"Be entrepreneurial."

First off, we'd like to again thank Mark Lyndersay for last night's enlightening and invigorating presentation on the entrepreneurial media professional. Using his perspective as an old stalwart of T&T's press and periphery, Mark shared several valuable approaches to freelancing that have served him well over his 35-year career. If any of you felt like quitting your jobs there and then, don't worry: you were not alone.

Each of us would have gained something specific from the discussion, but I feel I need to reiterate one of Mark's later points. As a media professional, you don't have to be good at everything, but you should try everything. Gain an understanding and appreciation for every aspect of media production, and keep abreast of the technologies that propel this ever-changing field.

This point is particularly relevant to you all because the BTEC programme will expose you to almost every aspect of media production. You'll be recording and editing audio and video, taking pictures, writing news stories and movie scripts, and learning the fundamentals of media and communication theory. However, many of you approach the programme as an opportunity to gain skills in one specific field, and dismiss many of the others as nothing more than exams you need to pass.

Change that attitude. Open your mind. This is an exciting, vibrant field, one that's changing the world in more ways than you might know, and it pays to be a producer rather than a consumer. Don't rob yourselves of the chance to become well-rounded, versatile media professionals, ready to respond at a moment's notice to any opportunity.

Mark has posted a vidcast of the presentation at his site (21MB), and this week's Bit Depth acts as a companion column to the lecture.