from the Edaleen Dairy in Lynden. Realized this would make a fun post on my Blue Ribbon blog about local food, farming and fairs. Also, realized, with regret, that a photo of the little thumbtack on “Lynden” would’ve made the post 10 times cooler. Hit home that I need to take my camera everywhere — even the malt shop.

Rain gear comes in handy for Lori Matsukawa's job as a Seattle news anchor.

Name: Lori Matsukawa
Lives in: Bellevue, Wash.
Born: Honolulu, Hawaii
Education: B.A. from Stanford University, master’s degree from University of Washington
Work: news anchor, KING-TV, Seattle
Formerly: Anchor/reporter at KOMO-TV, Seattle; KPIX-TV, Portland, Ore.; KRCR-TV, Redding, Calif.; college intern, Honolulu Advertiser.
AAJA member since: 1983. Co-founded Seattle Chapter in 1985.
Must-reads: Wall Street Journal, Seattle Times. Often checks out TIME Magazine, Honolulu Magazine, Twitter, Facebook.
Print or online news? Both.
Go-to website: KING5.com
Best journalism moment: Documenting Gov. Gary Locke’s first trip to China in 1997.
Worst journalism moment: “When my photographer was arrested at Pearl Harbor covering the 50th anniversary.”
Twitter handle: @LoriMatsukawa
Languages: English and “tourist” French. “I can order a beer in Japanese.”
Can’t put down: “The Hunger Games” trilogy.
Favorite Seattle restaurants: Tie: Kaname and Wann Izakaya.
Must-see TV: “60 Minutes”
Fave flick: Tie: “Gone With the Wind” and “The Terminator”
Heaven on a plate: Spam musubi.
Top toy: “My golf clubs.”
You might not know: “I decided to study journalism during my year as Miss Teenage America 1974. I was always being interviewed by reporters and decided this was the job for me: getting paid to talk to people!”
Main motivation: “Journalism is the first draft of history. It’s the only job that’s protected by the First Amendment, so we’d better take it seriously.”

STUDENTS: Don’t miss this great opportunity from AAJA Seattle!

“Personal branding” is about more than having a matching logo on your business cards, blog and Twitter profile. It’s about having a voice that people recognize in the industry and in your own personal sphere of interest. It’s also about knowing how to promote your voice — and yourself — to the people who care. We can show you how to get started. In this AAJA Seattle crash course, join producers from The Seattle Times and other regional media outlets to learn how to start (or improve) your blog and use social media strategies — skills that you can use in your personal lives, and carry into the newsroom. Oh, did we mention we’ll have pizza?

Note: this is open to any student (not just UW).  We’ll also be answering questions about applying for the Northwest Journalists of Color Scholarship program. Applications for the NJC Scholarship are due April 15. We’re looking forward to seeing you there.

You MUST RSVP! You can do so here.

When: Wednesday, March 28

Where: Mt. Baker Training Room, 6th floor, Seattle Times building, 1000 Denny Way, Seattle, 98109

Time: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

Cost: FREE for students; $10 suggested donation at the door. Cash or credit card only, please.

If you’re driving you may need to pay for parking. There are SOME guest parking spots in the lot outside The Seattle Times building that are free as well as paid street parking.

Questions? Email Sona Patel at sona.patel@gmail.com or 949-310-0336.

To renew your AAJA membership visit aaja.org.

That's U for UNITY. Top row, left to right: John Ryan, Peter Sessum, Genevieve Alvarez, Venice Buhain. Middle: Katrina Barlow, Mai Ling Slaughter, Melissa Hoyos. Bottom: Sona Patel, Lauren Rabaino, Sharon Chan.

We projected the #UNITY12 Twitter stream up on a screen and UNITY and alliance presidents Joanna Hernandez, David Steinberg, Doris Truong, Rhonda LeValdo all joined us via Twitter. UNITY Programming Co-Chairs Paul Cheung and Robert Hernandez also joined in the event via Twitter.

I did a short slideshow about why you should think about coming to UNITY:

• Thousands of journalists
• Inspired workshops
• Vegas

AAJA Seattle President Sona Patel announced a convention grant the chapter will award to help a laid-off journalist attend UNITY. She also highlighted the Northwest Journalists of Color scholarships, deadline April 15. This year the winner will receive a grant to attend the convention as well. Former scholarship winner Peter Sessum spoke about how the scholarships changed his life.

We raffled off two “J” pins and a $50 gift card to Lucid Lounge. Congratulations to the three winners, all students at the University of Washington. Thank you to Lucid for donating the gift card. If you haven’t been to Lucid lately, they have a new elevated stage and a great digital presentation setup (they handed me an iPad to run the slideshow).

Don’t you wish you had been there?

The early-bird registration rate for UNITY 2012 convention ends on March 16! The early bird rate is $325 for members, $150 for student members, $500 for non-members and $250 for student non-members. After March 16, rates go up $75!

Register now at unityconvention.org.