The Conference starts officially today, but last night there was check-in and the Academic Brain Trust. Unfortunately, we got stuck in traffic in Metro East and then my car died right when we got to the hotel — which is the best place for it to die. It’s just a battery problem, so we’re not stranded in St. Louis, but it made us a little too late to participate in the Trust.
Last night we went to a party/benefit for the St. Louis community station, KDHK, called Midwest Mayhem, held at a place called City Museum, which is really just a big jungle gym for adults… with alcohol. There was a big ball pit, lots of spiral staircases that end in big slides, and a strange metal tube catwalk that takes you above the outdoor area 3 – 4 stories into old planes suspended above. It was a good way to let loose just before the conference begins, but after those of us from Champaign-Urbana already had a couple days of the Media Consolidation conference.
We’re about 20 minutes away from the opening session and plenary, which I will probably blog at the Be The Media Blog.
The nice part about conferences that you go to more than once is catching up with people you haven’t seen in a while, like IMCistas from Michigan, NYC and Madison and folks from Prometheus. So last night was mostly social and today it’s back to the business of media reform.