| Hello WABE friends!
It is hard to believe that it has been just shy of a year ago when the pandemic started and turned our lives upside down. As I sit typing this, I am moving forward in the new way of doing things, as I know most of you are. With a vaccine rolling out, there is a faint light at the end of the tunnel. For the time being, we must make best of the new reality. We are still dealing with the forced change in our industry with teams working remotely, having reduced staff and social distancing protocols in the physical plant. The importance of the broadcast engineering team has never been greater and the opportunities brighter, demonstrated by the number of available engineering positions in Broadcast Dialogue. We continue to be busy over here at our virtual WABE headquarters office. I would say busier than if we were just planning a late fall convention. My mid winter message is one of reminders and some exciting announcements.
First, I want to remind you that when you registered for the virtual WABE convention, the doors did not close, thanks to our sponsors. You can log into the instance anytime and view the content or even go in to look up a vendor contact or send them an email. It remains open to you until August 31st. That leads me into this announcement. Another reason we developed the instance is so we can from time to time have you come back and for us to provide a paper or educational session outside the instance. Our education Committee, headed by Chancellor Mark Crichton, is planning WABE 2021’s first 2-paper session for March 11th. If you had already registered for the 2020 annual virtual convention, use your same login credentials to sign into the instance and take in the sessions. If you did not register, but are now interested, you can register at anytime between now and March 5th. Look under delegate registration on wabe.ca for the registration link.
I would also like to invite WABE delegates to a WABE Zoom meeting on March 4th at 11:00am MT. Drop in to say hello and we will announce the paper topics for the March 11th education session.
March 4/21, 11:00am MT Zoom Link:
https://zoom.us/j/98177475233?pwd=U2IvTXRSU1RwZVgyNW10ZFAybHZwUT09
The WABE executive has decided that we will again host a virtual convention for 2021. We are not clairvoyants, but as an organization with a small volunteer base, there would be a risk to attempt to hold an in-person convention, not knowing if we would get attendance numbers and if vaccinations would be complete, or if widespread travel would even be possible. There are also business budgets and other logistics that cannot be accounted for in the aftermath of the pandemic. WABE is looking to continue with the Scarritt Group and taking what we learned last year and making it better.
Tentatively, we are looking to hold our 71st annual convention on Nov 3rd & 4th, 2021. This will include trying to coordinate local “meet-ups” and support local pubs or restaurants that were most impacted by the pandemic. This year, we will be coordinating and providing the convention details earlier to help promote and increase delegate registration. We will also be speaking with associations such as the CCBE that have a common interest in broadcast and media technology to broaden our reach.
In late November 2020, I introduced the executive in my Broadcast Dialogue convention wrap up article. Now, I would like to introduce you to our 2021 Convention Committee:
Exhibitor Chair, Mike Modney: JPBG Edmonton Chief Engineer who relates to some of our vendors and sponsors. Mike will work closely with Eric Becker our Exhibitor Liaison to ensure a best of class exhibition experience.
Radio Papers Chair, Mitch Bunda: Corus Vancouver Chief Broadcast Engineer who has already brought amazing paper content ideas to the table with live and on-demand content relevant to the evolving radio broadcast landscape.
TV Papers Chair, Howard Chen: Fairchild TV Vancouver Engineer who will bring great papers and content for the TV side but will also bring a perspective from the independent and multicultural broadcaster from his 23 years of industry experience in Canada and China.
Social Media Chair, Sarah Boutette: JPBG Lethbridge Technical Manager, a SAIT graduate that is an up-and-coming team member within the JPBG organization will bring her understanding of online media savvy to enhance promoting WABE through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the WABE website.
Host Chair, Motoki Yamasaki: Senior Broadcast Engineer with Global TV Burnaby. Motoki will bring his fun and upbeat personality to put the fun into the WABE experience and will coordinate the meetups in November.
Visit our website to see the contact information for all of our committee members.
In the next couple of months, we will navigate the dynamic environment and provide the latest updates on partnerships, papers, convention details and more. Please follow social media, keep an eye out in the inbox and check the website as we get ready to learn, virtually network and keep the stick on the ice through 2021.
Yours truly,
Rob Brown
WABE President |
