From Radio Inc 08 conference The dust has settled. In 1998, when Radio Ink </goout.asp?u=http://www.radioink.com>launched its first Internet conference, dotcoms were booming, streaming was new, and stations were trying to determine their course of action with the new Internet technology Today we’re living in a changed world. The speed of change has made some industries obsolete in a moment’s time. The promises of the Internet have come true, but not exactly as predicted. Its impact is bigger and faster than anyone anticipated. Radio faces new opportunity as well as new competition. Every cell phone in the world is a portable media device that places media content in the hands of every person worldwide; a video clip can be created with a cell phone and viewed by millions within moments. Meanwhile, traditional media outlets are shrinking; big advertisers like P&G and Ford are reducing traditional media budgets and placing the money into search and social networking. Though the doomsayers always predict gloom when new media alternatives are launched, this time they might be right. Radio’s future is no longer about transmitters alone. Wifi radio devices </goout.asp?u=http://www.ccrane.com/radios/internet-radios/acoustic-energy-wi-fi-in...>offer consumers unlimited choices of thousands of stations created by non-professionals who have something to say -- and people will listen. Radio stations custom designed for mobile audiences have been launched. Sprint </goout.asp?u=http://www2.sprint.com/mr/news_dtl.do?id=13240>currently offers the service to 50 million customers. This is the tip of the iceberg with dozens of potential and viable competitors to radio. Advertising Age predicts the end </goout.asp?u=http://adage.com/article?article_id=115712> of the 30-second commercial. Some say that all commercials will be replaced by self-selection of consumers. Radio reinvented, the theme of this year’s conference, will brief you on every challenge and new technology, will show you what’s possible that your station can adopt to increase revenues, to allow you to retain and engage audiences, and it will let you know how to prepare your people for this rapidly changing environment. We’ll bring in the experts from outside of radio, the people representing new technologies and the people doing new and interesting things few people have heard about. Like our Internet conference’s of the past this conference will open your eyes, shift your thinking, put you out of your comfort zone… and if you are proactive, it might change your world overnight. If you’re clinging to the past and think radio won’t change, if you think things will revert back to normal, if you think radio cannot loose audience to these new competitors… don’t bother to attend. You’re probably right. If on the other hand you know a tsunami of change will impact your career and you want to know what’s coming, how you can adapt and want specific ideas you can implement to be ahead of the curve. We would love to have you.
|
