SUNY Oswego’s 10th Annual Media Summit considered one to remember

Starting 10 years ago, SUNY Oswego started hosting the annual Lewis B. O’Donnell Media Summit.  Both alumni and highly influential people come to the campus to take part in a panel discussion which is moderated according to different themes for every year.  With this year’s Media Summit being the 10th anniversary, perhaps the most influential talent, led by Charlie Rose, anchor of CBS This Morning, came to campus to be a part of the big event.  Here is an overall summary of the day’s events and how it impacted SUNY Oswego students.

Preparation and Inspiration

Wednesday before the Media Summit was a time for speakers to go to classrooms and get students ready for the next day. Speaker, and sponsor since 2005, Lou Borelli spoke to Mass Media and The Law as well as some other classes to inform students about the importance of the Media Summit as well as some other things.

Experience goes far beyond the Media Summit. According to Borrelli, it’s something each student as an individual needs to get. And being a sponsor that gets to speak to them, he hopes to inspire.

 

Reporter Brianna Case asked students “What does the Media Summit mean to you?”

Here are some of their responses.

 

Borrelli as well as Hogan and McMichael believe inspiration comes out of the Media Summit. It’s a time to see what students can do at SUNY Oswego and even when they get out. Each panelist gives their story allowing students to take in every bit of information that will allow them to use it to help their decision making for the future.

Borrelli gives advice to students from his own experiences:

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Following Brianna’s interview with Lou Borrelli, reporter Paul Esden went to go find out what the Oswego Media Summit means to students…

 

The Cleveland Panel

Dr. David Moody, Oswego Alum Steve Levy, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Connie Schultz, and Dennis Thatcher. all made up a panel with a unique commonality.  Except for Steve Levy, they were all born in Cleveland.  They discussed a variety of hot button topics revolving around all Cleveland Sports. Of course they talked about how well the Cleveland Browns surprisingly have been playing, but one of the main story-lines over the summer was none other than Johnny ‘Football’. Watch below as Steve Levy shared his insight on the current quarterback situation and what he thinks is the future for Brian Hoyer and Johnny ‘Football’.

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Also discussed on the Cleveland Panel was, Cleveland icon, LeBron James. The panelists gave their perspectives on LeBron James initially choosing to leave the city he grew up in to chase titles in Miami.  ESPN anchor Steve Levy, was able to give the audience his unique perspective on, the infamous ‘Decision’ and how he felt about it from an inside perspective. Some panelists like Dennis Thatcher took it personally when LeBron James left town, while others like Dr. Moody didn’t have a problem with it.

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Finally the panelists discussed the long awaited, open-armed, return of their King, LeBron James. Overall the entire show was entertaining and there was great chemistry between panelists. The topics were anything from Cleveland Browns to the issues with the Cleveland Indians and everything in between.

The Main Event: The Media Summit Discussion Panel

Former Oswego Alum Ken Auletta sat down with panel members Al Roker, Charlier Rose, Dennis Thatcher and Connie Schultz.  For each panelists bio click the following link: http://www.oswego.edu/academics/mediasummit.html.   Students instantly took to twitter so show how big of an opportunity it was to have a gathering of such talented people all in one place.   Below is an example of how excited one student in particular was.

 

Arguably the most notable part of this year’s summit was President Stanley presenting Charlie Rose with an Honorary Doctorate from the school.  Watch here as Charlie Rose is given his award.

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The Career Connectors portion was one of the most popular and important events for students to get involved in!

 

 

As soon as the Media Summit panel dispersed it was a rush to the finish for students wanting to meet up with the Career Connectors! Mere minutes into the doors opening, the room was packed, and students were raring and ready to go!

And one of the trendiest topics of the event, was Career Connector Cameron E. Jones. He seemed to be the most quoted Career Connector in the Media Summit’s history! But the story he was most famous for was a revelation that happened right after in his own words, “probably the worst interview of my life.”

Cameron Jones had just had an interview with ABC, he felt like things couldn’t get any worse. As he walked away from the interview he walked up the pier and looked into the ocean, thinking to himself whether he was on the right career path. Then all of the sudden out of the blue he noticed a pack of ducks in the water. He had a realization that nothing is ever going to bother these ducks. “The duck doesn’t know anything else, the duck doesn’t say oh man it’s raining today, I wanted it to be sunny. Ducks don’t think that way, the duck just wants to be care-free, do what it has to do.” What Cameron Jones says he pulled from this encounter with the ducks is that he can’t worry about things he can’t control. That is when Cameron said he needs to be more like the duck, just move and flow, roll with the punches and worry about things he can control.

Which of course sparked the trending hashtag of the day, #CameronDucks even Cameron himself addressed all the crazy attention he was getting from his story.

Here are some of the others who got involved from fellow Career Connectors to various students it made for a really entertaining day!

To get a full feeling for what this day was like for students who took advantage of it, take a look at this gallery that highlights all of the days events.

Overall, this year’s Media Summit was a huge success and even though it just concluded, Lou Borrelli said in an interview that “plans for next year’s media summit will begin the following day.”