Former GPB intern Ashley Mengwasser co-hosts the 2013 Southeast Emmys red carpet special.

Interns hobnobbing with network anchors, producers and executives at the Emmy awards? That sort of interaction is likely unthinkable at the national Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ceremony where interns are probably hired to fetch coffee, pizza and dry cleaning.

But at last year’s Southeast regional version of the television awards, interns were decked in gowns and tuxedos, milling at the same tables that nominees were gracing.

Many of the interns at the Emmys got a place at their tables thanks to GPB executive Tiffany Brown Rideaux who had the fun and amazing idea to produce a red carpet special.

The show gave local anchors, camera people and executives a chance to show off their Emmy wear and talk about their passion projects, just like on the red carpet specials for the national program. It gave audiences a chance to see them both "glammed" up and human.

Brown Rideaux decided to involve a cadre of interns to produce the special. These interns weren’t there to be servants. They had hands on involvement in the pre-production (wrangling guests, walking through logistics) and production (running camera, floor directing and putting mikes on guests and overall crowd control.)

The members of my team handled the heavy lifting. Our New Media staff of developers, web designers and online videographers morphed into technical directors, audio engineers, graphic operators and talent managers to put out the livestreamed show.

Check out last year’s livestream show below co-produced by interns.

Former intern Brina Potvin wrote this article about it for our iPad magazine Your GPB.

Later they joined us at the dinner table to enjoy the actual ceremony and make connections.

Overall GPB is an intern friendly organization. Many interns work on high profile productions, land jobs and get nominated for GPB productions they created as full-time employees.

Those former interns now employees are attending this year's southeast Emmy ceremony on Saturday, June 7, 2014 at the Grand Hyatt Buckhead where GPB is nominated for 26 awards. Not bad to be an intern at GPB, huh?

Left to right former interns Brina Potvin, me, Rachel Daniels and Lara Fawaz.