Bird's Eye View

There are times for seriousness when it comes to blog post.   Some of them will make us think, some could provide valuable information to protect us from those who would do harm and some will create an emotional response that prompts us into action.

There there are posts like this one.  I saw this several weeks ago while at the office.  It was like many things these days that came across the Twitter feed. Now there is no doubt a lot of nonsense that makes it way onto Twitter but there are times when something comes up that is just plain fun

So I thought I would share.

I've been in Des Moines for almost 14 years.  When I came to the city the western part of the downtown area looked a lot like the pictures you would see of decaying cities in the 70's.  Run down buildings, crumbling parking lots, street lights that worked for the most part, and the occasional adult book store.  The east side wasn't much better.

But there has been a renaissance during the past decade.   Anyone who pays attention will know that the city and the surrounding area has been named numerous times as one of the top places in the country, to live, work and raise a family.   The downtown looks nothing like it did shortly after the 21st century began and the improvements are continuing.  Just this week elected officials took steps to begin the process of building a $100 million dollar convention hotel adjacent to the Iowa Events Center.  There are several projects under construction or planned for the near south side, and outside Des Moines, the building has been non stop in places like Ankeny, and West Des Moines.

By the way, this is going somewhere. It's actually going a couple to a few hundred feet above the city.  Cullen Powers gets credit for it.  He's the one who flew the drone over the city numerous times to give us quite a view of how far Des Moines has come in a little over a decade.

Enjoy.  Des Moines from Above

Back to Basics

There was an opportunity this past weekend to get back to basics.  It was the annual Iowa Broadcast News Association Convention.  It provides a chance to get reacquainted with fellow journalists from across the state, attend relevant seminars, see some of the work that is being done in other newsrooms around the state during the annual awards banquet.  This year the accolades were handed out over a period of 73 minutes.

While I was unable to attend most of the seminars because of an agenda on the home front that needed to be tended to, in retrospect I wish I could have done so.  The benefits of annual conferences such as the one put on by IBNA affords journalists several opportunities.  See what was happening at #ibna2015.  It provides a learning environment of course for those who are just beginning or looking to begin a career and it gives the seasoned journalist an opportunity to sharpen skills.  There is also the camaraderie factor that comes into play whether someone has been plying their trade for decades, like me, or establishing relationships that can last a lot longer than a sixty second newscast.

So something needs to be said no matter what profession you are in and there are actually three points that need to be heard so we all can become better people. 1

1.  If your occupation has professional development groups then by all means become a member. 

2.  Make it a point to attend a quarterly, semi annual or annual conference.  The networking potential is off the charts and you just might learn something.  (both of those happened when during the brief time I was at this past weekend's conference)

3.  Have some fun.  It will do you some good.

After 35 years in the profession it was good to get back to the basics.  I'm looking forward to the 2016 Iowa Broadcast New Association Annual Convention in Waterloo next spring