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FLAT ROCK --
Storyteller Connie Reagan-Blake expects a slightly different
audience when she takes the stage Wednesday at Blue Ridge
Community College for the New Directions 2004 conference.
Hearing an
old-fashioned tale just might be a new experience for some 400
entrepreneurs, educators and technology workers expected to
attend.
"With each
technology advance, we worry that stories are threatened," the
Asheville-based storyteller said. "Certainly that was the case
with television. But storytelling is just so much a part of
human beings. We just want to listen to stories."
There also may
be profit as well as pleasure as new technologies incorporate
the ancient art of narrative.
"Many businesses
deal with technology to tell a digital story, whether it's an
interactive Web site, or multimedia, or the narrative sense of a
commercial or other advertising. The same principles apply,"
explained David Hutto, dean for technology and development at
Blue Ridge.
So Hutto
recruited Reagan-Blake as the keynote speaker for the fourth
annual technology conference to be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at
the Flat Rock campus. After Reagan-Blake's performance, Emily
Paulos, executive director of the Center for Digital
Storytelling in Berkeley, Calif., will speak of the growing
trend for teachers and students to use digital cameras and audio
recorders to create and edit material for Web sites.
"Digital
storytelling is taking place in schools around the country and
we wanted to recognize that for the conference," Hutto said.
In addition to
the storytelling, workshops will let participants pick up the
latest skills in digital media, Web and DVD development, or
running such programs as Photoshop, PowerPoint, Word, Publisher,
Excel and FrontPage. Other sessions will cover wireless
computing, personal digital assistants or PDAs, digital
photography, viruses, open source software, educational
technology, small business computing, network management,
security and identity theft.
Matthew Ledford,
president of Ydesigns.com™, the Yahoo storefront
design firm based in Arden, will be attending his
second New Directions conference to offer a workshop
on building trust in a Web site for Internet marketing.
Amid the new
technology, Ledford is eager to hear an old-fashioned story.
"Connie
Reagan-Blake is a great storyteller," Ledford said. "I think
sometimes we forget that the media can overwhelm the message.
There are lots of different ways of telling a story."
The growing
popularity of the conference boosts the region's reputation for
creativity and technology, he said.
"With the
workshops in digital video and the broad diversity of topics,
someone can pick up some pretty good information in one day,"
Ledford said.
Contact Neal at
232-5970 or DNeal@CITIZEN-TIMES.com. |
