Five Conferences. Four Lessons Learned. The Three People Who Get It. A Tale of Two Cities. And One Glaring Omission.

Andrew Ramsammy
Sep 6, 2018 · 21 min read
Do we really need all these badges?

It’s been a full year since I last did the summer conference circuit. Unfortunately, I had to take some personal time off in 2017 to take care of my mother, who sadly passed away from cancer. Thankfully I was in position to be there for her final four months and I wouldn’t trade that time for anything in the world. The impact of her loss continues to ripple, so going into 2018, I wanted to be more mindful of my time, and who I was spending that time with. Easing back into work, it felt like I had missed something in the downtime, and then the invitations to speak, write, and consult came back. So too did the opportunity to attends a mix of public media conferences and events.

FIVE CONFERENCES

My summer 2018 conference circuit started off at the PBS Annual Meeting in New Orleans, then headed to the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, zagged across the country to Los Angeles for NALIP, and zipped back to Chicago for PMDMC, and finally made my final stop in Austin for PRPD.

I’m sharing my experiences because I know not everyone gets to go to conferences, and it would also disturb me, greatly, that colleagues would get to travel to conferences, spend thousands of dollars in conference fees, hotels, travel, and expenses, and not to mention the time out of the office. Then you would ask them “How was the conference?” Their response “Great.” And that was it. A one word response.

This is my personal recount of the summer of 2018.

FOUR LESSONS LEARNED

Lesson #1: Did I really need this badge?

a. Allied Media Conference: Attending a conference is really expensive. However, the cheapest of the conferences that I attended this summer and the best, bar none, was the Allied Media Conference in Detroit.

The total cost of attending the AMC excluding airfare was $374.00 and that INCLUDED 4 nights of on-campus housing.

I had to rub my eyes a few times to make sure there wasn’t some technical glitch during online registration There wasn’t.

Having attending public media conferences over the past five years, AMC was the WOKEST of WOKEST conferences I ever attended. The closest thing I could ever compare it to was going to high school in NYC. The sheer amount of diversity on display on stage, and in the audience, was emotionally overwhelming, but all in a good way. The content itself was on fleek. It talked about the issues, the challenges, the solutions, without pretense or falsehoods. Everyone was there because they wanted to be there. There wasn’t a hole in the schedule, nor a place to grab a breath.

I returned home from AMC/Detroit feeling more than just that usual afterglow “exhausted/inspired.” I was fired up.

Big thanks to AIR to subsidizing the trip and organizing a pre-conference meet up of former New Voices who spent an entire day catching up on their latest work and getting the much needed shot in the arm. If anyone needs help in wondering how to build the future of public media, attending AMC is a must and I plan on going back again.

And, one more thing, AMP is hiring a Communications Director, apply by September 7.

Did I really need an AMC badge: OMG, yes!

PBS Annual Meeting, PMDMC, PRPD

I’m lumping in all three of my public media conferences because, well, they all kind of felt the same. Having attended these conferences in the past, 2018 felt like any other year. But yet the landscape, the marketplace, the sense of urgency, didn’t seem to be reflective of what was going on at any of these public media conferences. I’ll delve into more specifics later about what’s missing, but aside from being in different cities, most of which are inherently expensive to get to, like Chicago and New Orleans, what was being discussed inside frigid ballrooms set to 68 degrees, with controlled scripts, presentations, and even hair/makeup, all seemed way too contrived and manufactured for me.

Yes, I’m a cynic, I’m a New Yorker, but this is public media, and sometimes I feel like we’re getting too big for our own tote bags.

And the real truth about my time at the PBS Annual Meeting and PRPD is that I spent most of it in the hotel lobby bar. Yes, I did partake an occasional, perhaps several, Hurricanes, in New Orleans, but I spent most of my time in several scheduled and impromptu meetings, and honestly there weren’t a ton of sessions that seemed compelling to me. There seems to be a disconnect at many of the public media conferences I attend, and often ask myself, what’s this conference about?

At PRPD, a conference about radio, I heard very little of it, you know the actual radio/audio part.

Lots of people talking but where was the sound? As well, so much of these conferences talk about “content” but yet the people in the audience actually make none of it. I do have to give kudos to PBS that does provide a great overview of the coming year with reels and reels of clip shows, something I wish PRPD was more like, but lacking from it all was context.

I’m going to give PMDMC a mulligan this year, as this is the first year that Greater Public and PBS are back together again, and the first full year under Joyce MacDonald’s leadership. A very special shoutout to the Fundraisers of Color Luncheon that was organized by PMDMC. It was a great opportunity to meet other fellow POCs, many who have been in public media for a long time, as well as newbies. It was a safe space to speak frankly about our experiences and what opportunities lay ahead. We need more gatherings like this if we’re going to address public media’s challenges around recruitment and retainment around people of color.

Did I really need this PBS badge?: I didn’t. I was in the lobby the whole time.

Did I really need this PMDMC badge: Of the three pubmedia conferences I attended, yes*.

Did I really need a PRPD badge? Sadly, no*.

* In the interest of full disclosure, I was invited to moderate two breakout sessions at PMDMC and my registration, hotel, and airfare were reimbursed, but I was not paid. PRPD comp’d me a registration to speak at their pre-conference but I was not reimbursed for my other travel related expenses, nor was I paid.

The National Association of Latino Independent Producers (NALIP)

Truth be told, I’m not a big fan of affinity conferences. As someone who is of mixed race, I’ve spent the majority of my life not exactly fitting into any one box. It was my first time attending NALIP. I was there as a part of a paid consulting assignment, so I was there for work. I wasn’t sure what to expect and then I got star struck.

As I was heading into the conference, I saw El Padrino out of the side of my eye, not Doug Mitchell. Edward James Olmos. Where was he going? Unbeknownst to me, at the same time that NALIP was going on, so was LALIFF, downstairs, at the same venue, on Hollywood and Vine. The two events would never across one another that entire weekend. It was honestly kind of strange. I would later learn that Edward not only started LAIFF, but also started NALIP as well.

The NALIP conference itself was part marketplace, with Latinx (a debatble use of the word) producers pitching their ideas to potential funders, part breakout sessions with several Latinx industry makers and shakers. And there was ample time to mix and mingle with the crowd at evening mixers. It felt very LA.

But my world felt a lot smaller when I started to bump into my circle of friends. Monika Navarro. Patricia Alvarado. Christen Hepuakoa Marquez. All people connected from my experiences in public media at either the PBS Producers Academy or the Next Generation Leadership Program, and the true dot connector to all of this is Judith Vecchione from WGBH, who lead both programs. Judith has had an important hand in my career and it’s why I’m so open and transparent about my public media journey.

Going to NALIP felt special after my initial anxiety subsided. Everyone there was talking the same language. Had the same ambitions, ideas, and solutions to make real change. Every panel was a demonstration of actual success. Data points, examples of work. Latinos/Latinas in Hollywood actual working, in the writers room, directing TV, executive producing, doing it all.

I could see myself represented at the NALIP conference, in varying forms. That’s a feeling I want more of, and not just for me.

It was an affirming experience and for the second time this summer, I didn’t feel like an outsider. The irony, NALIP’s hashtag is #WeAreInclusion, and it certainly accomplished that mission. I can certainly see this conference growing into a major powerhouse player, especially after the New York Times wrote an article stating that “shows are scrambling to hire more minorities, but the pipeline of experienced writers is thin, a problem of the industry’s own making.” Many of us believe that’s a deeply flawed narrative, and far from the truth. It’ll take the likes of NALIP to correct that incorrect perception. At a conference that had over 500 people attend, as many would say there’s your start, Hollywood.

Did I really need a NALIP badge? Claro que si! (Of course!)

Lesson #2: I became Maxine Waters, and reclaimed my time.

I can’t tell you how many sessions I walked out of, most of them during this summer’s public media conferences, and yet zero times at AMC. My rule of thumb is that everyone gets the first five minutes. After that, if you don’t impress me, I’m out. At one conference in particular, the very opening general session was outsourced to a guest speaker. Within two minutes of the guest speaker’s opening, I packed up my stuff and walked out, and thankfully, I did. I later learned what was supposed to be an opening general session scheduled for an hour and thirty minutes only amounted to forty five minutes.

Conference programmers need to understand that time is the most valuable commodity during a conference.

If you can’t do your job in producing conference content that is compelling and will sustain audiences for the next year, stop producing conferences, or let someone else takeover.

Often I would find myself in breakout sessions saying, this is what needs to be in the general session, and sitting in general session saying this needs to be an optional break-out session with a strong accompaniment of complimentary Tito’s Vodka.

I’ve also decided to also opt of pay-to-play “lunch and listens.” That’s when some big media company spends about $30k for the right to compel you to listen to their marketing spiel, while we all clank our silverware and chew rubbery, sometimes hard to identify animal proteins. Is that fish? Nope. It’s cold chicken. It should be noted that the world is becoming more vegetarian and vegan, so layoff the 500 versions of cold salmon. I think we can all agree that the paid-for “lunch and listens” are downright painful and that cold main salad staring you in the face won’t get you through 5 o’clock.

The long and short of this is that public media conferences need to do a better job. Quite frankly, many of these organizations and conferences need to merge and consolidate, because so much of it is repetitious and financially inefficient.

I think there needs to be a big-tent public media church revival, because many of these conferences feel like they’re on life-support.

The way conferences are produced (and I speak having several years of corporate events and conference experience) needs to be reimagined. I can imagine that the conference of the future is a blend of a traditional media upfront meets a Kara Swisher/Walt Mossberg D8 style conference, with non-contrived interviews and deep probing questions with top level public media leadership.

And, what we honestly need, is a public media makers and creators conference, which if anyone want’s to pick my brain about, I’m open to discuss. It should be something that CPB funds. That’s our business, making media and stuff, so, let’s just do it. Swoosh.

If you need me during a conference, you know more than likely where to find me. I’ll be in the lobby bar, reclaiming my time.

Lesson #3: Come Dressed, As You Like

It might not be a big deal but footwear at conferences is so important. After five years of aching conference feet, I decided do chuck the five-thousand Imelda Marcos shoes I normally bring to a conference and just pack the most comfortable sneakers I could find, while maintaining some level of style. So much of conferences is walking around. I’m sure that we’re all logging over 10,000 daily steps at these conferences. Another thing I ditched towards the end were sport-coats. Yeah, I look good but gosh-darn it, I’m not comfortable. My clothing game was still in check, ask my clothing nemesis Sean Nesbitt of PRX, but feeling comfortable is even more important. I decided to drop my own pretense of “jacket-man,” especially after the AMC conference, and just be me. After that realization my conference experiences went up one-hundred fold.

A meeting of public radio’s brown Illuminati. L to R. Ron Jones, Glynn Washington, Andrew Ramsammy, Al Letson.

Also, I know what I might be saying above might be completely sexist. As a man I get to get away with that dressed down tech-bro uniform sans the hoodie, and perhaps that doesn’t help portray that executive “dress for the job you want” look. But I also know that countless women have complained on how cold it is at conferences. I think I literally saw one woman with a blanket in the back of a ballroom at one. If someone were smart, the next big SWAG thing should be a conference Snuggie of some sor. At which point we could all look the same, and what we wear won’t really matter, and perhaps sneak in a nap during that session right after lunch? Or perhaps, raise the temperature to a comfortable 72, or whatever works for women?! The days of Mad Men are over. No one is wearing three-piece wool suits, and if they are, they’re Al Letson, and his swag comes with it’s own coolness, so, A/C need not apply!

THE THREE PEOPLE WHO GET IT

The best part about conferences, really, is meeting and connecting with people. I had the good fortune of connecting several people over the summer, and these are just three people who I think really get public media. Oddly enough, they all aren’t currently employed full-time in public media, and there’s a reason for that, they’re all disrupters, but have devoted much of their career to it.

Brenda Salinas. I met Brenda two years ago while living in Austin, and honestly, my life has never been the same. Brenda is a major dot connector and a very strong reason why I continue to consult in public radio. Our conversation have run the gamut from podcasting to tech, and back again. I also recognize Brenda for many common challenges that she and I have experienced in public media, as people of color, and more so for her as a woman of color. However, despite that, we still have this thing with public media.

Brenda is a current Googler. She, being way smarter than me, joined Steve Henn’s Tiny Garage Labs and 60db, which was later acquired by Google. While Brenda can’t tell me specifically what she’s working on, it’s clear it’s something big, because if she’s a part of it, you know she’s connecting dots that no one else can see.

I also have great respect for Brenda, who regardless of where she travels, knows how to squeeze in a local yoga or pilates session. I envy that type of commitment. Brenda and I both attended AMC, and PRPD this year. To say that our world’s were rocked when we attended AMC, that would be putting it mildly. Since that conference, we’ve become ambassadors of AMC, spreading the gospel. Brenda is the type of person that I’d like to get stuck in an airport with. There’s no end to our conversations, and we can go a week without talking and pick right up where we left off. For part of the summer she felt like a summer camp buddy.

An important presentation that Brenda gives is called “Protect Your Magic: A Survival Guide For Journalists of Color.” A while ago, Brenda reached out to me for some advice about it, and this summer at AMC, I got to see it for myself. She’s given presentation several times, including to the Next Generation Radio Project headed by Doug Mitchell. There’s a very specific reason why Brenda created this presentation and why she gives it. Brenda has worked as a producer and a reporter in the public radio since 2012. She was an NPR Kroc Fellow. She has a B.A. in Economics from Columbia University.

Would it surprise you that a smart woman like Brenda has had her magic messed with?

So, rather than play the victim, Brenda empowered herself, and her story, and decided to spread her message, not just through her presentation, but also by becoming a mentor, a sounding board, and a renaissance woman.

As we’ve seen with dearth of harassment scandals that have plagued public media, Brenda is doing everything she can to make sure that the future makers of our industry protect themselves and their voices from a system that not often enough provides protection and security from those who would use their power to mess the magic that is diversity.

While the world needs more Brenda Salinas, the world doesn’t need more of them who’ve experience what Brenda experienced, and to put that into context, Brenda says there are stories out there that are far worse then her own. That’s a problem, and public media can’t afford for it to continue.

Shane Guiter. Five years ago when I dove head first into public television as an executive producer, there were a ton a people who told me that I was embarking on was sheer madness. However, one of the few voices who championed me and my mission was Shane Guiter.

Five years later, Shane and I were sitting in New Orleans at the PBS Annual Meeting, in that lobby bar, presenting to general managers and stations a new business model on local production. Weeks before that we were perfecting our pitch deck. If there’s one person, who eats and thinks about the business and development of public media, it’s Shane.

Today, Shane and I are working on a few projects together and I love how we compliment each other. Yes, there is some mutual-admiration society stuff going on, but Shane and I like to think of each other as rocket ships. We both know that the work of public media, and frankly, anything for that matter is about building this rocket ships in stages. I feel like our relationship has been that way as well. Shane and I probably spend at least three hours a week on the phone, working with clients, talking about the future, looking to the marketplace, and all the reacting and reactive conversations going on. Being a consultant sometimes feels criminal — we get to come up with the big vision, create a state of alignment, and then help clients execute, sounds criminal, doesn’t it? That makes Shane is my partner in crime.

More often than not, our conversations will turn personal. Too much of it lamenting how we both miss Austin, tacos, and Tito’s Vodka. We’ll talk about our lives, our wives, me raising a five-year old, and Shane walking his dog. It all turns out to being equal or the same, which is to say everything we have is too good.

There are days when Shane feels like sending me a check for the advice I give, and me finding the quickest way to send an invoice, and vice versa.

There’s something very special about Shane. How he thinks. How he asks questions. How he makes you feel like you’re the only person in the room.

It’s been fascinating to see how he positions himself in conversations with very high powered people in public media.

If there were a scene in a movie to describe Shane, you’d want him to be the consigliere, whispering in your ear, what your next move should be, what thing you should buy, and what thing needs cement shoes. Shane can see down roads where there’s little light. He can push back the wolf who’s breathing, heavily, just on the other side of the door. To describe Shane as a mensch would be putting it mildly. I’m deeply in awe of what he’ll say next, and public media has no idea how committed Shane is to just getting what we do exactly right.

Helen Barrington. I’m a New Yorker and I have an extreme appreciation for people like Helen, and her very northeast vibe. I met Helen several years ago at PRPD. It felt like we were two ships passing through the night but when our eyes met, we gave that secret head nod. So, we pulled over to the side and the moment we started talking, I just knew Helen was someone that gets it. Often, Helen and I will talk about the inherent challenges that face public media, especially around diversity. It’s the reason why Helen invited me to speak at the pre-conference at PRPD this year. We decided to do my talk fire-side chat style. Two hours wasn’t merely enough to cover everything we needed to talk about. At the end I asked Helen if I was yelling the whole time. She said, no, they needed to hear what you had to say.

While Helen and I have never worked together, we’ve worked at the same places, or at least have had several paths intersect. Her experience in public media is much deeper and richer than mine, which is why I’ll often call upon her for advice. She’s a fixer. A maker. A doer of making things better.

Helen is also a major keeper of the public media flame. She’s like one of those trick birthday candles. Try to extinguish her flame, and well, she keeps coming back.

Helen is malleable but only to an extent, at which point she’ll tell you straight up what you probably don’t want to hear, which is the truth. She like many of my comrades, works for her check, there’s no salary waiting for her every two weeks. That’s what makes Helen so sharp and on her game.

Helen has been on a push of recent to talk about public media’s challenges, especially around harassment and training. As well, Helen believes as the world becomes more complex and challenged-ridden, stations should be preparing and training for emergency preparedness. One only has to see the amount of mass shootings or weather-related catastrophes that it’s not a matter of if, but when. While many of the things that Helen proposes doesn’t come up as a top 10 priority for stations, the reality is that it should.

Helen probably gives away more free advice then to anyone I know. And when she’s on the clock, you’ll more than likely get more than your monies worth. There aren’t many Helens in the public media system. Part agitator. Part problem solver. But 100% on mission. If there’s a part of public media that needs to be carried forward into the future, it’s how Helen thinks about its lasting legacy, that the problems of the past we ought solve now, or just plain, leave behind.

A TALE OF TWO CITIES

In one city there lived a group of people from all walks of life. They all came from different parts of the country and the world. They came with an energy that was magnetic and attractive. They were never in a rush to duck out of a conversation. They looked you in the eyes. The shook your hand. They would even hug you. They shared their collective strengths. They raised each other’s voices. Stickers and scars were traded like currency. They held up children, above the crowd line, so they could see what present looked like. In this city no one ever dare wear khaki pants.

In the other city, well, it was full of khaki pants. It was a dominant shade of alabaster, needing more than just a shot of vitamin D or a spray tan. It seemed that everyone in this city came from the same place. In this city, people were too busy to look at one another. In this city people would do everything to avoid my meeting requests. In this city everything seemed way too perfunctory. There was lots of SWAG. Most of that SWAG would end up in the trash or in the maid’s cart as some sort consolation tip prize.

It’s clear that in one city, the definition of diversity is the inclusion of all people. But yet in that city there’s no mention of the word itself because it’s so apparent, and mentioning it would be redundant and foolish.

In the other city, the conversation about diversity has reached an all-time ad nauseam high. There’s even the self-congratulatory things are getting better, but there’s more work to be done, which only gets mentioned as some sort of opening salvo, or the conclusion to the apparent void between words and actual action.

This year, as in years past, I was invited back to one city to talk about diversity. I felt like I needed to dig deep and find voices we hadn’t heard from before. From people who actually were not only talking the talking but walking the walk. And the biggest two things I wanted to present was: demonstrable evidence of change, and actual data of how the needle was moving. The challenge was hard, but through a concerted effort, we found SEVEN new voices. Seven leaders, from a GM on down to a frontline manager, and everything in between, making change and tracking it. But yet, in this one city, we still were the minorities. Our voices tabled to the side, as breakout sessions, competing for attention, and not on the main stage, where everyone needed to hear from these voices about the work, their work.

Is change happening? Yes. In both cities. Yet the rate of change is so dramatically different when you compare these two cities side by side. There’s no question which city is preparing for the challenge, and which city is descending into irrelevance.

And it’s clear that in one city there’s no need to talk about the change because they are the change.

I often wake up thinking about that magical city I got to experience this past summer. The faces of all those curious folks. Where curiosity is cultured, and the field looks so fertile, where you know whatever you do, the community will make sure that it grows and thrives. It takes a village to make change and what I saw is that a community, somewhat distant and foreign to me, had already created that village. It just might be time for me to move on to magic city.

And One Glaring Omission

And finally. The moment we’ve all been waiting for. The proverbial elephant in the room.

It was hardly ever mentioned at any of the public media conferences I attended.

In what should have been considered the morning after #MeToo, no one was adult enough to wake up and talk about the recent spate of allegations and scandals that plagued public media square in the face. Ok, yes, some of these conversations happened in breakout sessions but no one dared mention it on the big stage. And of the conversations that did occur in those side meetings, it was a step by step of what to do in the event something happens, rather than talk about the culture that lead to it, and how the culture needs to change to make sure it never happens again.

Public media, like many media companies, is big into star culture. We’ve created and harbored a space where top talent, most of it white, and most of it men, were and are allowed to mistreat their subordinates.

There needs to be ZERO tolerance when it comes to the mistreatment of any employee, intern, or contractor!

It’s baffling to be at a conference and not talk about this very important, very public issue. There hasn’t been one strand of public media has not been impacted by what occurred at WNYC, NPR, MPR, and at PRI/PBS by way of Tavis Smiley. And if you think that this issue is an anomaly, that it’s some sort of isolated incident, think again. Trust created is just trust waiting to be erroded.

By omitting the very discussion of sexual harassment, and any harassment issue for that matter, the very culture that’s been created by the lack of this discussion and meaningul action around this issue should prompt ourselves to ask: do we have the right leaders in the room leading this conversation? I don’t think we do.

It’s time we get past the legal-eze of personnel matters and realize that countless numbers of women and men, have been harmed irreparably by the silence and clear void of conversation created this summer and the decisions, or lack thereof, that lead to this terrible tsunami. The events that forced the undoing of many storied public media institutions did not happen over night. The signs have been there all along, and those in power have chosen to ignore the cries for help and attention.

And even when an opportunity clearly presented itself, to reposition public media as being a leader when it comes to the promotion and retention of women, especially in the host chair, we fumbled.

When two men were allowed to speak on a stage about their work and jokingly discuss a company merger in the context of male anatomy, in the current/post age of #MeToo, have we not learned from our own lessons?

Nothing was done or said to rebuke those comments, so in the absence of information, we inherently condone those immoral actions.

We buried the lede this year. We had the opportunity to showcase diversity, inclusion, and equity, warts and all. The new host of The Takeaway, Tanzina Vega, could have been our rallying cry. Instead she and her other co-host, Amy Walter, were buried deep in a network showcase at PRPD, which I might add went on way too long. Both Tanzina and Amy were proceeded by white men, who still haven’t realized that their time is and was up, a long long, long, time ago.

5,4,3,2,1…

Maybe I’m being too harsh about it all, but what’s missing from this all is the sense of urgency around the work that needs to be done.

The tough conversations that need to be framed, and the culture that needs to be readied to heed the change, let alone the massive disruptions and opportunities that continue to confound the general media market.

I saw lots of leaders this summer. In all their glory and wonder. I’m just not sure what they exactly do.

But I also so a ton of leadership, many of them keenly aware of the moment we’re in, ready to take action.

The fork in the road has never been clearer. This is the point of no return.

So, summer is over. And it’s time to go back to work, because…

Fall conference season starts next week.

My bags are packed.

I hope to see you in magic city!

Andrew Ramsammy

Written by

UnitedPublic Strategies Founder. Dell, The Daytripper, & PRI Alum. 3x Emmy Winner.

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