Mixed Bag For Cable Connection
Overall Attendance Will Likely Decline, But Higher-Level Execs Expected To Attend
by Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 10/19/2009 2:00:00 AM
This month's Cable Connection, the week-long consolidation of several industry events in Denver, is shaping up to be a mixed bag. While attendance may surpass expectations at some venues, others are hoping that at least half of last year's attendees make the trip.
Cable Connection-Fall kicks off Oct. 25 with the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing Summit, which continues through Oct. 27. CTAM president Char Beales said registrations have already outpaced expectations.
This marks the first time that the CTAM Summit is being held as part of Cable Connection — the first such event consolidation, Cable Connection Spring, was held in Washington, D.C. in April. Other events taking place in Denver this month include the National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications conference and the Society of Cable and Telecommunications Engineers' Cable-Tec Expo.Beales noted that while some companies are sending fewer people than they have in the past, they are sending higher-level executives this year. About 45% of attendees are vice presidents or higher, she estimated, up from 40% last year. “Where we've seen the fall-off is more at the manager level,” she said.For the most part, cable MSOs are keeping a close eye on travel expenses, but several said they were not dramatically reducing the number of staffers going to the events.Suddenlink Communications senior vice president of communications Peter Abel said he didn't expect any material change in the number of employees his company will send to the events.At Cox Communications, spokesman David Grabert said that he did not expect a dramatic falloff in attendance by Cox personnel.“I can tell you that many of our top brass will be there for different events and that there has not been any specific guidance toward conservatism in relation to attendance,” Grabert said. “Leaders at corporate and in the field are using their judgment about attendance.”Time Warner Cable executive vice president and chief communications officer Ellen East said that has been the mantra for her company as well.“There is definitely some sense of restraint given the economic situation this year,” East said. “But I also think that the people who need to go are going.”That is what Beales and other conference leaders are hoping for.
“It is no secret that conferences are being scrutinized in every industry, not just ours,” Beales said. “We still think there is a real role for face-to-face meetings. We are a relationship business, and getting together is something that we as an industry have as a unique advantage. We hope people take advantage of that.”
While CTAM appears to be on track to beat its modest predictions, others are bracing for a bigger hit. NAMIC expects attendance at its annual conference to be half that of last year.
“We're hoping to get to the 400 mark — we had 850 last year in New York,” NAMIC president Kathy Johnson said. “We had grown excessively over the years to a high of 850 last year, and this year we're hoping to get to 400.”
Johnson said that the move to Denver has had an impact.
“This is the first time in our 23-year history that we will not be in New York City, and traditionally 40% of our constituents have come from the city directly and about 60% from the East Coast alone,” she said.
She added that the push for higher-level executives to attend the conferences also is having an effect.
“That automatically eliminates some of our constituents,” Johnson said.
Even SCTE's Cable-Tec Expo, coming off its best year ever — its 2008 conference in Philadelphia attracted 11,000 people — is expecting some declines. Although no hard attendance figures were available, the number of exhibitors at this year's conference as of last Thursday was down roughly 9%.
“With the significant changes that have taken place in 2009, however, it is difficult to project final attendance,” said SCTE vice president of marketing and business development Deb Swann. She noted that preregistration rates for this year's Expo end Oct. 16, and there are “a reasonable number of on-site registrations.” The SCTE plans to release final attendance numbers when the show closes Oct. 30.
SHOW BUSINESS
Estimated head counts for the events rolled into this year's Cable Connection–Fall
| 2008 Attendance | 2009 Attendance | |
|
SOURCE: Individual organizations |
||
| CTAM Summit | 2,200 | 1,650 |
| SCTE Cable-Tec Expo | 11,000 | n/a |
| NAMIC Conference | 850 | 400 |
Todd Spangler and R. Thomas Umstead contributed to this report.
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