FCPA has made a new friend. The Society of Professional Journalists has invited us to co-sponsor its annual Region 3 media conference. And we said yes.

Every spring, SPJ sponsors a conference for college and pro journalists in the southeast United States — that’s Florida, Georgia, Alabama, and South Carolina. This year, it’s being held at the University of Florida on Friday and Saturday, March 23-24.

FCPA will be there…

• We’ll host our own track of programs, including sessions on how to win journalism awards (with tips from judges of national and regional contests) and how to land a media job (from the owner of a media jobs website).

• FCPA newspapers and magazines can get critiqued at the conference, and they can submit their front pages ahead of time for a radical redesign that’s intended to start a conversation.

• FCPA advisers will meet over coffee and FCPA editors will meet over Red Bull, where they can discuss whatever the hell they want.

• FCPA will announce the winners of its Best Under the Sun Awards. But instead of a stuffy, three-hour luncheon that charges you $30 extra for rubbery chicken cordon bleu that you eat at round tables, we’re handing out the certificates over free pizza in less than an hour. And you can sit wherever you choose.

Of course, your registration entitles you to sit in all the SPJ sessions, too. (We’re pals, remember?) As soon as we get details on those, we’ll pass them along.

Online registration opens Monday, Jan. 2. FCPA members pay only $30 if they register by March 1. After that, the price doubles. (Hey, you’re journalists. If you can’t make a deadline, it’ll cost you.)

The conference hotel — which will give you a special rate — is right on the University of Florida campus just 100 yards from the j-school. And Saturday night, you’ll party with your new SPJ comrades, who will take you out on the town.

Questions? Email FCPA president Michael Koretzky.