Will apple be at NAB this year?

Does anybody know if Apple will be at NAB this year?

Thanks.

They will not. They are out of the trade show business. Course anything can change.

Michael Horton
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There's always Avid...

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NAB attendance will be way down this year for both exhibitors & attendees. Don't know how anyone else is faring, but my company is cutting 1,000 jobs & closing 9 studios worldwide. One of the little internal cutbacks is trade shows.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

SuperMeet is reason enough to go to NAB.




Michael Horton
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Would love that Michael...just nobody to ante up for the trip

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

This past CES was my first so I don't have anything to compare it to, but I was told it traditionally has 225,000 attendees. This past one was estimated at 150,00 and I doubt there were that many.

Quite a few empty booth spaces too.

Trade shows are a thing of the past.

With telecommuting gaining momentum every year, "face time" isn't what it used to be. I buy everything online now. Plain old stores are just "show rooms" where you go to touch stuff then go home and find a better price online & order it. Of the last 10 tech items you bought, how many were bought in an actual store & how many online?

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Yep gotta say its only cabling and the odd quick impulse or short notice purchase that I buy in shops. The rest are all online purchases and have been for many years.



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Of coarse after trade shows are a thing of the past, retail stores have closed and your favorite on-line vendor lets their professional applications languish in favor of easy to sell on-line commodities, where does that leave us?

I pay more to support and purchase from local integrators as much as possible, I've never had the warm fuzzy's from a manufacturer who I though could care less about what challenges I face in managing my business. They just pay lip service to it - especially a large fruit company who only seems to care how shinny those Macintosh's are.

I dunno ... my bet is trade shows aren't really going anywhere, but what and who you find there will become a little more eclectic. In the recent many years NAB and the like have catered more and more to what might conceivably be considered as "the masses" ... not surprising as there are ever more channels requiring ever more content, so the bar has been lowered year after year on what is required/acceptable for getting on air, and the cost of entry / hardware required is ever more minimal and accessible. But as noted these same masses no longer need monster trade shows to check out all the new products, they can and do handle all that online and at their local vendors. But just because the folks addressing this increasingly accessible segment of the industry no longer need trade shows it doesn't necessarily follow that those addressing other less accessible segments don't need them any more ... I'm betting NAB et al are not going anywhere. The overall size of the event and the number of wedding videographers attending will be reduced sure, but I'd doubt that that will be enough to bring about its early demise.

What will happen and is already happening is more focused type events such as HD Expo and SuperMeets will replace the traditional Giant events such as NAB and CES etc.

On another note, you can't underestimate the importance of face time with your peers especially during these times. Nor can you underestimate the importance of talking with the creators of the products you are interested in. Nor can you underestimate the joy you will find discovering new talent and new products which you will stumble upon while looking for that booth with the new camera.

Now is NOT the time to stay home and browse new products. The only thing you get from that is knowledge about the product. Now is the time to get out of the house and into the faces of those that may change your life. You cant do that via iChat or online forums or email. Networking should be at the top of everyones list regardless of your current job situation. These events allow you to do that. In fact they force you to do that. NAB is not going away. They will just get more focused. Just like SuperMeets.

Michael Horton
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You may be right Mike...and spiritually, I am with you....but it's not that easy to just "get out there regardless of your job situation". That would be a bit reckless at times like these and if you live on the other side of the country (or the world for that matter) from these shows. Where I work, trade shows have become an extraneous expense that is considered a "perk" and extraneous perks have been wiped out (at least for now during the pi$$-poor economic situation). No way my Studio pays for a Supermeet in London / Amsterdam or even NY or Vegas at this point in time.

IMHO, now is the time to concentrate all efforts on good work and make sure your job is secure. Come in early / stay late. Raise the bar in the quality of your productions. Show your worth...because eventually it will enter your boss's head that someone just might be able to do what you do cheaper & faster and the axe falls...even on tenured pros.

Trade shows are a luxury IMHO...but that's just me.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Obviously not everyone can make the trek outside their city. Only a few thousand persons attend trade shows such as NAB and IBC etc. What I am saying is "GET OUT OF THE HOUSE" and into the faces of your peers no matter where you are. Email, social networks, etc just don't cut it. It's part of the package yes, but not a substitute for face time. Creative people just don't get that as we are all more comfortable by ourselves or behind a monitor. We work hard and feel our work should speak for itself. Well life just doesn't work that way.

As a wise man once said, "it is not who you know, but who knows you."

Michael Horton
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Oddly enough, Apple seem to be attending the Broadcast Video Expo in less than two weeks in London. I guess they didn't get around to canceling their stand.

The important thing to understand is that Apple don't want the schedule of any third-party trade fair dictating when they announce new software.

(Although I wouldn't say no to being shown Final Cut Pro 7 and 8 behind the scenes when I visit the show...)

___________________________________________________
Alexandre Gollner,
Editor, Zone 2-North West, London

alex4d on twitter, facebook, .wordpress.com + .com

Great people at Apple EMEA and Apple UK. Liked them a lot after working with them on the SuperMeet last year at IBC.

Alex Tell everyone at the BVE that the SuperMeet is coming. Assuming you are going.



Michael Horton
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What people tend to forget about trade shows is they are supposed to be for the trade. A place where retailers and distributors go to meet with the manufacturers to see their next lines to find new products to sell in their (retailers) stores and to talk to the reps for future orders so the manufacturers can get an idea of how much to produce. New manufacturers often exhibit their products to find new retailers, distributors. Established manufacturers often exhibit if they have had a very small advertising budget and often times they only advertise domestically let their international customers know their still around. It's often a place where people in the trade will come to see what's going on. Anyway NAB and Macworld also CES seem to be mainly consumer expos. Although NAB maybe less consumer orientated then the others.

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Dean

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