The son of Radio parents, my first NAB convention was in Chicago, sometime around 1957; I can remember holding my father’s hand as we walked the halls of the Conrad Hilton Hotel, visiting hospitality suites. This proves nothing except that I sure am old! In the years that followed, I attended many more NAB conventions (following as the Big Show moved from Chicago to Las Vegas), and participated as the National Radio Broadcasters Association convention morphed into the NAB Fall Radio Show. I've attended nearly every RAB conference, beginning with those wild events at the AMFAC Hotel and Resort in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport; I'm certainly not the only one who never found the resort!

I've been a presenter at dozens of these meetings, served on their planning committees and, when I succeeded Radio Wayne Cornils as EVP/Meetings of the RAB, was actually in charge of both the RAB conference and RAB’s sales and management programs that it supplies to the NAB conventions. I have great respect for those who plan and operate our industry’s meetings. It is a tough job.

Earlier this year, RAB CEO Jeff Haley made sweeping changes in his organization’s leadership. Concurrently, he announced that the RAB conference would be merging with NAB’s Fall Radio Show. This announcement seemed to come as a pretty big surprise to the folks at the NAB, but I'm sure that in the coming months we’ll hear that “the wrinkles have been ironed out and all systems are go.”

This is not the first time that this arrangement has been explored. Somewhere around 2001 or 2002, I joined then RAB President/CEO Gary Fries at a series of meetings with then NAB CEO Eddie Fritts and NAB’s EVP/Radio, John David. The idea was the same then as now: Merge the two meetings. We all agreed that this was a good idea but, as usual, “the devil was in the details.” While the biggest of these were the pending hotel and meeting space contracts held by each of the organizations, I always felt that the divisions went further than that.

With the exception of the final RAB Conference, held last March at a high-end, gated Florida golf resort, the RAB Managing Sales and Leadership Conferences always took their “working meeting” definition quite seriously. Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, Denver, even Orlando were all meetings meant to focus on work rather than play. Sure, there was plenty of time to catch up with old friends and meet new ones, but it was always in the context of the work of learning how to sell and manage more effectively.

The NAB Radio Show has usually tried to focus on the nitty-gritty of making our stations and industry work better, too. Programming has often been a focus of its sessions, while their keynoters were often bigger names than those at the RAB. Occasionally, for the NAB conferences, and regularly for the RAB, the members and leadership of the planning committees tended to be pretty static, with some positions appearing to be near permanent. The conferences have both, over time, become predictable and recently, in spite of their best efforts, have begun to fail to meet the needs of the industry. That said, what should be done?

First, let’s define a successful industry conference:

• An effective way to disseminate and cross-pollinate ideas and products.

• Allows real eyeball-to-eyeball contact.

• Provides the sponsoring organization an opportunity to put a public “face” on the organization and its efforts.

• A moneymaker for the sponsoring organizations.

• These conferences represent a “gathering of the clans,” where victories can be celebrated, tough times commiserated, old times rehashed and new concepts argued, all among people who are fighting the same battles. And, there’s almost always a bar nearby.

It may come as a big surprise to learn that, in my opinion, neither the NAB Radio Show nor the RAB Managing Sales Conference is today’s top Radio gathering. I would give those honors to (in no particular order)

• CRS, the Country Radio Seminar,

• The NRB, the convention of the National Religious Broadcasters and

• The Conclave, the annual “Woodstock” of programming.

These three have all become terrific examples of what a conference should be, year after year. Each has learned the critical message that the conference itself (not just the individual sessions) must morph to effectively face the ever-increasing challenges coming at broadcasting from all directions. This is NOT easy, for two big reasons:

1) The leadership of the sponsoring organization seldom wants a conference to change, especially if the meeting has a history of success. A big part of this is that an organization develops systems and structures for presenting an annual conference; changes to the program often don’t jibe with “how its always been done.” The pressure to “stick with the system” will almost always win out over the pressure for change. “The System” may not prevent change, but it will almost always slow it down.

2) While attendees often want something new, they are famous for complaining when anything is changed. That’s one reason that a conference needs a responsive, fast-acting planning committee in place.

As an example, look at the Exhibit Hall. Over the last decade, there has been a tremendous reduction in exhibitors at all the Radio conferences, simply because there has been a great reduction in the number of potential exhibitors. I assure you the sponsoring organizations miss the revenue, but the reduction in exhibitors has come with NO reduction in the influence of exhibitors. They have more clout than ever, with various events dedicated to moving as many attendees as possible past their booths. Is this wrong? No, not at all; however, little discussion is ever held as to whether there might be a better way to serve the needs of both the attendees and the exhibitors.

No conference can be totally changed overnight (and I'm not prescribing total change, anyway) but let’s look at a few changes that could come right away, especially if an RAB/NAB joint meeting really does come to pass. Here are some of my thoughts; I know that the readers have more, so let’s hear them:

1) All sessions, without exception, should be streamed on-line and be made available as audio or video podcasts. Not just the keynotes (where it can be tough to get speaker clearance,) but every workshop and panel, too. We can argue later about charging for this service (I'd say no) but the time is long past where cassettes and CDs are enough. This is a no-brainer. If meetings are to disseminate ideas, let’s get to the job of dissemination.

2) The actions of many of Radio’s biggest groups have done little to support our industry gatherings for years. Let’s quit pandering to them. Clear Channel, Cumulus, Citadel, Radio One and SBS in particular long ago abandoned any pretense of support for The NAB Radio Show or the RAB Conference. Let’s spend more time openly appealing to the groups and independents who have supported our meetings right along. Jerry Lee, Cromwell, Inner City, Regent, Bonneville and dozens of independent and smaller groups and companies make it work for them.

3) The once or twice a year nature of the big meetings has to face the reality of all-the-time, everyday needs of its members. RAB has had sporadic luck with webinars, but The Conclave has shown how it should be done. Let’s see monthly or even weekly outreach for training and information exchange purposes, both for traditional attendees and others. For example, there isn’t any model I know of that will bring lots of registrants from the ranks of Traffic Directors or Business Managers; however, by building their expertise with on-line offerings, presented under the umbrella of a combined convention, both the stations and individuals will become better at what they do. Isn’t that what we’re trying to accomplish anyway?

4) I've long supported the idea of 3-4 regional meetings to run in the months following the big conferences. Rather than just being “mini-me” versions of the conference, these might instead focus on narrowed agendas or even single topics: Sales, Programming, Internet, etc. Move ‘em around every year and build on the regional talent available across the country. Sort of a 21st Century version of the old RAB “Idea-o-Ramas.” This is one area where both RAB and NAB should work with the many strong state broadcast associations, some of whom, such as Illinois, have turned annual meetings into a flourishing art form.

I’ll stop there. Our Radio industry conferences are very important, but the nature of their importance, just like our industry, is changing. Recently, the conferences have not been keeping up with those changes. Let’s give those who plan and operate Radio’s big meetings some applause for what they've done in the past, and some new ideas for what they must provide in the future.

We’ll all be better for it…LWD