Adam Cochran: Web designer - NOT

Today I am taking on a project that I would have never imagined myself doing even a year ago.

Mesa State College is holding their annual Media Day. They will bring kids who are interested in illustrious media and press careers to the college for presentations from people like me who are very successful media celebrities. (Please know that I am writing this with my tongue in my cheek.)

All day students will be attending classes on journalism and media related topics from folks who actually make money doing that sort of thing. And they invited me.

In past years I have talked about digital photography, what to look for in a good digital camera, the convergence of media, the importance and techniques of newspaper layout and design, I several PC vs. Mac discussions.

Today I have been asked to do something new and daring.

In addition to attending lectures, students from the local high schools and Mesa will be covering the event by writing articles, shooting video and writing stories. Those stories will then be judged by media and press professionals.

I have been asked to bring it all into a website and show them how a modern website can bring it all together.

I am not a web designer, but I am confident that I can pull this off. The site will not be very pretty, but it will be functional.

At this very moment not site exists for the event. At 11AM MST I will be standing in front of a full auditorium demonstrating how to build the site. Will it be exciting? No. That's not the point. I will be demonstrating how quickly a guy with no real web design understanding can put together a reasonably informative site.

If all goes as planned by 12PM a site will be established that will able to feature menus, headlines, audio and podcasts, RSS, video, polls, print views, and most other features of a modern resource website.

I hope it all goes well. Although I haven't built the site, I have spent about 20 hours practicing what I will do over the past two days. Check back throughout the day to see if I am succeeding. If I crash and burn it could change the course of the entire event. 

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