Atlanta, Georgia, is a beautiful city with much to offer, though different from a city such as Des Moines, Iowa.

My classmates and I came to Atlanta to attend the Fall National College Media Convention, with myself and Abby Hintz being the only ones to have not attended one before.   

Upon arriving in Atlanta, it was immediately different from where Caleb Geer, Jenna Prather, Abby, and I had come from. 

The weather was around 80 degrees, which was a near 50-degree difference from Iowa. I had to immediately take off the winter coat that I had on when exiting the plane due to the heat; keep in mind that it was 2 a.m.

That same day I was first able to attend the sessions that the convention had to offer. 

The first session that I attended was led by the student media team at Missouri Western State University. The session was focused on how to build a digital audience for your publication. 

I took a lot of information away from that session as it gave me ideas on features we could implement on the Simpsonian Instagram page.

The Instagram page that they showed us had highlights of the staff, sports articles and opinion pieces. They also had a reporter of the month section, which I thought was unique as it allowed for the staff to be recognized for their exceptional work. 

The second event that I attended was a keynote presented by Enterprise reporter and manager Ernie Suggs. 

The keynote was led by three individuals who all had a passion for Hip-Hop. The culture of Atlanta is heavily influenced by the genre, which I believe to be the reason for them being chosen as the presenters. 

I found the presentation to be engaging due to my interest in Hip-Hop and music in general. I do think that there was somewhat of a disconnect with a younger audience and these speakers, due to the type of music our generation listens to nowadays. 

 With the first two sessions being completed, we set out for lunch, which came with a walk across Centennial Park. It was a beautiful area with a mixture of architecture and nature.

The walk back was particularly interesting as it was something that I had never seen before. 

A homeless man walking in front of our group decided to take all his clothes off and cross the street. In Indianola, it is almost impossible to ever come across something like this due to the low amounts of homeless people in the area. Still, even in a city like Des Moines or my hometown of Kansas City, I had never seen something like that.

Seeing something like that allowed me to see just how different big cities can be from our small midwestern world.

To finish the first day, our group attended a networking session where we met other media students. I found this to be enjoyable as it allowed me to meet people with similar interests to myself.

We connected with a group from Del Mar College, located in Corpus Christi, Texas. We went out for dinner with them, where we talked about our aspirations.

Something such as that gave me insight into what these conventions are all about. It is about making connections that could possibly help you in the future.