RTNDA, BEA and NAB
Vegas trip a success

Elon University's School of Communications was well represented at the Broadcast Education Association gathering in Las Vegas this month. The school won a number of prizes, and many faculty members appeared as presenters or as moderators or participants in panel presentations. In addition, a number of student members of the Radio and Television News Directors Association also participated in events.

The School of Communications Web site was honored with the Broadcast Education Association's "Best of Festival" award in the category of Interactive Multimedia. It was presented to Paul Parsons at a glitzy special event during BEA's International Festival of Film, Video and Media Arts, held in conjunction with the Broadcast Education Association's 48th Annual Convention & Exhibition, The National Association of Broadcasters 80th Annual Convention & Expo and the Radio and Television News Directors Association gathering. The Web site also won a "Best of the Competition" award in the category Educational/Instructional Site.

Elon student Ryan Notch won an honorable mention in this year's BEA competition for his student video "Timescape Sydney."

Connie Book, Don Grady, Shi Ling and Jessica Gisclair were awarded first place in the BEA's International Papers category for their paper "Building a Foundation for Further Testing: Chinese University Students' Media and Internet Activity." Brooke Barnett and Book were the authors of a presentation related to the initial findings from their NAB-sponsored research on the early adoption of PCTV.

Vic Costello served as chair of BEA's Research Division, and was active in a number of areas during the course of the event. Gerald Gibson, a regular at BEA gatherings, served as a panelist, then served again when he had to fill in for some missing folks on another panel. Anthony Hatcher appeared at a session covering teaching methods at different-sized programs.

Among the Elon students led by adviser Tom Nelson at the RTNDA event were Erin Flynn, Matt Belanger, Patricia Hiott, Jeff Spear and Ryan Markel.

Thousands of attendees travel to Las Vegas each April for these converged major broadcast association events to share ideas, present research, network with academics and professionals, meet with publishers and attend the latest equipment/technology demonstrations.