My mind is filled with information—thoughts on how to make the New River Voice better as a website, as a news organization, and as something that generally serves the community.

I arrived in Los Angeles May 16 and the Knight Digital Media Center News Entrepreneur Boot Camp began at 2 p.m. that day. Each day last week was packed with information. Monday morning offered Susan Mernit, the founder, editor, and publisher of OaklandLocal.com as the speaker. That group is a nonprofit news organization now gaining traction in the Bay Area as a go-to news source.

After lunch I had a one-on-one meeting with Kwan Booth, also from OaklandLocal,com, and we chatted about ways to spread the word of the New River Voice throughout the New River Valley and about a few technical issues with our website. I found out that Booth was from Richmond, so he actually knew what I was talking about when I said “New River Valley.”

The remainder of the week was similar with speakers, one-to-one chats, and homework! Overall, the days in L.A. were long. They began around 7 a.m. with breakfast at the hotel, then we were shuttled a few miles away to the campus of the University of Southern California for seminars and working with experts in journalism and business on our projects—mine, of course, is improving and growing the Voice.

As the week progressed, we heard from Robert Niles of violinist.com and themeparkinsider.com, Tracy Record of West Seattle Blog, Rita Hibbard of InvestigateWest, Lisa Williams of Placeblogger, Ben Ilfeld of Sacramento Press, and Julia Scott of Bargain Babe to name just a few of the week’s speakers.

We boot campers—20 in all from all over the country—worked daily on assignments designed to ultimately improve our projects. The week ended with a final presentation—a five-minute pitch of our project complete with PowerPoint along with five more minutes of Q&A with the three judges assembled. Stress was a bit high Thursday evening and Friday but I made it through the pitch and Q&A relatively unscathed and more confident about the role of NewRiverVoice.com in the daily lives of NRV residents.

Overall it was a great week—a great and very tiring week—in which I learned a lot, met lots of new friends, and have plenty ideas to start implementing into this website in our organization in general. And in the long run, hopefully you will be the benefactor of my week of boot camp in L.A.

Tim W. Jackson, Editor of New River Voice, has decided that he has no interest in ever living in Los Angeles.