From Radio Inc 08 conference
The dust has settled. In 1998, when Radio Ink
/goout.asp?u=http://www.radioink.comlaunched 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-internet-radio.aspxoffer
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=13240currently
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.