Board Blog: See you in Seattle

It’s hard to believe, since most of us are just getting settled into the school year, but it’s time to start planning your trip to the National Student Electronic Media Convention, which will be held Oct. 25-27 in Seattle.

Greg Weston, CBI Immediate Past President

CBI-Seattle has all of the great features you’ve come to expect from CBI’s conventions: expert-led sessions, roundtables and other networking opportunities for students and professional staff, tours of local media outlets and more. But there are a few new and expanded attractions for audio and video specialists I’d like to highlight here:

For audio folks, we have three tremendous pre-convention workshops to choose from on Wednesday, Oct. 24.

We are thrilled to offer a Music Programming Genius Day, hosted by MusicMaster. Participants in this all-day training session will take a deep dive into how to use the powerful MusicMaster software to enhance their radio station’s sound. Full disclosure: I’ve sent my students to Genius Days in the past and now our automated hours are at least as popular as our DJ-hosted shows.

The other two pre-cons focus on narrative audio.

Telling the Story Through Sound: An Audio Workshop, hosted by an award-winning radio correspondent and an audio software entrepreneur, will teach you how to paint a picture through sound. It focuses on using interviewing techniques, producing and editing to grab your audience’s attention.

Podcasting is the fastest-growing audio medium and CBI is here to help you get your share of that increasingly large audience. Podcasting 101: An Overview of On-Demand Audio Storytelling will tell you everything you need to know to make a podcast that will stand out from the crowd. Presenter Caroline Chamberlain Gomez of KUOW will cover a variety of topics, including Design Thinking, sound quality and marketing your podcast.

More details on these workshops can be found at https://www.askcbi.org/seattle/seattle-pre-convention-workshops/.

But maybe the biggest enhancement to this year’s convention is CBI Visual Media Festival, created to recognize and showcase student work in the areas of film/video production. Entries are now being accepted in the categories of Short Film Fiction, Short Film Non-Fiction, Digital Shorts and TV Pilots. Winners will be announced and winning entries will be screened at a red-carpet ceremony on Friday, Oct. 26. More details on how to enter at https://www.askcbi.org/cbi-visual-media-festival/.

I know I say this every year, but this year’s National Student Electronic Media Convention will be our biggest and best ever. Hope to see you there.