HD Expo Chicago was lame

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Craig Sommerer] “…my experience this year was one of the best I’ve had in many years due to the decreased attendance.”

“Your Honor, the prosecution rests…”

Ron Lindeboom

[Ron Lindeboom]

Hi Kristin,

We are honored to have you swing by. As you said, it is never easy nor fun to have to address the negatives but it is a learning experience.

For the record, Kathlyn and I have known you and watched you build this from the very first show and know that you work very hard to try to build something of value.

As you also attested to in your post: it is a rough market today and it isn’t just union regs, or the perils of trying to build in tough times. As you hinted at, there are political pressures as well, and that is true with us and Creative COW Magazine, as well. We are always being pushed on to run a story about some company before they will support our magazine. We have to tell them no. In fact, we have begun telling them: “Let’s get this clear, you want us to do the same kind of thing and create the same kind of stories that has destroyed the reputation of many of the other magazines out there? That is what you want, right?” They get the point quick.

As you said, there are no easy answers and you do the best you can. We tried doing tradeshows — once. ;o)

As you know, Kristin, our own show was successful but we looked at all the time and effort that went into it and concluded it was far too much work to ever want to do it again.

One of the things you left out of your equation and which I will add to mine, is egos. This industry is full of them and not only do you have the perils of the market, the unions, the sponsors and advertisers to deal with, and the attendees, but then you also have to factor in the egos of some of the people you have to work with in the conferences, etc. That was one of the hardest things for us as Kathlyn is very mellow, as you may remember, and she was getting kicked all over as I was busy with many other areas of the show.

There is a lot that goes into an expo and conference and as I said elsewhere in this thread, the ones that succeed are the ones that find a real connection with their audience. I have never heard anything negative about the Los Angeles show — well, except for the parking situation that David pointed out — and know quite a number that have attended it.

But as you pointed out, Chicago is a cow of a whole other color, and we once tried to get a show going there ourselves but gave up, humbled by the resistance and hoops and hurdles we had to jump through. That you have pulled it off six years in a row is no small feat.

Tradeshows get harder by the year to pull off, that you have grown amidst it all is a testament to your tenacity and vision.

Thanks for coming in here and “walking the gauntlet,” Kristin.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom

Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
– Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[David Roth weiss]

[Kristin Petrovich] “David – yes we had huge parking issues two years ago at the LA HD EXPO – but rectified it with the hotel and delivered a much smoother show last October.”

Kristin,

Sorry to disappoint you, but my experience was not two years ago, it was this past October.

I’m very surprised that you are under the assumption the problem was rectified, and I feel somewhat badly that this is coming out in public, because it does seem so apparent that the right hand does not know what the left is doing at your organization. I spoke with Steve in your office shortly after my experience, and I promise, I was very hot under the collar, both literally and figuratively at the time. He assured me that my experience would be reported at the highest levels, but clearly this was not the case.

[Kristin Petrovich] “Can I make it up to you this year? The next expo is set for November 4th & 5th @ Burbank Marriott – I would love to buy you a drink if you are willing to give us a try again.”

Frankly, while I am glad you came here to speak with us directly, and while I appreciate your attempt to make it up to me, my experience last year left such a foul taste in my mouth that enticing me to HD Expo again will take far more than a cocktail. I do hope you will take this as an opportunity to investigate the 2008 parking fiasco, and that you find out how and why it escaped your attention.

Thank you and good luck,
David

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Mark Suszko]

In the spirit of constructive criticism, here then are my suggestions for a better show.

1: Bring actual hardware. I understand that it is a scary thing to demo real products in a show environment and risk showing hangups and lock-ups and embarrassing breakdowns. But the new deal is, we can get pretty much everything about a product online, one way or another, except for hands-on physically touching and handling an item. That’s why you bring more than one. No hardware=no reason to physically come. So bring the toys.

Corollary to number 1: Real-world demoing. I will NEVER forget the awesome demo I got from Paul Holtz on the then-new Alladin; instead of a canned presentation designed to only show the best of what the thing could do, Paul just asked me to stump him, and I threw various “can it do this?” questions at him, whereupon he built the asked-for effect demos from scratch, in full view of me. I practically flew home to tell my boss we needed to buy TWO of these things. And we did! Not only that, but we then went looking for Paul when we began shopping for an NLE.

So if you’re going to do an “intensive training” on working on-set with HD content and mac FCP laptops, by Farnsworth, you need to bring or borrow a P2 camera and a laptop with FCP on it and whatever other hardware you want to demo, and go thru the actual motions of wrangling data on a set: capturing, metadata, archiving, turning the cards around for re-use, and sending selects to a distant viewer for approvals. Shoot five minutes of the presenter goofing off, hook the projector up to the laptop, and show what you’re doing with those cards. It also happens to make a fine P2 demo for Panasonic, they were at the show, should have been added-into the demo. I would have been very glad to sit thru a spiel about The Vault in conjunction with such a demo. But I didn’t get that. I got a lame slide show that was only about selling The Vault, and overly preoccupied with transfer speeds of various competitive digital media, making a bit too much of a 2-minute difference in speed between some types. Everybody likes fast turn-around. But c’mon. You can’t make a round trip to the craft services table for coffee in that extra two minutes, that’s an “advantage” that’s irrelevant. More so when one of the points in the spiel was that the Vault product also backs up to LTO, “because the insurance companies like that”. Well, that’s fine I guess, but why dazzle me with the stats and charts on ESATA and SAS transfer rates, when I’m still going to be stuck on the set four hours after the martini shot, watching the LTO drive crawl along?

Rule 2: anyplace else but Vegas, don’t pretend you’re Vegas. Meaning, I’m not impressed by an expensive downtown venue for the show: it actually is MORE of a PITA to fight downtown traffic, parking, etc. to go to a Navy Pier or McCormick Place for a small show. The best shows I went to, the location was usually a pit, nothing fancy at all, and nobody cared, because we were there to see the hardware and talk to the vendors. Do come back to Chicago, but look for more appropriate venues and synergies. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Columbia College, which has a very strong video and film program, would jump at hosting such a show, seems a natural fit. Ditto for Northwestern. I want cheap parking, good CTA access, an oasis away from traffic. Cheap grub on or nearby the grounds a plus, someplace we can sit and talk over what we just saw.

Those two points I think would make a killer show. Brochures and powerpoints and 50-dollar parking don’t do it.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Mark Suszko] “Meaning, I’m not impressed by an expensive downtown venue for the show: it actually is MORE of a PITA to fight downtown traffic, parking, etc. to go to a Navy Pier or McCormick Place for a small show”

This is the very reason I’m not attending the AJA Ki Pro tour when it comes to Atlanta next week. It’s scheduled for 2-4pm in the heart of downtown. Atlanta competes with L.A. for the worst rush hour traffic in the country. What would normally take me 45 minutes to drive home will be a minimum 2 1/2 hour drive home trying to leave the city after 4pm.

Anywhere but downtown would be great, or better yet, a 7 to 9pm event would have been even better.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

Read my Blog!

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!

[Chuck Pullen]

Hey Kristin, I too was registered to come to the Chicago event, but after hearing from colleagues that everything I wanted to see or demo wasn’t there, I too decided to stay home and watch my freshly painted deck dry… Anyway, here’s my nickel’s worth of free advice:

Like some people who attend your events across the country, I cannot make it out to NAB, so I look to your Expo as my NAB… I spend all year researching and comparing various products, so when your event comes around, I just want to do one thing, and that’s to get my hands on some new toys!

Now obviously it’s not up to you to tell the exhibitors what to do or how to do it, but for the past couple of years I only remember Panasonic as having a “functional” demo booth, and even then it was nothing more than a couple of cameras pointed at a cute girl playing pool? I remember having to BEG the Canon guys last year to answer some questions about their XLH1 camera, even after I told them I was in the market for three or four of them (I decided to pick up more 250u’s that day, thanks in no small part to their attitudes, BTW)

As far as Chicago is concerned, as someone who works in this city, I can tell you your best bet is to set up your next event in Rosemont, or some other suburb off the tollway that actually cares about business and doesn’t try to bend over anyone who requests the honor of holding an event in their shell of a formerly great city. I would rant longer, but thanks to the mayor selling off the parking meters, it now costs like $10 an hour to park downtown, so it’s time to move my car again…

Thanks for putting on the Expo Kristin, and since you took the time to get some input from actual people on this user forum, I promise to come to next years Expo…And you won’t even have to buy my a drink 😉

[Mark Suszko]

Well, while I think you’re a *little* harsh on Chicago, Chuck; I still love my birthplace city, I have to agree you’re on a right track I think with Rosemont or any of the suburbs around O’Hare airport; that area is rife with meeting and convention spaces.

The trick to an economical venue I think is to be near one of the arterial tollways or expressways, and outside of the Loop, but not so far out that you can’t use CTA or METRA/PACE to get there from downtown. This also opens up a lot more choices for hotels, from thrify dives to nicer suites, something for every budget.

They should also follow up on the idea of being hosted by a university or college with a heavy media curriculum. I see a lot of synergy possible there with the kids just learning these new tools and wanting to put book learning into practice on real equipment. I would run that concurrently with one of those make-a-movie-in-24-hours contests.

Most of all, vendors have to bring the toys. Hands-on Hardware is the key, backed by actual workshops and live interactive demos.

What kinds of demos? If I was king of the forest, to shake things up, I think I’d try to add a contest/production component, perhaps by bringing in some amateur improv actors and letting attendees light and shoot short improv scenes in the ballroom with these actors in a “pro-am” manner with the vendors as the DP’s and operators. You could probably wrangle a trade-out deal with the actors’ services and their talent agency, I suppose.

Use that setup to demo vendor’s prompters, jibs, cameras, lighting gear, audio gear. If there are editing gear vendors there, perhaps draw a lottery from attendees and use one of those attendee’s raw footage to get a start some post work, maybe a green screen shot. If there are streaming services vendors, set them up to live-stream samples of the workshop action.

I’d very much like to come to such an event, as I’m sure I would pick up some new ideas or tricks as well as getting a feel for what the new products can do for me.