Best of NCA 2008

I just wanted to use this post to highlight some of the key points from the first day/day zero of the National Communication Association 94th Annual Convention in San Diego.

1.) Follow the Boy Scout rule, “Be Prepared”: I had every intention to keep a hardcore Twitter stream with the little tidbits of wisdom I picked up from the conference. However, there were three times when one of the presenters were not prepared and failed to have the correct dongle for their MacBook. So, my computer was used as a presentation computer. I am not mad at those who borrowed my laptop. I was more than happy to help out those who needed the equipment. However, I would encourage all of the people who are presenting for the first time at a major conference to have the correct adapters to power your computer and hook up to a VCA cord or an HDMI cord.

2.) Planners are the key to any conference: I found out exactly the role of the planner as I will be one next year. I salute those who came before me and dread the work I have to do.

3.) The virtual representation of the self/community/point of interest will be a crucial topic for the next couple of years: Many of the panels that I went to during the first day had this common thread interwoven into their respective papers/roundtables. Guerilla marketing, cyberterrorism, citizen journalism, nonverbal communication, future mapping and the interdisciplinary model of education all dealt with some level of virtual representation online. I was very impressed with the scholars I heard from today and look forward to reading their work in the future.

4.) “Communication and the Future” is a wide-open playground: I am also very excited at the level of scholarship that was brought into the field this year and hope this trend continues. I was hoping to have more issues dealing with true cyberstudies as opposed to the meta-issues I was dealing with today. However, I am way too tired to write any more, and I’m got an early morning tomorrow.

Good night…