On September 29, Steam at Harper’s Ferry will host an inaugural arts-related business event. Larry Gillick will be one of the guest speakers.
Larry Gillick is a DC-based media consultant and former Assistant Professor of Digital Media and Arts Communication at Shenandoah University in Virginia, as well as a former reporter and anchor.
Larry got his professional start in media in 1991, after joining the U.S. Army as a public affairs specialist. He watched the first Gulf War on TV, as he and his classmates were still learning to be soldiers and soldier-journalists. Two runs through the Defense Information School — once for print, once for broadcast journalism — helped put him on the road to his early work in multimedia.
His first Army supervisor handed him the open head-end of a cable television channel and the authority and responsibility to fill it. It was the first of many military “learning experiences.”
In Korea, he took charge of a Teagu-based radio station and TV news bureau — another excellent experience. Eventually, he moved to Seoul, where he produced and anchored the nationwide evening news program, AFKN News Tonight. He also began training new military journalists.
Larry remained a newsroom trainer throughout his time in the service. One of his trainees was named Broadcast Journalist of the Year in their military command.
He left the military for a fellowship at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication. He later ran a newsroom team in North Carolina, including reporters at four remote bureaus. He partnered with investigators in the field to add computer assisted reporting elements to their daily newsgathering, and started speaking on panels at annual conferences of the National Institute for Computer Assisted Reporting.
Larry moved into teaching in 2001, and helped East Carolina University revise the communication curriculum and develop a distance education program that outpaced its live-attendance counterpart.
In a quick transition from teaching about using computers to teaching with computers, Larry began experimenting with educational technology. His early work with podcasting brought him to Las Vegas and a panel at NAB, speaking on its use in journalism and journalism education. He also worked with his regional PRSA, presenting on special considerations in leadership of the artistically talented.
After a move to American University, Larry worked with folks at Gannett (and one at AU) to produce online training for digital journalism. They produced three training modules: Breaking News Online, Local Conversation (available online in a redacted form), and one that hasn’t been released for public consumption.
More infamously, he worked with an AU grad student and a pair of gifted art/software developers to inspire the Newseum to fund and construct a site in Second Life, a persistent virtual “world,” as an experiment in the delivery of content to virtual space.
At his most recent teaching post, Shenandoah University, he began working with arts students, mixing new media with live and recorded performance art. He also began work with online fundraising, focusing attention on Facebook at Kickstarter.
His current gig — well, he can’t tell you about that right now — perhaps in a few years.
Steam at Harper's Ferry 