Cheap Seats: Event Consolidation Makes Way for New Fundraising Plan

One upshot of the industry’s decision to cluster events around a fall and spring week will be less $10K+ tables to buy for industry events. Under a 2-year pilot program, groups such as WICT, Cable Positive and the Walter Kaitz Foundation will no longer use their annual dinners as their prime fundraising events. The idea is that individual companies will continue to make essentially the same level of funding commitments to the organizations, and that tickets to the events will strictly be to cover costs. Think of it as sort of a corporate responsibility fund. “The purpose of this change is so that you’re not selling tables to fight AIDS,” said Cable Positive pres/CEO Steve Villano, who was very enthusiastic of the shift. “The purpose of the Cable Positive Power Awards will not be to be the primary source of revenue for Cable Positive, but to recognize leaders, which is how it should be. By not having to focus so much energy on whether we’ll raise a million dollars at each dinner, we can concentrate more on our expertise.” Cable Positive’s annual awards dinner is slated for Tues night in NY. After that, the event will be held in conjunction with NCTA‘s Cable Show. In ’09, the Power Awards will follow the Cable Show Chairman’s Reception. The change in fundraising is also key because so many of the events will now be held at the same time. Association leaders didn’t want companies to have to pick and choose which table to buy. NCTA’s board put the final approval of the consolidation plan Mon morning, creating 2 cluster of events “Cable Connection—Spring” and “Cable Connection—Fall.” The new schedule kicks off Apr 2, ’09, with NCTA’s Cable Show, CableLabs ‘ conference, SCTE‘s Emerging Tech, CAB‘s annual confab, NAMIC‘s awards breakfast, WICT‘s Leadership Conference and Gala, Cable Positive’s Power Awards Dinner and the Cable Pioneers annual dinner taking place that week in DC. The fall cluster is in Denver the week of Oct 25, ’09, with the lineup including: CTAM Summit, CableLabs Seminar, SCTE CableTEC Expo, Kaitz Dinner, NAMIC annual conference, Cable Center Hall of Fame dinner, ACC Forum and NCTA board meeting (with joint meetings with the NAMIC and WICT boards). The cities hosting the weeks will change annually, but the 2009 schedule is meant to be a template for the years ahead. Since Oct, cable association heads, Time Warner Cable‘s Glenn Britt, NCTA’s Kyle McSlarrow and Barbara York, Turner‘s Phil Kent, Comcast‘s Steve Burke, Landmark‘s Decker Anstrom and Fox Nets ‘ Tony Vinciquerra have been hammering out how to compress the industry gatherings at the behest of NCTA’s board. “I want to thank each of the association heads for working so constructively together to develop a new strategy,” said McSlarrow. “The realigned schedule allows member companies, participants, and exhibitors to allocate time and resources more efficiently to better support these organizations and events and to enhance the value of the shared experience of our incredibly collaborative industry.”