The Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of Student Media will host the second NSU Multimedia Conference on Oct. 12 to connect students from local high schools, community colleges and NSU with local media professionals and educators.
The conference, held from 8:15 a.m. to 4:50 p.m. in the Carl DeSantis Building, will feature presentations on a variety of media topics — including newswriting, photography, radio broadcasting, on-air reporting, blogging, public relations, graphic design, filmmaking, magazine publishing, marketing and more.
Megan Fitzgerald, assistant professor in the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences’ Division of Humanities and advisor to the
The Current, co-created the conference to offer students a unique learning opportunity.
“Learning doesn’t have to take place solely in a classroom,” she said. “It can extend beyond that and this is a chance to supplement what we do in the classroom with professionals who are out there working in the field.”
Presenters will include Victoria Rajkumar, news writer for WSVN-TV and NSU alumna; Annie Vazquez, fashion blogger; Kevin Ozebek, reporter for WSVN-TV; Pia Malbran, investigative producer for CBS News; Gregory Lee, executive sports editor of the Sun Sentinel; and Scott Pritchett, director of sales for Lincoln Financial Media, among other professionals.
Michelle Manley, director of Student Media and advisor to the The Current, said, “We are really excited by the willingness of professionals out in the field to give their time to the students.”
NSU faculty and staff presenters will include Assistant Dean of Student Development William Faulkner, Associate Director of Public Affairs Jeremy Katzman and Adjunct Professor of Communication Studies Cathleen Dean, along with Stephen Andon and Chetachi Egwu, both assistant professors of communication studies.
The first Multimedia Conference, held in February, attracted around 50 students. Manley and Fitzgerald invited more schools for the second conference, and they hope that around 200 students will attend.
Fitzgerald said February’s conference was purposely kept small, as it was meant to gauge student interest in this type of event.
“And the feedback was so overwhelmingly positive that we decided to not only do it again this year, but to expand it,” she said.
She explained that they decided to change the conference date in response to feedback that spring was too busy a time for students.
“We thought that fall would be a better time of year,” she said. “The students will be fresh; they’ll be eager and ready to get started. And they’ll also be able to use all the things they learned at the conference throughout the entire school year, versus when it was in February, they only had a couple months left.”
Each session will last 50 minutes, with four or five presentations to choose between for each time slot. Topics include “Telling the Multimedia Story,” “Women in Film,” “Using Social Media to Share a Brand,” “Fashion Blogging 101,” “Improving Your On-Air Performance” and “Breaking in to the Radio Business” — just to name a few of the 24 planned presentations. Six student editors and designers of “Digressions,” NSU’s student literary magazine will offer a “behind-the-scenes look” at the magazine’s production and Faulkner will speak to student media advisers.
With so many topics, Manley feels that the conference will interest and benefit students of a variety of majors.
“I think it gives students a great opportunity to see the diversity with how they can use their degrees,” she said. “It’s not just for communication students. Students who are into marketing, advertising, sales, business, film, graphic design — we’re going to have something for all of those different career paths.”
The free conference will include a continental breakfast sponsored by Chartwells and lunch sponsored by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. A Young Professionals Panel and a Media Professionals Panel will be 3 p.m. and 4 p.m., respectively, featuring many of the conference’s presenters.
Manley is especially excited about the young professionals’ panel, which is a new addition to the conference and will be composed of recent NSU alumni.
“We thought it would be interesting to invite professionals, who are recently out of college, to find out what they’re doing with their degrees,” Manley said. “We want students to know that, yes, there are still jobs. The field is not dead. It’s still very much alive.”
The second panel will feature more seasoned professionals, many of whom Manley said students may be familiar with from watching them on the news or reading their work in print.
“These are people who have been in the field for a while. I know that some of them are very popular and students can connect with them,” she said. “It’s really an opportunity to hear their experiences but also to ask them questions. They’ll each introduce themselves, and then we’ll open the floor for the students to ask away.”
Check-in will be from 8:15 to 8:45 a.m. and the first presentation session will begin at 9 a.m. All local high school, community college and NSU students are invited to attend. To register, contact Fitzgerald by Oct. 11 at mf821@nova.edu or 954-262-7616.
