TVNewser NAB blogger Scott Baker sums up the convention in a Wednesday night blog entry:

The Book starts Thursday.

RTNDA ends Wednesday.

That's a little tight. I'm not sure who thought this was a good idea. I'm sure the date was scheduled years before Nielsen got around to setting the book dates for this year.

In any case this led to an earlier than usual mini-exodus today.

Got to get back in time to broadcast.

So what have we learned?

Dan Rather feels moderately positive about Katie Couric. Very moderately.

Shepard Smith is an adept walk-and-text messager.

Regis is happy to be in the Broadcasting Hall of Fame, but says he still doesn't know what his talent is.

Jack Valenti has the First Amendment memorized.

Dan Rather cries easily. But we all knew that.

Tom Brokaw is less prone to crying.

There were college student job seekers who looked older than FCC Chairman Kevin Martin.

Don't leave Shep out of the Katrina video montage.

The Hispanic audience is increasing faster than gas prices.

Charlie Gibson has a future.

Citizen Journalism is User-Generated Content, but not all User- Generated Content is Citizen Journalism.

Video On-Demand will continue to explode and be really cool. Except for when it doesn't play, you just get audio -- or it crashes your browser.

The CNN party took off when the Neville Brothers hit their groove. But the dance band that began the night should really not have expected news directors to dance with each other. Or college student job seekers.

Don Fitzpatrick will be missed.

There will be people who complain about RTNDA like people who complain about Saturday Night Live -- "It used to be better." But the truth is, it is what you make it. On any given day there you may encounter the particular insight, person or technology that will make all the difference. We had those in abundance.

See you next year.