Learning Languages of the Future

Walking along the exhibit floor at the National Association of Broadcasters’s Conference in Las Vegas was an eye-opening experience. Seeing drones flying around and putting Virtual Reality goggles on was a whole new world I had never yet witnessed. I come from an audio production background, and seeing content displayed in 8K huge curved screens was truly transportive. These tools provide new ways to tell stories, and new approaches to writing will have to be developed and discovered.

While some years I focus on the latest products and technology, this year I felt I needed to brush up on the latest approaches in social media, so I used up most of my schedule attending those talks, learning everything from how (and the important of) changing your cover photo on Facebook, to understanding what an algorithm and how to use it to your advantage.

One of the things that is ever changing is the efficacy and methodology for using social media in getting a message across, but more importantly building a legitimate community with your audience.

At NAB 2015, my first class on social media was taught by Justin Seeley. He ended up being one of my favorites. I was a bit nervous that I wouldn’t really be able to catch on or understand what everyone was talking about, as these talks can get jargon heavy quite quickly, but Justin really broke everything down. He had a great sense of humor and was really great at providing information in a way that would stick with you. There is a lot of language that people may not be familiar with, but it starts out in the wild, and gets cemented in these meeting grounds, proving new methods for communication, to address things for which we once never dreamed of having words to express.

Often people attend trade shows to play with gadgets, like a science center field trip, but do not overlook the value of the conferences, where often, I find, people are really hunkering down and coming together around challenges and solutions that will trickle down into the public conversation. NAB has been consistently valuable on this front, and though some things get repeated from year to year, I can only take that as a sign that some of these ideas, are here to stay.