Looking to gain some experience or knowledge a career in this media-driven society? The fifth annual Meet the Pros communication career expo can give you the insight to guide you on future career paths.

The media arts expo will feature career professionals from communication fields such as event planning, radio broadcasting, publishing, journalism, film production, multimedia and more.

The communication department, marketing department, and the School of Media Arts collaborated to create the event. All the departments may not apply to every student’s major, but Sarah Hock, a communication instructor and the event’s coordinator, still advises all students to attend.

Many people are not aware of the many different possibilities of the careers offered. There are just some jobs students don’t know exist, she explained.

The goal of the expo, which coincides with City College’s Transfer Day, is to get students to start looking at long-term goals and transfer plans.

“This event can be used to raise job awareness, not only for those who want to know how to get there, but also for those who want to know where to start,” Hock said.

The pros who are invited come from different media and communication fields to share their experiences, how they got started, and how they worked their way to their current position.

The event’s keynote speaker will be Gillian Christie, the CEO of Christie Communications.

Local celebrity and KEYT senior reporter John Palmenteri will also impart some of his wisdom gained from reporting for various California radio stations and his experience in TV reporting.

Another one of the presenters is Senior Editor Matt Kettmann from the Santa Barbara Independent. Kettmann, who has written pieces for Time magazine and Sunset magazine, is in charge of developing the Independent’s online content and supervising the weekly paper’s daily operations.

The Santa Barbara Daily Sound’s president and CEO Jeramy Gordon will also present. Gordon, who started the local free paper in 2006, has a long history of starting and growing daily papers and was the youngest managing editor of news giant corporation Knight-Ridder when he was hired to run six of its free daily papers.

Other presenters include professionals from the fields of graphic design, photography and film.

Representatives from the Spanish language TV station KPMR TV 38 and from Conexion Magazine will also attend. UCSB’s film and communication departments will also be on hand along with UCSB academic advisors to answer any transfer questions.

“It’s exciting for us,” Hock said. “It’s an event with a great amount of work and it’s rewarding to see students get out of [the event] what we saw in creating the event.”

The expo is more than just a meet and greet.

Hock said she has heard of students who have secured internships from the event. Some were eventually hired by the company where they were interns.

Hock said the presenters are usually repeat participators who were drawn back to City College. Word of mouth about the event also draws in a crowd from the community to participate.

“We have been growing every year and this year we have been overwhelmed with the amount of participants who want to attend,” Hock said. “We are so full with people that this year we actually had to tell some that we couldn’t take anymore.”

Hock added that the Meet the Pros event hopes to involve more fields of media from different environments and languages in the future.

“There is a blending in jobs between media and marketing… being able to market one, and use the media to get necessary resources. This event can help students become aware of what is in demand. The goal is to provide options for everyone,” she added.