Greetings from the NAB/RTNDA convention in Las Vegas.

It is a lonely place compared to the good old days when news directors would gather in hospitality suites in one hotel and swap stories, network, and solve the world's problems.

There are over 100,000 people at this convention - but only a sliver of them are at the RTNDA.  The NAB exhibits sprawl for hundreds of yards across the Las Vegas convention center.  The RTNDA exhibits are tucked in a corner off the walkway between the convention center and the Hilton.  Many walk by - few walk in.

It seemed like a good idea at the time - combine the conventions so the news directors and the chief engineers could attend together and find the right equipment for their stations.  The pocket-protector crowd is still here - the news directors seem to have vanished.

These are difficult times in broadcasting, and station management seems to view the RTNDA as a "perk" and the NAB as a necessity.  There must be enough money in the budget to invest in growing your news director's knowledge base one week a year?

There is another issue with these combined conventions.  The RTNDA gets lost.  Back in the day, we all went to one hotel, hung out in hospitality suites, swapped stories, and learned how to be better news directors.  Now the relatively few news directors in attendance are housed in hotels miles and miles apart and there is no central gathering place.

It is time for two things to happen:  The RTNDA needs to go back to their own convention in some city around the country and station's need to invest the relatively small dollars needed to allow their news director to network and get mentored one week per year.

That's my opinion.  I want to hear yours. 

Jim

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Willi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.