Following a short break, attendees went to their second period classes from 11:15am-12:25PM. Ryan Dohrn taught radio and TV sellers how to flip modern objections to buying radio and/or TV advertising (like “I’m moving all my advertising to social media/digital”, “I’m not seeing ROI from broadcast” and “Radio/TV is dead”) on the spot!

Andrew Finlayson taught a hands on class in the computer lab for content creators about how to use AI tools to get more done in less time.  Pete Van Peenen, an engineering consultant for Pearl TV taught us what we need to know about ATSC 3.0 otherwise known as NextGen TV, which will be coming to Vermont in about 2-5 years. While David Layer, NAB VP of Advanced Engineering tag team taught a class on Digital Dashboard Best Practices along with Steve Newberry from Quu because such a high percentage of listenership happens in the car, learning how your station can look its best on the connected car dashboard is critical.

Attendees then enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch of gourmet sandwiches, salads and desserts the size of your hand thanks to generous support from Inner Citadel Consulting. Anson Tebbetts, Secretary of the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets made a special guest appearance to thank broadcasters for airing Dig Deep VT campaign PSAs and helping to raise money for Vermont farmers who lost crops and were impacted by the flooding last year.

The VAB held our annual meeting during VAB Summer School where a quorum of members approved the minutes from last year’s meeting, got a briefing on the financial state of the association and reviewed the annual report. The VAB then hosted a second game of Kahoot, this time quizzing attendees on the information that was presented during the annual meeting. Again, the members with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd most cumulative points at the end of the game won $100, $50 and $25 cash!

Although it was not the end of the school day, the part the majority of attendees was most excited about came at around 1:30pm when the 18 winners of the VAB Content of the Year competition were revealed. Scroll to the bottom of the page for a list of award winners.

When asked, stations report that their biggest challenge (apart from finding new revenue) is finding qualified people to work. Which is why the VAB asked Andrew Finlayson, EVP of Digital & AI for research group SmithGeiger, to stick around after lunch and conduct a class titled “Hiring in a Modern Media Landscape”. Andrew shared a lot of insightful and thought provoking ideas on where to look for candidates and how to craft effective job descriptions that appeal to the next generation.