Celebrating 30 Years of the Annual NAMIC Conference

When NAMIC began its annual conference in 1986, it was known as the Urban Markets Seminar. It was designed to help the industry become successful in urban markets, while also including an emphasis on minority supplier and franchise ownership opportunities. For nearly two decades, the conference was a labor of love, transforming to meet the needs of the industry. As a dedicated staff came on board, NAMIC pushed the conference to even greater heights.

NCTA president and CEO, Michael Powell
(left) and NAMIC president and CEO,
Eglon Simons share a moment of levity
at the 28th Annual NAMIC Conference
opening general session.

“As I look into the future, I see us working in an environment that is certainly going through a sea change right now. Our vision is to make sure we’re adaptable to the new environment, and to make sure we provide the same vision and services in the new environment as we have in the past,” NAMIC pres/CEO Eglon Simons said.

Change has been the industry’s middle name in recent years, particularly amid M&A on the distribution and programing side of the business. “The needs for diversity and inclusion don’t go away because of size,” Simons said. “If anything, [our vision] is to make sure that the conference is not forgotten and that it’s still a primary resource for our constituents and a primary goal for the companies we work with.”

A Rich History
The conference’s longevity is especially commendable when you consider that for its first 19 years of existence it was essentially put together by volunteers under then-leader Kathy Johnson. “It was Kathy and a lot of volunteers. A lot of people from all over—chapter leaders or people in the industry who just really believed in NAMIC,” said Sandra Girado, NAMIC’s vp of events and partner relations. In 2005, a grant from the Walter Kaitz Foundation funded the first staff positions for NAMIC, with Girado and Jim Jones, currently svp, education and diversity solutions, joining the organization. With a dedicated staff, the bar was raised for the event. “We had more resources. It went from probably a 300-person conference. We’ve got as high as 700 people,” Girado said.

Even in the early years, NAMIC’s conference brought in big names. NY gov Mario Cuomo addressed the conference in 1993. In 1996, then-HBO pres/CEO Jeff Bewkes and then-Comcast pres Brian Roberts served as honorary co-chairs. The event didn’t start going by the name Annual NAMIC Conference until 2001. That conference in NY is remembered by all who attended, with news of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon being announced shortly after the opening session began on Sept 11. While that gathering was cut short, NAMIC supporters came together again in 2002 and have continued to do so ever since.

Award-winning journalist, Ana
Maria Polo, host of Telemundo’s
“Caso Cerrado” accepts the 2011
Mickey Leland Humanitarian
Achievement Award during the 25th Annual NAMIC Conference.

2006 was a big year for the conference. It was the 20th anniversary, but NAMIC also began to seriously explore the shift in multiplatform business models. Starting that year, a greater emphasis was placed on the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Achievement Award. “We used to honor more civic leaders. We started honoring real media people,” Girado said. Honorees have included CNN’s Anderson Cooper and Ana Maria Polo, the host of Telemundo’s “Caso Cerrado.” In 2014, the award was moved to the NAMIC Annual Breakfast during INTX, with Univision news anchor Maria Elena Salinas receiving the honor this year.

There were a couple of rocky patches over those 30 years, including in 2009 when the industry introduced a Cable Connection-Spring and Cable Connection-Fall weeks in an attempt to consolidate industry gatherings and limit the amount of time people spent away from the office. It was the only year that the conference wasn’t held in NY. It didn’t go over well, with attendance plummeting 53% to about 400 and many of those that did attend were trapped by a blizzard. After attendance declines across the board, the diversity groups bound together and successfully pushed the NCTA board for a reinstatement of Diversity Week in NYC in 2010. While it may not have been the most attended conference, it was an interesting one with Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes among the keynoters—another example of the organization’s emphasis on multiplatform. Another upside of the 2009 change-up was that NAMIC pared its schedule and became more focused on primary education opportunities, Girado said.

Evolving Focus
As NAMIC and the industry has grown, so has the conference. In its earlier days, the focus was more about helping people of color break into the industry as opposed to career development and helping foster more diversity among management ranks. The organization decided to stop doing a career fair that was once part of the conference. “Over the years, with the changes and consolidation, it was just not a value add for participants. It was really our annual corporate sponsors who received that benefit to participate,” Girado said. Logistically, it was also tough to find hotels that could accommodate the sometimes 1000-person crowd the fair would bring. Still, NAMIC stresses this is a conference for all—from the assistant manager level to senior execs. “One of the top reasons people attend the NAMIC Conference is for networking. They have access to the people they want to connect with,” Girado said.

Today’s Conference
This year’s conference will feature some reminiscing about the event’s past 30 years, but the association is clear that it’s looking more to the future than the past. Simons has made focusing on millennials and the changes (not to mention technology) they bring a priority. “Many years ago, people would stay at companies 25-30 years. Now I think the average turnover is somewhere between 3-5 years. It’s important we equip people to survive in the new environment, the NAMIC chief said.

NAMIC is listening to members in crafting sessions, bringing back some popular speakers this year, including Darnell Hunt, director of UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies. Smaller “Career Corner” breakouts are back, especially important given consolidation as people ask “how do they reinvent themselves and survive in their careers,” Girado said.

You can also see NAMIC’s work to keep up with the times in keynoter, Reggie Love, President Obama’s former personal aide. “He’s a younger person, [who can outline] the types of tools and the things he’s used in his relatively short career in terms of leadership and how people deal with leadership,” Simons said. “That’s something our constituent companies are looking for—leadership training for people who are moving up in the ranks and for people who are aspiring to go higher.”

And just as its members climb new peaks, NAMIC will continue to look to give them a boost.

Leadership Development

While the NAMIC Annual Conference gets the attention this week, it’s certainly not NAMIC’s only effort to help executives of color reach the next rung on the ladder. One example NAMIC supporters often point to is its Executive Leadership Development Program, which has been offered in partnership with the University of Virginia Darden School of Business since the fall of 2012. It previously was held in conjunction with UCLA. NAMIC’s 16th class is about to go through the program. “Each class has its own identity. There’s always this point where there’s a shift in terms of the light bulbs going on in terms of their own enhanced potential,” said Jim Jones, svp of education and diversity solutions. “It’s a magical moment. And I don’t use that word magic loosely.” But we didn’t just take his word for it. We asked past participants what the program mean to them.