The 119th AES (Audio Engineering Society) Convention was held at Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York from October 7th through October 10th, 2005. Once catering strictly to engineering types, the AES show has been revamped and has been redesigned to appeal to a broader audience.

One of the more interesting exhibits was the John Lennon Songwriting Contest bus . The songwriting contest features awards and prizes for excellence in songwriting. A team of people travel the country in a state of the art tour bus promoting the contest across the States and seeking out prominent new songwriters. The categories for the contest are rock, world, gospel/inspirational, hip-hop, children’s, electronic, pop. folk, rhythm & blues, jazz, country, and Latin. The John Lennon Songwriting Contest gave out free CD wipes and CD-R’s.

Attendees at this years AES show were treated to far more free passes than had been handed out in previous years of the show and a great deal more of free magazines. The bag busting collection of magazines included Radio, an industry newspaper size magazines which covers radio equipment and technology,

Millimeter, a magazine which covers film production, Tape Op a magazines which deals with creative music recording ,Ideography, a mag which deals strictly with video production, and Electronic Musician which deals primarily with personal studio recording, production, and design.

The newly designed AES show seems to have struck a chord with attendees. From the looks of the convention center, this seem to be one of the more crowded AES shows. No longer a limited forum for sound engineers, the AES show now includes songwriters, music and sound designers, videographers, as well as offering a generous listing of exhibitors seminars and training sessions.

Related links

www.aes.org
www.jlsc.com  (The John Lennon Songwriting Contest)
www.aprs.co.uk  (Association of Professional Recording Services)