11th Media Summit Recap
After last years media summit with Al Roker and Charlie Rose, people didn’t know what to expect from this years media summit. Co-Student Event Director of the Media Summit Victoria Love, said, “This year’s event was obviously on a smaller scale than last years — there was no Al Roker or Charlie Rose that would necessarily draw in larger than normal crowds.” But that didn’t mean that the event wasn’t going to be successful and it wasn’t.
This years panelists included ABC-TV national correspondent Kendis Gibson, class of 1994; Dave Longley ’94, chief meteorologist at WSYR-TV News Channel 9 in Syracuse; Michelle Garcia ’06, identities editor at Mic.com; and Jennifer Sanders of WSYR-TV News Channel 9. The topic was about diversity in the media.
In every Media Summit there is always the breakout star and after speaking with Director of Social Media of the Media Summit Shantol Williams and following some tweets, it was clear that it was Dave Longley.
“Dave Longley was especially inspiring because he has to overcome his disability everyday and you wouldn’t expect an illness to effect your career in the same way that being a minority would, but it is surprisingly similar,” Williams said. “And I think that was especially important for the students to understand.”
Even Show Director Lauren Toscano was so moved by Longley’s story.
“His words were just so honest and it was a true moment of vulnerability,” Toscano said.
But Longley wasn’t the only one to give out great advice. Career connector Anthony Hill of WWLP-TV, who is a recent grad from SUNY Oswego gave some great advice to students who are looking for jobs after graduation.
Another career connector Mike Toper of Time Warner Cable News and Sports spoke to students about being truly flexible if you really want the job.
Overall though, each member of the E-board took something completely different from their experience from this years media summit.
“The thing I will take away from the summit is to have the confidence to continue on after being rejected do to my race or an illness, to not allow someones views to affect my work and to work hard to break into an industry that needs more faces like my own,” Williams said.
“They [the panelists] said to keep going if you’re put down or cast aside until you find someone who believes in you enough to give you a shot,” Love said.
“It was a great learning experience something I definitely will take with me in years to come,” Toscano said in regarding her experience of directing the broadcast of the event for the first time. “My broadcast may not have been picture perfect but I think we did a great job and I would not have traded this experience for anything else. I made mistakes and I take them and learn from them.”
Even though they all had different experiences from this one event, they were all able to take something from it that they’ll never forget.
