BCAB Video Rewind

Now, I know what you can spend this beautiful spring weekend doing, watching videos on your computer, replaying last week's British Columbia Association of Broadcasters' convention in Victoria.

Mark Ramsey (click to watch it): "The way we think about our industry needs to change. We need to broaden the focus and broaden the language."

Bob Garfield tells us we are all doomed (but then he offers a plan and some hope): "Listenomics – listen to customers and users, monitizing those conversations. We must be a master of all platforms, text, audio, and video. Whoever does the best job of listening to the audience and provides what they want will be the winner, who may not even exist yet given the fact that the barriers to entry are falling very fast."

Larry Rosin (click to see his presentation): "How can we push advertising messages that are of interest to our website viewers? Radio station web sites are improved but TV and print sites are leading the local battle. Forty-eight percent say that radio station Web sites have gotten more interesting compared to 17 percent believing them to be worse or less interesting. However, monthly visitation to radio station Web sites (16 percent) among persons 12+ lags visitation to local TV and local newspaper Web sites."

John Parikhal: Five trends impacting your success: Demographic shift, The disappearing middle, Always on, The filter factor creating a Power Shift from "us" to "the end user."

The radio "Presidents Panel:" Denise Donlan CBC, “In a world of choice, why us?” Corus' JJ Johnson, "Radio is still all about great content and great people. Stop living in fear – think forward and do something about it." Chris Gordon, CHUM: "We are leaner and meaner. Now that we seem to be coming out of this recession and the revenue is coming back we all need to invest in brand extension and staff training. The battle for radio is clearly to continue to own the mobile platforms." Pattison's Rick Arnish: "I am very bullish about the future. We have valuable brands & great relationships with advertisers and listeners. Culture is important. We use TTI (Total team involvement) and it helps our culture. We allow our market managers to make decisions, because they know their market better than anyone." Vista's Terry Coles: "The more things change the more things stay the same. We still need to create great content so we can do a better job of serving the audience."

Thanks, BCAB for one of the best meetings I've attended this year, making me excited to see what they have in store in Kelowna in 2011.