Pat Younge, President and GM for The Travel Channel skypes in to the Academy group.
Today is the 2nd day of The Travel Channel Academy in DC.
Yesterday, the group went out and shot their first stories. Today they’ll edit them on FCP and by 5pm today, we’ll screen all 42 pieces. It’s going to be a late night.
This morning, Pat Younge, President and GM of The Travel Channel skyped into the group for a lecture on why The Travel Channel is training an army of video providers worldwide to feed the Channel and it’s online and phone video needs.
As Younge explained, (from his kitchen in London), the Channel is rushing to embrace both new technologies and new sources of content. The days of going to production companies in NY and LA who had little or no passion for travel are coming to a close, he said.
And for those grads who can shoot and create great content, it’s also a great deal. The Channel pays up to $2000 for a travel related video. They’ve even hired a handful of grads as full-time employees. Their job? Travel around the world with a video camera and a laptop and create content for the channel.
All in all, not a bad deal.
And, through the miracle of skype, Pat spent nearly an hour taking Q&A from the group.
How often do you get to spend that kind of time with a network President?
