UAB University Professor Henry Panion III, Ph.D., will be one of two keynote speakers for the 2012 College Music Society Summit, Jan. 20-21 at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) convention in Anaheim, Calif.

The 2012 Summit’s focus is “Untapped Collaborations: Synergies between the Music Products Industry and the Education of the Next Generation of Musicians.” More than 90,000 people are expected to attend the convention.

Panion’s address is titled “A Tale of Two Cities Revisited: From the Classroom to the Profession and Back to the Classroom.” He will address the need for a higher level of trained technologists in the arts, particularly music, as well as the need for more preparation at the pre-college level for those students entering college, so they have the necessary skills to pursue a field of study in music and arts technology.

Panion will speak on the issues facing universities in recruiting due to the elimination of arts programs throughout the country. He will also address the problems facing more disadvantaged students who lack exposure to many of the technologies used for creating, performing and recording music. Panion will discuss the pre-college and college technology programs he has built in the UAB Department of Music and across the globe in Hawaii and Egypt.

The NAMM convention brings together virtually every manufacturer of music technology, equipment, and instruments in the world. NAMM has partnered with the College Music Society to present the summit.