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2009
CONFERENCE
SPONSORS
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Public
Media Conference
February 17- 21, 2009
Westin Peachtree Plaza
Atlanta, GA
The Public Media Conference is organized by the Integrated Media Association and its members.
Sponsored by PBS, National Public Radio, Public Radio International, American Public Media
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An Historic Convergence
(That looks like the Future of Public Media)
The sixth Public Media Conference takes place in a period of accelerating media transformation.
- Online video is exploding, although no one has figured out how to "monitize it" effectively. Daily usage of online video rose by 56 percent over the last year. (Frank Magid Associates research report, June 2009). At the same time, Current, the public broadcasting newspaper tells us: "[P]ublic TV ratings have dropped 37 percent in the past decade, from 1.9 in 1998-99 to 1.2 in 2007-08. The biggest factor is a surge in audience fragmentation."
- Newspapers are facing a near perfect storm: loss of readership, loss of critical ad revenue, competition from new media. The Chicago Tribune Company is in bankruptcy. The Detroit Free Press will stop sending subscriptions to homes--and instead offer a virtual facsimile of a newspaper online because online newspaper readership is rising at twice the rate of the general internet audience (according to research by Nielsen//NetRatings for the Newspaper Association of America.)
- While radio listening remained fairly stable--and public radio continues to be remarkably competitive--commercial radio is sagging from a poor ad sales, a lack of creative offers and savage competition from downloads, iPods and other forms of "personal media."
- And, of course, American itself is changing. The Boomers who dominated its culture since the mid-60's are being pushed aside by a variety of cohorts, including a new generation of "digital natives." The election of Barack Obama has been interpreted as symbolic of a change in the self-image of America: This new America is more "multi-medial" and multi-cultural. Meanwhle public broadcasting, to be honest, is struggling to reflect this shift in media use and audience diversity.
In this conference, we will do our best to offer positive solutions to the challenges public broadcasters face as we grapple with "multi platform competition in the next two to five years.
As a start, we will offer a conference of introductions. We will be introducing the IMA Conference to participants in the New Media Institute, created by The National Black Programming Consortium (NBPC) for minority television, film and video producers from the five CPB Minority Programming Consortia, including NPBC, the Center for Asian American Media, Native American Public Telecommunications, Native Public Media, Pacific Islanders in Communications, and Latino Public Broadcasting. At the same time, we will be introducing our New Media Institute colleagues to the annual agenda of IMA, which has stimulated so much discussion within "mainstream" public broadcasting by far looking beyond the boundaries of public broadcasting for speakers and topics.
And in terms of session content, we will go where we have been going--to the heart of media change. Our opening keynote will feature two presentations on the literal future of media: Joaquin Alvarado from San Francisco State University will discuss the Next Generation Internet and public broadcasting's central role in shoring up America's faltering broadband infrastructure. After that, John Palfrey, Co-Director of Harvard's Berkman Center will discuss his international study of Digital Natives--the future audience for public media. In other major sessions, we will
- Introduce on of public broadcasting's most important new leaders, Ms. Vivian Schiller, who recently left NYTimes Digital to become CEO of National Public Radio,
- Take a close look at the most successful online news organization in the United States: CNN, whose world headquarters are located only a quarter mile from the conference hotel,
- Hear the details on a 30,000 sample survey of the media habits of public radio listeners recently conducted by Jacobs Media for NPR, IMA and the Public Radio Program Directors,
- Have a two hour discussion of the next important media platform--cell phones and other handheld devices.
Those are just some of the major sessions. Breakouts will include: Social Media: Latest Lessons Learned, Lessons from the '08 Presidential Campaign, Inspiriting the Communities of Tomorrow, Creating the Public Media Libraries and Archives, Advanced online fundraising techniques, Public Gaming, Interactive Classroom Applications and 20 other topics, all designed by front-line personnel in IMA stations and our partner networks.
Before these "general conference" sessions even begin, we will offer four pre-conference tracks:<>
- Our third Annual CEO/Exec Producer Sessions (Feb. 17-18)
- Special Sessions for the New Media Institute (Feb 18)
- Our third Annual Web/Tech Summit (Feb 18) and
- A revenue management seminar focused on developing a national network of public broadcasting websites that can generate new revenues from national corporate support (Feb 18)
Each of these sessions is described in this "Conference Area" of the IMA site.
Early Bird Registration Discounts will be extended through January 6.Click here for Registration Fees and Deadlines
Reservations from our Conference Hotel, the Westin Peachtree Plaza, can be made by clicking here.
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