A Conference Post-Mortem

Thanks to all who joined us for the first Media Mindsets conference on Oct. 13. And a special thanks for all of the presenters. We are collecting comments with an eye toward making the conference an annual event. We would like your suggestions either as a Comment to this blog or an email to jharper@kent.edu.

Pearle Bower, who arranged the administrative side, said the conference attendance was around 112 as some people came in after the registration table closed. Putting on an event for journalists reminds one of trying to herd cats--in two words: not easy.

Most of the informal comments to date have been complimentary. Not surprising for a conference with presentations by both academicians and media professionals, the nominations for "best session" varied greatly. Every session seemed to be someone's favorite. What was called too basic by one convention-goer drew comments such as "I'd never heard about that" from another.

One victim of the Friday the Thirteenth jinx was the video conference with BuzzLogic's Bob Schettino in which the audio feed was a disaster. It had to be Friday the Thirteenth; our run-through the previous day had gone off without a hitch. CCI Dean Jim Gaudino is trying to arrange for Schettino to visit Kent to talk about how BuzzLogic is tracking conversational space. I'll keep you posted.


Pros and cons on AEJMC conference

While I'm in a conference mode, I want to wrap up the comments from some Kent State faculty members who attended the AEJMC conference in San Francisco in August. Last month I shared a report from new KSU professor Jeanette Drake (Sept. 11). The conference, by the way, drew a record attendance of 2,369.

Several others who attended passed along their views--not all as favorable as Jeanette's. Fran Collins, veteran advertising professor, had some sharp criticisms, particularly about much of the research that was presented.

One of Fran's frustrations with AEJMC is the emphasis on research that is of interest only to academicians. She said, "From my (admittedly jaundiced) point of view . . . articles aren't being accepted because they're relevant, valuable and/or worthwhile to educators and/or practitioners, they're being accepted so that more articles can be published that only (a few) other academics are going to read."

Fran also noted the seeming bias toward quantitative research. For example, one journal editor suggested articles must contain something statistical in nature to support opinions, i.e., authors who have non-statistical support for their opinions need not submit.

On the positive side, Fran pointed to two "professional" sessions and a visit to "Tribal DDB," the interactive ad agency division of DDB (formerly Doyle Dane Bernbach), San Francisco. The visit included part of the presentation the agency gives to prospective interactive-advertising clients.

Joe Murray, who is making the move from a director in the information services/new media area to the JMC faculty this semester, was attending his first AEJMC conference and compared it to the many information technology conferences he has attended.

One thing that struck Joe was difference in registration costs. AEJMC's $250 included organization membership and a journal while for a recent WebCT conference he paid $795. (But Joe also noted the $16 hamburger, apparently served with guacamole and a lollipop, in San Francisco.)

Joe also pointed to the difference between the noisy and promotion-filled exhibit hall for IT conferences v. the quiet, laid-back atmosphere of AEJMC exhibits. And he was struck by AEJMC holding sessions well into the evening; tech conferences tend to wrap up around the dinner hour.

The benefits of attending AEJMC for Joe included finding a textbook for his Cybermedia Design class this fall. Others: Buying research papers for a quarter, meeting faculty members from other universities with similar research interests, learning about grant possibilities and the range of free teaching aids from the Poynter institute.

Joe concluded: "All in all, a great experience. I think I might even like guacamole now. But not on hamburgers--at any price."

Other comments came from Dean Gaudino and advertising professor Bill Barre. The dean said the thing about the conference that stood out for him was the sense that the academic world is finally coming to terms with the realization that the old media is giving way to a new communications world.

Bill, who presented a paper, "7-UP: The Strategic Story of the Uncola Campaign," based on a video by Bill and Karl Idsvoog, was disappointed that he couldn't show a video clip from the Uncola campaign. The reason, he was told: "The hotel charges extra for a/v equipment, and it was not in the budget."