Symposium Update

Really enjoying the day here in Starkville. Matthew Seals got a standing ovation after his talk... people were locked in to every word he was saying. I sure appreciate him taking the time to come over here and share his story; he touched many lives. He is headed back to Birmingham this afternoon; we will be here through tomorrow night.

As I write this, J.B. Elliott is working on lunch at our midday break. I have not seen J.B. eat this much since the late 1970s. And, there is a long way to go with the steak dinner tonight and the bash at the Little Dooey BBQ tomorrow night. He might not eat again for weeks.

It was very interesting to hear the presention this morning from Davis Nolan with WKRN in Nashville... they had an F3 tornado in downtown Nashville on April 16, 1998, only a few days after our big F5 here in Birmingham on April 8 of that year. Makes me wonder what happens when a tornado goes through downtown Birmingham. I hope not anytime soon, though!

We have heard from Keith Westerlage of The Weather Channel, with a presentation called "Are We Television Twins?", and Chris Naille from Hagerstown, MD who shared his experience getting his first TV weather job recently. Keith showed some pretty funny bloopers from TWC... nice to know that make big boo-boos too.

As I type this Bethany Ruschill of Frank Magid Associates (a major local TV consultant) is now telling the young students here how to get a TV weather job and keep it. I probably need to listen to this!

It was great talking with Dr. Chuck Doswell this morning, one of the legends in the science of meteorology. Dr. Doswell will be speaking tomorrow...

I will be in a panel discussion shortly so I will have to turn off the laptop... today has been the broadcast workshop; tomorrow the technical papers begin. I will try to get the highlights posted here as they are presented... there is usually some excellent information that comes out.