October 17, 2009
For Immediate Release

For more information: Mike Harper (801) 863-7046
University Marketing & Communications: Erin Spurgeon, (801) 863-6807
Written by: Alex Strickland (801) 863-6351

Utah Valley University senior Richard Lee knows a good opportunity when he sees it. That’s why the digital media student was headed to Kinko’s Thursday afternoon to print up some business cards before hitting the floor on Friday at the Blogworld and New Media Expo in Las Vegas.

“This experience is 10 times better than what you’d learn reading a chapter,” Lee said. “I’ll be rubbing shoulders with people who can let me know what they’re going to be paying for in this industry.”

Lee and UVU junior Jordan Hack will be doing more than just wandering around the sea of booths in the cavernous Las Vegas Convention Center, they’ll be running one. Along with associate professor Mike Wisland, the pair will be running a live podcasting booth where expo attendees can drop in to record a live podcast from the event and maybe learn a few things in the process.

“As an aside from the actual recording, we’ll be teaching people how to create better podcasts and do better audio work,” Wisland said. “We have a whole variety of microphones here that they’ll be able to test out and hear the difference. It’s not just a functional booth, it’s an education.”

For the uninitiated, a podcast is like a downloadable online radio show that has become a regular feature for broadcasters to pajama-clad bloggers to major news operations like National Public Radio.

The unique opportunity to serve and educate a who’s who of bloggers and new media types at the event came at the behest of Blogworld and New Media Expo CEO Rick Calvert, who knows UVU professor Mike Harper and was so impressed with the UVU students who helped Harper at his booth last year that he sponsored them for the 2009 gathering.

“Their CEO knew what sort of stuff we’re doing here at UVU,” Harper said, “so he had no hesitation about our students being capable.”

The trip to Blogworld is a quick turnaround for some of Wisland and Harper’s students, who just returned from the national Audio Engineering Society Conference in New York earlier this week.

For Lee, the chance to participate in the huge expo was a perfect example of UVU’s commitment to getting its students real-world experience and not limiting education to the classroom.

“I love it because UVU is always pushing the engaged learning,” he said, “and when you’re doing something like this you think, ‘this counts.’”

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