NATPE Opens with ‘Most Diverse Conference Ever’

MIAMI: Rod Perth, the president and CEO of NATPE, opened the 52nd annual event this morning by touting the diversity of the attendees and championing the media business’s ability to adapt to the changing marketplace.

Jordan Levin, executive chair of NATPE, welcomed attendees in the packed Fontaine Ballroom and started off by noting the uptick in attendance. “Not only does attendance from around the world continue to grow, those attending represent an increasingly diverse array of thought-leaders, influencers and decision-makers, buyers and sellers, all at the center of creating and distributing a wide variety of content across all media platforms in expanding territories worldwide.”

He reinforced NATPE’s promise of being a place “where connections are made, ideas are initiated and deals get done.”

When Perth took the stage, he confirmed that NATPE will again be held in Miami in 2016 at the Fontainebleau. “This is the most diverse conference ever,” he said. “Our rule is, we will not allow business silos, because we’re increasingly interdependent in this digital world, where virtually everything happens every day and everything changes virtually every day. I’m certain that all of us realize that the technology we all depend on to communicate, virtually interact and advance our businesses has also forever changed consumer behavior. For the first time, viewers are truly now in control….”

Perth went on to reference what Leslie Moonves, the president and CEO of CBS Corporation, has said about not caring how people are watching, as long as they’re watching. “For me, this captures the theme and the fundamental truth of our time,” said Perth. “We have to adapt so that we’re not blindly relying on the status quo. Yes, we’re all going through collective anxiety about these shifts in behavior, and for those of us in the industry, we need to recalibrate old models by taking new risks.”

He noted that there is precedent with how the media business will continue to thrive despite these changes. “This business has an amazing track record of adapting to change,” Perth said. “Why is that? Because it still comes down to developing hits by finding the right talent and making shows with compelling storytelling, great characters and reasons to come back again and again—who cares how it gets there and how we watch it.”

Perth then outlined how NATPE is being responsive to these changes “with a differentiating strategy that continually organizes around the central promise of offering fresh events and creating new relevance in value for every corner of the business. We will never be a niche market. We broaden our value chain by delivering on the entire continuum, from the early stages of program development to the later stages of distribution and monetization across platforms.”

He wrapped up by declaring that “all of us here today are NATPE; all of us are about content without borders.”