AES Student Officers lead a discussion on student tips and tricks for a successful AES New York experience.
The new student officers of UML AES were tasked with a sales pitch for their first meeting of the semester. The product: attending the 127th AES Convention in New York.
The hour long presentation was structured to provide information, entice the uncertain, and generally get everyone excited for the weekend of October 9 - 12. Attendees were walked through the processes of booking hotels, registering for the convention, choosing events suitable for an audio student, and networking properly and intelligently. Wonderful pieces of advice offered by convention veterans included dealing with high food prices, seeking cheaper lodging across the river from the Javits Center in New Jersey, an internet hospitality phenomenon known as "couch surfing," and the importance of budgeting time to see as many interesting presentations as possible.
Understanding the financial strain of 4 days and 3 nights in New York on college students, the officers aimed to ease the pain by arranging car pools and suggesting contact with New York-dwelling UML alumni who might be willing to offer up their couch or floor to a student in need. They also gathered information that they could take to the school's Student Government to beg for extra funding that could be put toward the trip. To try to inspire those uncertain about attending, the glorious Events calendar was displayed, and attention was directed to those events that seemed the most interesting to a student, such as Kevin Killen's presentation on mixing in the box, the Bob Ludwig moderated panel on mastering and the art of the album, and the thread of Game Audio presentations new to the convention.
The 30 students who attended the meeting left knowing all they needed to know about the convention, and were hopefully, at the very least, considering the options available to get them to New York. The officers left looking forward to another few weeks of getting everyone in the Sound Recording Technology program excited about what's sure to be a great weekend.
