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David Kohr starts the meeting with a run down of his experience at NAMM. He talks about some of the CRAS grads that he met at the convention, including a grad named Nahm, who is currently visiting the school to shoot some promotional material. He talks about his time at the convention with CRAS' employment coordinator Rached Ludeman, pausing for a moment to explain the employment services offered to alumni. He scrolls through a series of pictures from the convention, from photos of graduates, the convention floor, and even a live event mixed by Bob Clearmountain. He takes a moment with each slide to introduce the graduates and engineers involved in each picture.
David goes in to talk about a private tour of Interscope studios with the newly-promoted night-time manager. Even beyond that, he talks about an album listening party with KUMA and some of the familiar faces that he got to enjoy the album with. He talks about the positions in the industry that current CRAS grads hold, not just in the states, but in South America and beyond. Other stories include a visit to EastWest Studios in which David was greeted by a staff of entirely CRAS grads, a NAMM panel where CRAS instructor Rick Allen speaks on the importance of creativity in sound design, and premieres of various new projects engineered by CRAS grads.
David caps off his segment with a reminder concerning the studio manager panel coming to CRAS this Thursday. He hands off the rest of the meeting to AES president Bea Hoban. She starts the meeting with a reminder about the panel as well as a Woman of Audio meeting next month with Rachel Peller. Introductions roll with the usual questions: Name and cycle, as well as this weeks special question "What would your fake band name be?".
Bea goes over the perks of being an AES member outside of school before a surprise visitor comes in! David brings in Nahm, the visiting graduate, to talk about his experience in the industry after graduation. He tells his story from his time at CRAS, then going into his experience being an audio influencer on Instagram. He leaves with an inspiring message, encouraging the attendees to take every chance they can. Touch all the gear, ask all the questions, and use all the resources that are provided, because you only get one shot to do it here!
Bea goes on to talk about the perks of AES in depth, including the resources that are made available to paid members and networking opportunities that come with it. She introduces the members of the board and provides contact information for attendees to reach out if they have any questions. Bea talks about the mentorship program and introduces the new mentors in the room, including three new members, Oliver Abbot, Solwyn Stegall, and Christopher Lanaghen.
After introducing the mentorship team, Bea allows the subgroup runners to introduce and talk about their subgroups. Subgroup topics range from sound design to EDM production, even a technical subgroup all about guitar and bass. For the last part of the meeting, Bea runs a game called "The Hot Seat". Attendees are given a series of audio engineering 'hot takes' and told to sit down if they agree and stand if they disagree. After debate dies town, Bea calls the meeting and tells the attendees to go network and make connections!
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