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Editorial: The Real Question at NATPE 2009 Is…

Jan 23, 2009  •  Post A Comment


There is a vital question you need to ask yourself if you’re headed off to the annual convention of the National Association of Television Program Executives in Las Vegas this week.
No, it’s not whether to hit or stay on a 14 if the dealer is showing a 6.
This is shaping up to be the defining year as to what exactly the NATPE convention should be. It’s the subject of endless conversation around the TelevisionWeek newsroom.
With the ongoing economic meltdown pushing budgets to the brink, television companies have been asking themselves who they need to send to the show. But there are better questions, and it’s those questions that everyone who attends NATPE should be asking each other this week.
TelevisionWeek urges everyone at the show to start conversations about what would make the show more useful, and they need to let NATPE’s organizers know what they think.
The syndication and TV content communities need to have a long, serious talk about what kind of event will help facilitate business and, even more important, promote the business.
TelevisionWeek’s greatest resource has always been its readers, so this week we’re holding an online poll to help us figure out what NATPE should be. Click here to take survey. The questions we’re posing are:
—Are you attending the NATPE convention this year?
—What is the probability that this will be your last NATPE?
—What city would make the best NATPE convention location for you?
—A NATPE held in which month would be the most useful to you?
—Does the NATPE convention need a show floor with booths?
—What alternatives to a floor with booths do you favor?
—If NATPE didn’t hold its annual show, would another event pop up to take its place?
—Should NATPE change its name to reflect the new kinds of content producers and purchasers it represents?
—If the NATPE show currently doesn’t work for you, why doesn’t it?
TVWeek thinks attending NATPE is worthwhile just for the opportunity it affords to renew old relationships and meet up-and-coming television executives. Any entrepreneur in the business will tell you that he has created opportunities he never would have had but for a chance introduction.
So even if a company isn’t directly buying or selling content in any given year, it’s vital to attend the event. Whether the gathering in its current incarnation is the right forum and venue for facilitating this kind of cross-pollination is a question for the industry and NATPE. So have your say, log on and vote in the poll today.

2 Comments

  1. I think this year is more important than ever.
    New business models need to be developed and shared and NATPE is a great place to keep an ear to the ground and find out what’s going on in web video and online syndication.

  2. @DUDE ABOVE – you sir are wrongly stupid and stupidly wrong. Just get out, I beg.

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