It’s Swamp Time! Ah, wonderful. Washington DC in July. Next week. Power to the People? Or Showers for the People? (An aside: kudos to the Independent Show’s NCTC and ACA for their site the following week!) However, never mind the next week site (85 degrees and sunny last week, I was told), as usual, kudos to Char Beales and her CTAM crew (especially the volunteer planning committee headed by TWC’s Sam Howe and TWC’s Wonya Lucas***) for putting together another good show… especially the tradition of bringing in speakers from other industries and disciplines. Cable—as other industries often do—gets a bit myopic at times. Speakers from the Harvard Business Journal, Harrah’s Entertainment, Streative Brands, DeGrippes Gobe’ Group and, to keep it relevant, Time Warner’s always intriguing (and often funny) Jeff Bewkes (he misses cable, you know). Truly relevant session tracks this year on brand marketing (note below, though), digital products (the proliferation, I presume, and what to do with or for them), next generation trends (do you know what devices your kids are using?) and relationship marketing (same questions?). It gets more and more interesting out there… law school students at the U of Denver are enamored with Discovery’s "Man v. Wild"… not that I’ve seen many lawyers in those situations! Random Notes

  • Change Agent! Credit where it is due: the Federal Confusion Commission Chairman Kevin Martin certainly came to town with an agenda… re-make America’s business models!
  • First cable (well, linear video distribution by operators, never mind the rest); next wireless! Then, the world!

  • Campaign Stop? The mayor (make that "THE" mayor of New York’s five boroughs) was in Sun Valley last week… one ex-mogul, a few dozen real moguls and a dozen plus gawking reporters angling for a snippet of semi-real information all crowding the walkways and roads and lurking on park benches and behind bushes. Rumors, too. The right acquirer for Facebook? Easy, Discovery. The right acquirer for SlingBox? Easy… a revived General Instruments (Frank? Ed? Anybody listening?) For LinkedIn? Easy… Oracle or SAP. Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch picked the ides of October while he stews over the wishy-washy Bancroft dithering. Why does everyone in the room always bow slightly to Nancy Peretsman? (If you have to ask …)
  • Independent? Kind of. We’re all hostage to something. Like the fish that’ll be swimming in the Monterey Bay Aquarium Mon the 30th (great venue; used to have California Cable TV Association board dinners there).
  • Great Lady: Lady Bird Johnson was special. Very special. Very classy. Even planted some bluebonnets and paint brushes last week. (Hope they grow up here).
  • RALLY! There will be an organized anti-broadcaster demonstration at the end of CTAM’s Summit… It will be held at the intersection of Connecticut NW and M St NW… free drinks (limit to 17 apiece not counting doubles). Placards reading "Go Dark Now!" and "Digital Dummies" and "Give Me Back My Spectrum Now" will be passed out. There is no charge.
  • The rally will begin promptly at 3 am on Friday, July 27th. You must have a real job and be over 21.

  • ***: That first TWC = Time Warner Cable; the second TWC = The Weather Channel. Going to be a part of that brand marketing session group on how to differentiate while having the same acronyms.

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