Indiana State University student Gabe Brown has been selected to work as a multimedia journalist at the annual Broadcast Education Association conference for the second year in a row.
The Broadcast Education Association (BEA) hosts its annual conference in Las Vegas. The conference has over 250 sessions, events, and workshops on media-related topics. According to their website, over 1,200 faculty and students attend the event each year with over 300 colleges or universities participating. The conference is also aligned with the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB). The “NAB Show” takes place at the same time and is the largest broadcast convention with over 100,000 attendees.
The BEA convention takes place in Las Vegas on April 13-16. Brown, who will graduate in May with a degree in communication and is general manager of Sycamore Video, will be one of the convention’s multimedia journalists. He will cover the BEA conference as well as the NAB Show and produce content for the BEA website and social media platforms.
Brown attended the convention in Las Vegas last year as well, and while others are telling him that it is a big deal to get invited back twice, he said he is just happy to get the experience. Regarding last year’s event, he said, “I enjoyed getting to see people who were a year or two ahead of me to see how they pivoted from college to the workforce.”
To get invited to the BEA convention as a multimedia journalist, Brown had to apply and send in a 60-second video about himself. He is thankful for the team at Sycamore Video that helped him create and put together a video to capture his personality and love for multimedia. Last year, the Sphere (a music and entertainment arena in Paradise, Nevada, east of the Las Vegas Strip) wasn’t completely finished, so Brown is looking forward to seeing that while at the convention and getting as much as he can out of his multimedia journalist experience.
“I think that Gabe was given another chance to go to the Broadcast Education Association event in 2024 because he so impressed the people that he interacted with last year,” said Jeffery Perkins, student video production manager for Sycamore Video. “They appreciated the fact that he was a great multimedia journalist as well as a truly good person. Everyone at Sycamore Video is incredibly proud of Gabe not only for being chosen once for this honor, but for getting the rare chance to attend for a second time.”
Brown describes himself as a “sponge for knowledge,” and said he is always looking for opportunities to learn about new software and technologies, and different styles of production. What he loves about this convention is seeing how other media operate and bringing those ideas back to ISU Student Media.