By Haley Bianco

The 72 National Broadcasting Society Convention was held March 11-16 in Los Angeles. 31 KU electronic media students traveled to California for the convention. The purpose of the annual convention is to provide students an opportunity to transition into the professional world of electronic media. At this year’s convention, students met with professionals with careers in film, television, news, radio, comedy, acting, public relations, media engineering, video editing, technical directing, marketing and social media.

The main focus of the convention is to provide students with networking opportunities, but there is also an award ceremony to recognize excellent college video and audio features. The KU chapter of NBS walked away with three grand prizes, two finalists and one honorable mention. As a chapter, KU won Model Chapter of the Year and the most prestigious award, Chapter of the Year.

“It was such a great feeling to know that all of the hard work my chapter put in really paid off,” said KU NBS president Zoey Grolman. “Compared to other universities we were competing against, we are a small university. It was great to know that we are actually doing something good that makes us stand out and get recognized with such a high achievement.”

KU students Austin Mulhern, Megan Black and Max Farrara won the award for Best Video Promo. They submitted their fall 2013 Golden Bear football promo. Black, who was KU NBS president last year, was recognized as an honorable mention for Student Member of the Year. KU NBS members were finalists in the video category for Video Drama Program and Video Sports Segment.

The awards ceremony was the last night of the convention. Prior to winning awards, students attended keynote speakers, panel sessions, studio/station tours and career focus. Marc Summers, host of Unwrapped on the Food Network, spoke as the keynote speaker. At one panel session, Steve Mosko, President of Sony Pictures Television, shared his story with students and gave advice to those starting in the television industry.

15 KU students attended a taping of executive producer Tina Fey’s TV pilot for “Cabot College.” At the taping they were able to see the behind the scenes work of a TV production. Other KU students toured the radio station of “On with Mario Lopez,” and sat in on a taping of Tosh.0.

“My favorite part of the convention was career focus,” said Grolman. “I thought it was a great opportunity for us to advance our careers by being able to sit down with professionals in the industry and get their advice and feedback.” At career focus, students sat down at round tables with producers, directors, talent and all forms of media people in the L.A. area. Business cards were exchanged, resumes were handed out and internship opportunities were formed.

“It helps tremendously because in this industry, networking is the best thing you can do to get your foot in the door. We get advice from people who have already been in our shoes and have succeeded,” said Grolman. “We also network with the other schools who could potentially be our coworkers or even future employers.”

Next year’s National Broadcasting Society Convention will be in Atlanta, home of CNN.