The television seminar group continues to roll on towards the 28th of August. As of this stage, my role is to organise the format and runsheet of the event with Regina Lee. Tomorrow, we’re having a group meeting immediately before the lecture in which will begin to properly coordinate the preparation process.

I have a few qualms with the format of this assessment, not the least of which is the relevance of it. There are clear benefits to organising this seminar, such as the chance to network and the continued development of our collaborative practice, however, I wonder if the production of media might be more relevant to media course. This, at its base, is event planning and management, which, while a useful skill, is not overly pertinent. It’s great for those of us who might want to get into corporate management, or maybe production managing, but the media-specific skills we should be developing are being ignored.

It was a stretch to make the experience relevant to what I’d like to learn, so I find myself favouring time management roles or jobs involving coordination. I’m signed up for the time keeper job on the day, as well as putting together the runsheet. My ultimate goal for my career is something along the lines of producer, production manager, production coordinator or  assistant director, which are some of the roles that require proficiency in managing time and people. I guess it will be useful to practice those skills, even at their most basic level. That said, these skills would be developed more through creating media, rather than event planning.

The process of networking is at the centre of this, however it seems like I don’t have anything to do with guests for the seminar. That’s fine with me, I can get more networking experience from the PNR report.

Ultimately, there are a range of skills being improved or tested through the seminar experience, at the forefront of which is collaboration. However, it’s a massive shame that the result is not something I would want to make – or be involved in making – outside of this degree. On top of that, it’s disappointing that instead of making media, this is all we get to do in our final semester.