The Chicago Convergence ~ report from the Chicago New Media Summit

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HollywoodChicago.com’s Patrick McDonald was there….

CHICAGO, IL: I volunteered yesterday at the Chicago New Media Summit, and it was an excitedly interesting day. If you were there I was the tall dude working the ushering at one of the doors.

The day began for me at about 5:30am. I am definitely not used to getting up at such a time, so kudos to whoever discovered the coffee/caffeine connection.

I arrive at the Museum of Contemporary Art at 6:45a, and found that I could not get in. I luckily found the security post, and they got me a personal escort from one of their employees (thanks, Jamie). We walked through the bowels of the MCA like Spinal Tap looking for the stage, but finally made it to the sign-in arena.

The volunteer coordinator, Erynne, was about as organized and effective as anyone I have ever worked with in such a situation. When she met me, she said she pictured me as a short black man. It was the highest compliment I could receive. It was the running gag throughout the day, but she was highly complimentary to all the volunteers and received appropriate thanks from the stage later in the day.

The highlights for me…

- Definitely meeting the community. My fellow usher, Erik, is a grad student at DePaul, in from his native Seoul, South Korea. We talked the cinema scene in that country, which is like the French New Wave now, providing a new distinct voice and mark.

Both Erik, and another volunteer, Brian, are students on the cutting edge of all this understanding of the media, with gaming, the internet, mobile devices and all the new electronic message deliverers. I give them credit for looking to expand their network capabilities.

- In a surprise, one of my Midwest Independent Film Festival colleagues, Malachi from Left Brain/Right Brain Productions, turned out to be one of the co-founders of the Summit. As I told him, “dude, you are everywhere.”

- The speakers were amazing. I was allowed to sit in on some of the sessions, as they broke down their presentations into digestible 20-30 minute chunks.

John from Bunnygraph Entertainment in Los Angeles spoke of the revolution in mobile television like it was the early days of 1940s home TV. I was impressed with his knowledge of media history in making these comparisons.

Greg from Comcast talked about Interactive TV, targeted consumers in their huge cable database with interactive features that will make the TV more like an email/internet experience, in the sense of being able to deliver specific information

Finally, Bruce from Technology Access Television, a Chicago New Media Summit co-founder, gave a rousing speech about the possibilities of the present talent pool in Chicago, preferring even to brush aside the term “new media.”

He even introduced the new name for it…

The Chicago Convergence

It was an inspiring and beneficial day for the speakers, participants and especially for me. Thanks to the organizers and mainly my crew chief Erynne.

For more information on the The Chicago Convergence, click here.