Diversity Week Events Drew Crowd in N.Y.

By Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 10/10/2011 12:01:00 AM

Diversity Week events in New York City — the WICT Leadership Conference, the NAMIC Conference, the Walter Kaitz Foundation annual dinner, the ACC Forum and the CTAM in New York conference — seemed to observers to be well-attended. And the numbers bear out that impression.

The week led off with Monday’s Women in Cable Telecommunications annual event at the Hilton New York. The conference drew more than 600 people and Monday’s luncheon, including Touchstone Award presentations, was attended by more than 850 — up 20% from a year ago, WICT said.

The National Association for Multi-Ethnicity in Communications, which started on Tuesday at the Hilton, reported some 750 attendees, well above the 600 who came to the annual event in 2010.

The 28th annual Kaitz dinner, Wednesday night at the Hilton, drew more than the 1,100 who came in 2010 and took in $1.6 million for three diversity- related organizations. That, too, surpassed the 2010 take of $1.4 million.

The Association of Cable Communicators said it was still adding the figures, but estimates about 150 attendees for its conference, about 20% below last year’s total, possibly due to travel cutbacks by cable systems.

Finally, the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing, which held its annual conference in New York for the first time since 1984, reported 1,672 attendees. That topped — by one attendee — the 1,671 who came to last year’s CTAM Summit in New Orleans.

Spreading the Event Wealth

Some cable networks in New York last week celebrated returning series. Monday night, at the New Museum, IFC welcomed back Onion News Network with a party and panel session, ahead of the Oct. 4 second-season debut. Pictured top, l.-r.: IFC president Evan Shapiro; ONN’s John Cariani, Suzanne Sena, Brad Holbrook, Tracy Toth and Aaron Lazar; and IFC GM Jen Caserta. Thursday night, USA Network treated more than 1,000 of Psych’s most loyal fans to an advance screening of the Oct. 12 sixth-season premiere, at the Ziegfeld Theatre. Pictured, l.-r.: Psych stars James Roday, Andy Berman and Dulé Hill.