63 ROUND TABLE Professional Organisations
FEED: Is it essential for professionals to meet face to face anymore? Can technology take the place of in-the-flesh confabs? Barbara Lange, SMPTE: There is much that we can do using technology to manage the meetings virtually. However, as I’ve stated earlier, I believe that nothing replaces the human connection in working through challenging issues. Yes, much of that work can be handled remotely, and SMPTE already does quite a bit of work using virtual meeting tools. Nevertheless, we strive for a healthy balance of both remote and in- person meetings. Mark Harrison, DPP : I think it is still essential for professionals to meet face to face. However, there is a greater need than ever before for those who facilitate the encounter to deliver business value to them. Of course, people want to see each other on a purely social level. That’s always been the case and it always will. But increasingly, they have to select those encounters because of a lack of time and money. I think we’ll start to see a lot of facilitated industry events become more focused and more aware of the take-outs that attendees are going to get from them. A lot of the major events and shows are so much a part of people’s calendars that it’s difficult to let them go, but I do think we’ll start to see growth of smaller, more specialist events. It’s like the world of advertising. Advertising to a smaller but highly targeted and highly relevant audience can be better value than advertising to a big, general one. That may start to apply around some of our professional events, too. Peter White, IABM: The new collaborative environment makes it even more essential for all sides of the industry to meet face to face. Trade shows used to be very much giant hardware ‘superstores’ where you browsed all the offerings and then chose the pieces of technology you needed to build your facility. Today, shows, conferences and events are becoming the places where everyone gets together to solve problems and chart the future of our industry. New collaborative tools and technology enable businesses to work remotely, efficiently and effectively. This just means that face to face time is spent more effectively with much of the preliminary discussions already ironed out, which means time spent at trade shows now has even greater value as they become meeting hubs. I can’t see technology replacing human interaction any time soon.
FEED: What is your biggest trade org success story? Barbara Lange, SMPTE: I am particularly proud of the work our standards team has done to bring to fruition some critical standards. These include SMPTE ST 2052, which enables broadcasters to expand their TV captions for online media. We provide this standard freely available as a service to the public. The SMPTE Standards Community also delivered the SMPTE ST 2110 suite of standards that define professional media delivered over IP network environments. We have developed fundamental standards that have been recognized by the National Television Academy of Arts and Sciences (NATAS) with nine Emmy statuettes, demonstrating that SMPTE creates an environment in which industry members can come together to develop standards that best serve the marketplace. Mark Harrison, DPP: Our first leader’s summit that we held at NAB was one. We brought together senior people and at the end of the event they said, “Thank you so much. I have gotten to hear about companies and meet people that I was completely unaware of and are completely new to me.” It’s rare nowadays that you can provide fresh insight for experienced people. Peter White, IABM: Our biggest success story is the large increase in membership we have seen over the last few years as a result of new initiatives. To be truly representative a trade organisation should be truly international, and IABM has put a lot of effort into establishing regional members’ councils to ensure regional issues are highlighted. We now have a global membership with strong representation in all the major markets around the world. PROFESSIONAL GROUPS ARE AN ESSENTIAL AND NECESSARY PART OF THE MARKETPLACE AS THE INDUSTRY SHIFTS AND GROWS,
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