|
OPPORTUNITIES
FOR TODAY AND THE FUTURE
ATTEND THE NAB FUTURES SUMMIT AND MAKE IT HAPPEN
Today
more that ever, broadcasters should seek out the opportunities
of new technologies and think about how they could help their
stations by offering cost savings and revenue growth. New technologies
will continue to play a major role in defining future strategies
for moving organizations forward in the communications marketplace.
Started
as an annual event in 1995, the NAB
Futures Summit has become a unique opportunity to hear fresh
ideas, many of which are based on technologies new to the broadcast
industry. The Summit attracts visionary thinkers who are interested
in networking with broadcasters and formulating win-win alliances
and partnerships. The Summit offers the perfect venue to meet
with peers from the broadcast industry and discuss new strategies
for these critical times.
The 15th
annual NAB Futures Summit will be held March 22-24 at The
Inn at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, CA. The Summit will
include 13 sessions and four panel discussions all focused on
innovative, bold ideas that help generate revenue, reduce expenses
and enhance asset value. Topics on the agenda include mobile
devices and strategies, wireless, TV and Internet, new business
opportunities, corporate strategies and new media platforms.
Some
key speakers at the Futures Summit include:
Tom
Rogers, President & CEO, TiVo - As a true consumer
convergence device, TiVo needs no introduction and the relationship
of DVRs and broadcasting is continuing to evolve so the discussion
is guaranteed to be lively. TiVo President Tom Rogers is a former
broadcast executive who was president of NBC Cable, NBC's chief
strategist and founder of CNBC. Prior to NBC, Tom was Senior
Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Telecommunications,
Consumer Protection and Finance Subcommittee and was responsible
for drafting a number of communications laws, including the
Cable Act of 1984.
Andrew
Heyward - Andrew is a senior advisor to Marketspace
LLC, a subsidiary of Monitor Group that specializes in helping
companies use digital technology to drive growth and revenue
by enhancing customer interactions. He works with clients to
create and strengthen original online content, make more effective
use of broadband video, deepen engagement through online communities,
and develop new business models for the digital era. Andrew
was president, CBS News, from January 1996-November 2005. His
presentation will be thought provoking and eye opening for broadcasters.
Eric
Kim - Eric is Senior Vice President, General Manager,
Digital Home Group, Intel Corporation. Prior to Intel, Eric
was responsible for global marketing and new business development
at Samsung and helped make Samsung a leading worldwide consumer
brand. His view of media is far-reaching and he wants to talk
with Futures Summit attendees about building the bridge between
the Internet and TV. The synopsis he provided for his presentation
is typical of the provocative topics at the Futures Summit:
"The Internet's inherent ability to enable targeting and
traceability has been attracting the attention, and money, of
advertisers for the past few years. But, when it comes to brand
building and reach, broadcast and cable television is still
the preferred approach. But what if broadcast and Internet could
be integrated in such a way to bring the best of both worlds?
This is a key goal of the Widget Channel, the new open Internet
service framework for the TV, that Intel and Yahoo! recently
announced and demonstrated at this year's Consumer Electronics
Show. It is being integrated into next generation TVs, DSTBs,
and A/V devices from major OEMs including Samsung, Toshiba,
and LG. The Widget Channel provides a simple experience that
enables Internet services that complement the TV viewing experience
that anyone can create. But, this technology has widespread
implications on the current TV industry business models. Intel
will share it's plan for the future of Widget Channel and kickoff
an engagement with the TV industry to work together to ensure
this technology is complementary to their existing business."
Brian
Cooley - Brian is CNET's
Editor at Large. Essentially, he is in charge of telling it
like it is. He has no patience for technology that doesn't work.
In his wake, you'll find a trail of humiliated customer support
techs, embarrassed product designers, and flustered CEOs. Brian
frequently provides commentary on national media including CNN,
CNBC, NBC's Today, and many others. At the Futures Summit, Brian's
The Next Big Thing presentation will be a show-and-tell of personal
consumer electronics devices and talk about how they may impact
broadcasters. As a former radio personality, Brian will also
lead the panel session on opportunities for radio.
Michael
Kelley - Michael is a Principal for Advisory Services in
the Entertainment, Media & Communications Sector of professional
services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He will talk with attendees about monetizing content across
multiple platforms. Traditional advertising models are unsustainable,
challenging the content-distribution ecosystem to proactively
confront disruptive consumer- and technology-driven change.
As consumers take control, they increasingly favor the more
interactive experiences of emerging platforms, and they expect
advertisers and content producers to adapt.
Other
Futures Summit sessions include:
His Master's
Text? Putting Voice Recognition to Work for Broadcasters
Greg Schmidt, former EVP of Digital Media at LIN Television,
is the CEO of Speech Conversion Technologies, Inc., a new technology
venture that analyzes audio and automatically produces closed
captioning data, eliminating the current expensive, and often
inaccurate, process. The company is also researching how to
accurately and consistently bleep out uttered obscenities by
analyzing the audio. This is definitely an idea relevant to
the times, where maximizing efficiency and operating in the
public interest are both high goals for broadcasters.
Live
Broadcasting and the Future of Online Interactivity
John Ham is the CEO & Co-founder of UStream,
an Internet broadcasting platform. According to John, by using
Ustream, traditional broadcasters can harness the power of a
rich social media solution to build meaningful relationships
with their audience. In short, Ustream empowers broadcasters
to grow the connection with their audience-both current and
new-by tapping into the online frontier. His live demonstration
will make it all easy and understandable. Check out what's available
on their site at www.ustream.tv.
Long
Term Viability for Local TV - Fred Fourcher, CEO, Bit Central
Bit Central is well
known as a provider of new content distribution and management
solutions. In this presentation, CEO
Fred Fourcher will talk about taking those techniques further
to include sharing resources across traditional company and
industry boundaries, with the result of lower costs and better
content.
Futures
Summit executive panel sessions include:
Mobile
TV: The Race to 50 Million (receivers)
Anne Schelle, Executive Director, Open
Mobile Video Coalition (OMVC) will be the moderator along
with panelists Jay Adrick, Vice President Broadcast Technology,
Harris Corporation, Jon Wilkins, Partner, McKinsey & Company,
Alan Moskowitz, Director of Strategic Technology Alliances,
MobiTV, and John Taylor, Vice President Public Affairs, LG Electronics.
Mobile DTV has made great progress recently: the ATSC adopted
a Candidate
Standard on mobile/handheld technology in December and the
Open Mobile Video Coalition detailed initial broadcaster rollout
plans at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. Now it's
time to converge the technology and business plans and create
a successful consumer service. This panel brings together the
strategy, business and technical aspects of the mobile DTV effort
to present a coherent road map for broadcasters to move into
the mobile age. Audience participation will be welcome at this
important panel session.
Enhancing
Broadcast Asset Values
Larry Patrick, President, Patrick
Communications will lead a discussion with Tony Cassera,
Partner, Clock Tower LLC and John Chachas, Managing Director,
Lazard Freres & Company on getting the most out of broadcast
assets.
Generating
Non-traditional Revenue: Opportunities Across a Wide Spectrum
Moderated by Jerry Fritz, Senior Vice President, Allbriton Communications;
panelists include Rick
Ducey, Chief Strategy Officer, BIA Advisory Services, John
Lawson, Executive Vice President, Policy and Strategic Initiatives,
ION Media Networks, Sam Matheny, General Manager, News
Over Wireless, Capitol Broadcasting and Buno
Pati, CEO of Sezmi Corporation.
Whether it's multicasting, mobile DTV, re-purposing news content
or another innovation, generating revenue from non-traditional
operations is a worthy goal. This panel will explore some of
the possibilities by those that are blazing the trail.
Radio:
Opportunities Today and Tomorrow
Brian Cooley, Editor at Large, CNET will moderate this panel
looking at new media opportunities for radio. Panelists TJ Lambert,
CEO, Radiolicious and Brian Bartolo, Director of Sales, Emmis
Interactive will cover diverse topics such as radio apps for
the iPhone and other radio on the Internet opportunities.
For more
program information on the 2009 NAB Futures Summit go to: http://www.nab.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Futures_Summit.
To register
immediately for this executive-level event, go to:
https://www.nab.org/AM/ASPCode/forms/tv/futuresSummit.asp.
REMINDER:
Daylight Savings Time Begins March 8, 2009


The March
2, 2009 Radio TechCheck is also available in
an Adobe Acrobat file.
Please
click
here to read the Adobe Acrobat version of Radio TechCheck
|