Positive Signs for NATPE 2011

LOS ANGELES: With still seven weeks till the NATPE Market and Conference, registration numbers are giving organizers reason to believe that the move to Miami is breathing new life into the event, which will be held January 24 to 26. 

“Instead of looking at it as the 48th edition of the NATPE Market and Conference, we are looking at it as the first edition of the NATPE Market and Conference because Miami is changing many things,” said Rick Feldman, the president and CEO of NATPE||Content First.

“We have sold out our hotel block at the Eden Roc and at the Fontainebleau, which were our two primary hotels to start with. We had roughly 1,800 or so rooms in those two hotels and now we just got anther 200 rooms at the Grand Beach Hotel, which is a little bit north of the Eden Roc,” explained Feldman.

“We already have 500 legitimate buyers signed up from over 40 countries. We have approximately 250 exhibiting companies already signed up, which is about what we had last year, but we are seven weeks out,” continued Feldman. “We also have about 15 or 20 new companies: four or five out of France, four or five out of the U.K. and a couple out of Canada that we didn’t have last year. We have representatives from more broadcast station groups than we’ve had before.”

Feldman believes the more self-contained layout of the Fontainebleau is preferable to the far more spread out setup NATPE had for the past nine years at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

“About 75 percent of the distributors are in suites and about 25 percent are on the floor,” he explained. “But the floor and suites are separated only by a lobby. It’s a very easy walk to come down from the suites, go across the lobby, which is going to be a fun place to be anyway, and then onto the floor.”

Feldman was also pleased to announce that all the Hollywood studios will be represented. He added that because participants have booked hotel rooms from Sunday, January 23, to Friday, January 28, Wednesday, the third and last day of NATPE, will have a full conference day that goes all the way till 5 p.m., while in pasts year the Wednesday conference usually ended around noon.

Here are some of the highlights of the three days’ activities. A kick-off party that will take place at the Eden Roc Hotel Sunday evening, January 23, at 6 p.m.

Monday morning’s Coffee With session will feature the creator and cast members of the hit show Burn Notice and the day’s events will culminate with a presentation from Keynote speaker WPP CEO Sir Martin Sorrell, who will talk about content creation and synergy. Monday evening there will be the NATPE opening night cocktail party around the pool at the Fontainebleau sponsored by TV Globo.

On Tuesday morning, the Coffee With session will be with Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and that evening will feature the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards will honor Dick Ebersol, Mary Hart, Regis Philbin and Gerhard Zeiler, who will also participate in Legacy Talk Back sessions Wednesday.

And on Wednesday, there will a track dedicated to the Latin American market, with the Coffee With session will feature Don Francisco of the show Sabado Gigante, and World Screen’s Anna Carugati will hold One-On-One conversations with Univision’s Cesar Conde and Telemundo’s Don Browne. There will also be a special Advertising Innovation Track. On Wednesday night there will be a cocktail party at the Eden Roc thrown by the Miami Chamber of Commerce.

In addition, NATPE is launching two digital tools for the 2011 marketplace. NATPE Connect is an online social networking site for conference attendees, and the NATPE Online Show Guide will provide session and speaker information, maps, exhibitor content and other useful conference information.

“From all evidence, we have a new lease on life here [in Miami] and we are doing everything in our power to make sure that when people leave they are going to say that their money was well spent and their time was well spent,” said Feldman.

Kevin Beggs, NATPE chairman and Lionsgate’s president of programming and production, commented: “Rick really had this idea [to move NATPE to Miami] and despite some board waffling, including myself because everyone was a little unsure, he pushed it through and we are all grateful to him for doing it because it has changed everything in terms of attendance and profile. The move to Miami represents a recognition that the business is ever-changing and that some of the constituents that figured less prominently in NATPE’s make-up are more prominent now: international, the Latin market, the cable market, which is primarily focused in New York, and all those constituencies are showing up.”