Reflections of Washington
by Eric Ross Porter
Ohio Northern University
On March 15th, 2006, I arrived in Washington D.C. with my fellow peers to attend the annual National Broadcasting Convention. The thought of attending such a prestigious event in the Nation’s Capital gave me a rush of excitement and apprehension. My name is Eric Porter and I have never attended an NBS Convention before due to the fact that I am currently only a freshman enrolled in the Arts and Science program at Ohio Northern University. However, the understanding of broadcasting became more clear to me by the time Convention was over.
The first night I was blown away by the first keynote speaker, Mr. Chris Matthews. It was an absolute eye opener to see such a successful man in the field I want to go into achieve such an honor as he has. His words were exceptionally motivational and it sparked a new fire that lasted the rest of the Convention.
On Thursday, I was impressed with our final keynote speaker, Mr. Sam Donaldson. After noticing all the different sessions that could be attended for the day, I chose the ones that fit me best, although any session would have been extremely helpful. Each session was educational. My favorite part was meeting with the professionals from a particular session and talking to him/her personally. I know that they are the people that will help me out in the future when I am prepared to work in the broadcasting field.
Friday, March 17th, brought a whole new element into the mix. First, the career focus session program was an amazing opportunity to finally discuss my passion with an assistant managing editor. He provided me with great advice and a business card to reach him for any questions that I may have in the years to come. Also, I attended CNN’s “On the Story.” This experience was unlike any other due to the fact that I was able to observe how a real-world taping is achieved through technology that I simply do not use. Being able to watch the show the next day will remained imprinted into my mind for a long time.
On the last day of Convention, I experienced my very first National Electronic Media Student Awards Luncheon and Show. After visually studying each video submitted into this program, I realized the amount of work and effort that must go into broadcasting to achieve such a high honor as my fellow peers did. I have walked away from my first Convention with a couple points of emphasis. First and foremost, my motivation to reach that next step in broadcasting has skyrocketed and I am excited to start working on my packages again. Second, but certainly not least, the contacts that I had made are very valuable to me. I have met with the professionals and their advice through my next four years will be priceless. Finally, I am proud to say that I am apart of NBS and that the trip to Washington D.C. has made me grow into a whole new person. I simply cannot wait until Chicago!
Reflections of Washington DC
by Cassandra Rose
Killeen
Southeast Missouri State University
The 2006 National Broadcasting Society Convention was by far the most thrilling and educating event to have happened for the all the college students who graced the convention with their presence. Not only were the sights a first time for many people but the panel discussions that took place also helped many students have a stronger belief in the fields they were pursuing. In fact here are a few comments from the students from Southeast Missouri State University.
Student and Chapter President Cassandra Killeen said, “This year’s convention in Washington, DC was an absolute pleasure to attend.” At this convention many activities that took place were a first for me. I journeyed on a plane for the first time, visited D.C. for the first time, saw many professionals for the first time, and learned a great deal.
Attending this convention I felt that I had made the right decision as to my career choice and that I learned a great deal more to help prepare me for the job. There were many panels and key speakers I enjoyed, such as XM Satellite Radio, Arbitron, Chris Matthews, Sam Donaldson, Lee Abrams, and many more. If anything the convention made me want to work even harder to make our chapter better than what it already is and I hope that as we work together we can make things happen.
Chapter Vice President, Christopher Cohea stated, “The 2006 National Convention was definitely an unforgettable trip.” From Chris Matthews to Sam Donaldson, to Lee Abrams, I was able to not only gain experience and knowledge from the best in their fields, but I was able to make business contacts, which will help further my career in Radio. Thank you to all who were involved with scheduling the convention. I very much look forward to Chicago in 2007!
Miss Emma Lou Reiffer stated, “That overall the convention was a great experience.” Not only getting to talk to professionals already in the business, but also talking to students from other chapters was interesting as well. Two of the best speakers of the whole convention were the president of customer service from Arbitron and Lee Abrams from XM Satellite Radio. The gentleman from Arbitron seemed very prepared to give his presentation. He had Power Point slides that helped us understand what he was talking about, and he was interesting to listen to because he was enthusiastic about his job. Lee Abrams was also an excellent speaker. I liked how he out everything in laments terms so that we knew exactly what he was trying to say. He gave great examples of programming strategies that they use at XM and even incorporated several jokes in his presentation, which is what kept my attention. Besides the presentations given, the best
part was being able to tour XM Satellite Radio. The building and everyone running it was amazing. The people that worked there were both professional and personable. While we were touring, they welcomed us, and a few of them gave us their opinion about how great XM was and how great their job was.
I look forward to the National Convention in Chicago in 2007!
To sum everything up Miss Christina Van Nostrand said this The NBS Convention in Washington, D.C. was by far the best convention that I have ever attended, period. What a better city to have a broadcasting convention than our nation’s capital?? It is the center of a myriad of broadcast media (NPR,XM, CNN to name a few) as well as it is to home of the most major newsmaker in the U.S.—the President. To have networked with so many people was amazing as well. To get to know people from Texas, Pennsylvania, and other places that are interested in the same thing that you are and to meet some of the big names in the business was awe-inspiring.
From a news standpoint, Sam Donaldson’s speech on that Thursday morning…Insert synonym for amazing here…I loved it. Lee Abrams…oh my gosh…he gave me a lot to think about as far as where radio is now and where it will be going in the future.
Although I wish that one of the bigger names from NPR would have come to talk to the group, I didn’t think that I would have a contact at NPR who would give me the time of day if MARTINA Castro hadn’t come to lecture. Although I knew a lot of what she had to say about National Public Radio and public radio in general, it was good to talk to her and get her information. And I have been in contact with her since the clinic—I just received an e-mail the other day and plan to write her back a soon as I am done with this e-mail.
I think that the best thing, however, about this convention was the fact that I got to know some people from our own chapter of NBS that I haven’t had the chance to get to know and hangout otherwise…and you know what? I realized what a bunch of cool people that we have in our own chapter… I got to reacquaint myself with some ex-KRCU folk (Pepper and Lisa) and got to know a bunch of others!!! This by far the most successful trip that I have ever taken…
So as you all can see the students at Southeast Missouri State University have had a great time and are very much looking forward to the future and next years National Convention in Chicago. Till then, we look are setting our sights and our skills on projects to help set us up for working Regionals in Madison.