SUMMER PUBLIC RADIO CONFERENCE PREVIEW

Say hello to our old friend, Mr. Tote Bag.  We have been together since the PRPD conference in Memphis in 1999. Mr. Bag and I have traveled the world ever since we became connected. They don’t make conference bags like this anymore!

Summer is an “iffy” time for conferences. The imminent threat of Legionnaire’s Disease seems to loom in every hotel. First the room is too cold; then it is too stuffy; then the key-card won’t work in the door. We’ve been there and so have you.

Summer conferences often have the feeling of summer vacation, though they have way of becoming actual work.  So often, conference schedules are jam-packed with one “must attend” session after another.

So, we recommend savoring the wonderful moments when you and friends and associates open a cold beer and the spirits are high. These are takeaways you will always remember.

June starts out with a big decision by the voting members of PRNDI. The question is, will the organization have a new name before you leave town?

Will the organization take a new name – the Public Media Journalists Association ("the PMJA")? The vote is scheduled for Saturday (6/15) at 12:15pm. The outcome is not known. 

In the following week of June, community radio activists with gather in San Diego for the NFCB Community Media Conference.

Sally Kane and her associates have planned an agenda filled with solution-oriented sessions. The goal is to help community station folks become better broadcasters, content creators and public servants.

You can download the complete  NFCB Community Media Conference schedule here.

Some readers might not be familiar with The Conclave [link]. 

For many years it was a regional gathering called The Upper Midwest Conclave. 

That was back in the days when record companies spent big bucks to ply programmers with ample amounts of food, wine and vice.

In recent years, The Conclave’s Executive Director Lori Lewis has given the conference a national focus. The sponsoring organization is still a nonprofit and the mission is still education.

The Conclave is mainly of interest to commercial radio folks but there are some sessions that are of interest to public radio programmers.

Spark News has requested a press pass for two sessions on Thursday (6/20) featuring Steve Goldstein, a very bright digital media consultant who publishes the blog AmplifiMedia [link]. 

The two sessions hope to cover are: “Finding Our Place In The Podcast Space” and “Alexa, Can We Talk?

Public broadcasting’s biggest conference (as measured by attendance) had no problem finding hotel rooms and conference space in Dallas in July.

Greater Public and PBS are the sponsors of conference.   

A schedule of sessions can be found here.

The FMQB Triple A Conference is the commercial sister of the Triple A NONCOMMvention that is held in May in Philadelphia. Quite a few noncommercial programmers attend every year.

The music tip-sheet FMQB a/k/a Friday Morning Quarterback, has sponsored this conference since the previous sponsor, Radio & Records, went out of business a decade ago.

We attended the Radio & Records Triple A event several times and enjoyed it very much. 

The FMQB Triple A Conference offers the best swag available. And, Boulder in the summer is a delight.

We will be providing extensive coverage of the upcoming PRPD Content Conference in future weeks. You can find more information here.