[Andrew M]

I've noticed some talk about the "Power User" panel being non-indicative of the typical HTF member. How true! Please keep in mind, we are not the typical "Power User" consumers the panel was probably looking for.

While VHS may be dead to many of us, believe it or not, there is still a large VHS consumer base out there. If you talk to retailers with an older demographic (senior) customer base, you might be surprised to learn that many older people have problems with DVD menus. DVD menus are often non-intuitive and are usually not simply insert & play. VHS tapes are easier for older folks to deal with. Of course, this means that they are renting older titles and watching newer releases on cable(either through premium channels or VOD).

The High Definition viewing universe is still small in comparison to standard definition. This was made clear over and over again with the statistics and viewing habits touted by EMA and provided by DEG and other groups. Give the general population time. They'll learn how to hook up those HD TVs to get HD signals. Then, when they're ready for High Definition DVDs they'll really be faced with a dilemma. Which end of the High definition DVD egg do they choose to open up? (Read Gulliver's Travels to better understand this analogy or rent the DVD.)

Entertainment content delivery can be physical or electronic, stationary or mobile. There are still approximately 10,000 video retailers out there and the industry is a complex mix of store retailers, internet retailers, downloading, etc. Because of the HTF presentation schedule, we missed the opportunity to sit in on the highly informative panel discussions taking place concurrently that dealt with some of these issues. Perhaps next time the HTF will have a chance to participate in some of these sessions.

As I've written before, there just wasn't enough time to take everything in or to talk to as many retailers as I would have liked. Foot traffic at the show was definitely down from last year. But, all the exhibitors I spoke with said that even with the decrease in attendees, they were having quality meetings with buyers. This could be indicative of the show turning away from the independent retailers who really created the industry and towards the big box stores.

The exhibit suites offer an aura of professionalism but old-timers like me miss the excitement and buzz from a really active sales floor. I've always felt that anyone who had an exhibit suite should also have a presence on the sales floor. The suite to be used for meetings and the sales floor area for distribution of sales material, screeners and celebrity appearances.

[Ronald Epstein]

So, Andrew....

First, thanks for your insightful comments. I realize you are
a veteran of these shows and based on that I am most interested
to hear your opinion about our presence there.

Obviously EMA brought our group out as an experiment to see
if including consumers would add any freshness to the show which
has been declining in attendance over the years.

If I can be permitted to say this, I think we did a great job and
that it seemed that our presentations rivaled those that EMA were
giving. In other words, I felt as if WE were the place to check out!

Do you feel that bringing our group out to EMA has made a
positive difference in the show? Do you think that EMA will go
out of their way to invite us back next year?

Please be honest. We won't have any hurt feelings, I promise!

[Andrew M]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein

So, Andrew....

First, thanks for your insightful comments. I realize you are
a veteran of these shows and based on that I am most interested
to hear your opinion about our presence there.

Obviously EMA brought our group out as an experiment to see
if including consumers would add any freshness to the show which
has been declining in attendance over the years.

If I can be permitted to say this, I think we did a great job and
that it seemed that our presentations rivaled those that EMA were
giving. In other words, I felt as if WE were the place to check out!

Do you feel that bringing our group out to EMA has made a
positive difference in the show? Do you think that EMA will go
out of their way to invite us back next year?

Please be honest. We won't have any hurt feelings, I promise!

Since we never saw the other concurrent panel discussions, it's hard to say how good they were. In my experience, it is the smaller panel discussions that are more interesting and allow more interaction between the audience of retailers and the panel members. In that way they are similar to the HTF panels.

For instance, the Wednesday panel, "Multi-Cultural and Specialized Product Offer Growing Opportunities to Satisfy Customers" sounded interesting. What insights could the HTF group offer to learning about new Asian, Bollywood and Anime titles? How different are our learning resources from the retailers? We don't get product sell-sheets. How do we learn about the hottest Korean horror film or the best anime? We could have offered some good info at that session.

The opening business session group of "Power Users" was hyped out of proportion to its importance to the home video retailers. Was anyone there really stunned to learn that the college student doesn't have an HD TV in his dorm room? Or that he doesn't have a large collection of DVDs due to lack of storage space? Now, the single woman who was primarily into games had something interesting to tell. That was learning about how she rents, plays, buys or rapidly moves on to another game if dissatisfied. Of course, this was the first time they've done this type of consumer panel. Hopefully it will be handled differently in the future.

I think the HTF presence definitely had an impact at the show. Both positive and negative. Other members of the press who were not registered with HTF definitely felt left out of our studio swag and free HD and Blu-ray player offers. Studios who didn't know about our presence felt left out of presenting to HTF and would like to have an opportunity next time. Of course, an extra day would be required to allow additional presentations to HTF. If we can arrange this, it would be worthwhile. And we definitely need to do a panel or two with the retailers. If the show really expands to cover the video game industry next time, we might have to run two HTF tracks-one on games and the other on entertainment.

We received mixed press coverage in the show dailies, indicating to some that we were there primarily for swag and that our panel discussions were more acrimonious than they really were. They were lively but that's all. Perhaps a mission statement before attending the next EMA event would help or even issuing our own press releases.

There's only one first time in this reality. We've now "been there and done that." As a group we have skills and knowledge that can be utilized as a resource to the retailers and the industry. That didn't really happen at this show. It's time to analyze what occurred not just with our own survey but with EMA surveying the retailers and exhibitors about our presence and how we can be better integrated into the next EMA show.

[Paul.S]

Some terrif comments in your post immediately above, Andrew--with which I agree for the most part, especially with regards to Jennifer Netherby's trade coverage of our attendance and the possible need for HTF/Bits to release our own press releases (or at least do so via the EMA). Indeed, I think those issues are related.

I, too, would have liked to attend that "Multi-Cultural and Specialized Product" panel. I had marked both that one and the one on the "Future Of Retail" as ones I wanted to attend if time permitted (it didn't).

Quote:

Studios who didn't know about our presence felt left out of presenting to HTF and would like to have an opportunity next time.

Are you referring to boutiques and smaller houses? I think all the majors knew we were there . . .

[Andrew M]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul.S

Are you referring to boutiques and smaller houses? I think all the majors knew we were there . . .

I'm certain the majors knew about us but the smaller studios/labels didn't. My contact at Naxos certainly expressed surprise and interest in the HTF presence. Now, just how interested HTF might be in a presentation from a smaller studio/label is another story. But, you might recall that it was a small label, Lumivision that released the first DVDs in the US in March 1997. Their titles streeted even before the Warner releases.

[Paul.S]

Quote:

My contact at Naxos certainly expressed surprise and interest in the HTF presence. Now, just how interested HTF might be in a presentation from a smaller studio/label is another story.

I think this is where it might behoove us to make sure denizens of the Music area of the Forum are engaged. I'm rare, but certainly not alone, in being as into music and high resolution as I am movies and high def.

Looking forward to the Naxos Jazz Icons sampler that Sean Hickey is sending me.

[Ronald Epstein]

Andrew,

Have much to comment upon your reply.

It's interesting (but understandable) that anyone would think that
attendees came to the HTF function just for the "swag." Though there
were a few of us who knew in advance about the free players, that
knowledge was limited to those organizing the event. We never told any of
you in advance just how well you were going to be treated because
the last thing we wanted was anyone coming out just for free stuff.

In fact, next year if we are invited back, we are going to make a
point up front that there will be a minimal amount of swag available
to attendees. Those who attended this year were VERY lucky. It
was THE BITS and HTF 10th anniversary and for that reason we
walked away with over $1k worth of goodies. We intend to make
certain to inform people that will NEVER happen again.

We want people to come out for the event and experience of being
with other like members -- not for the freebies. Those who came out
to our event this year had no idea what was in store for them so to
be accused otherwise is quite ludicrous. I can understand, however,
people not knowing the situation first-hand thinking otherwise.

Next....

The biggest mistake we made this year was not arranging events
prior to and following the opening and closing sessions. Doing so
would have given our members more of an opportunity to get to
know each other at the start of the show, and have some sort of
send-off at the end. In hindsight, we ended things rather abruptly
and never even had the opportunity to say "goodbye" or "thank you"
to everyone. That was regrettable.

On the other hand, I think being this was our very first effort to
put on a show like this, I think we did pretty damn well. I give a
lot of credit to <b>SV SOUND</b> and <b>BenQ</b> for supplying us with
state-of-the-art equipment. And as much credit that has been given
to me for organizing things with all of you, a much bigger credit needs
to be given to <b>Adam Gregorich</b> who negotiated not only to get
the presenters we had, but pushed to get all of you extra freebies in your
hands. Adam did a remarkable job as did <b>Gregg Loewen</b>.

We are concerned that the smaller companies felt slighted that they
were not asked to present to our group -- and trust me, we considered
having them aboard --- but realistically, do you think they would hold
the attention of everyone there? I don't mean to sound as negative as
I seem, but these smaller companies have very obscure product that
only a sect of the audience would relate with. Actually, I think that
when it comes to these smaller companies it's better that those with
a particular interest in that genre visit the companies on their own.

I didn't want to tell all of you this in advance of the show, but now
I can....

We contacted every major studio out there to come meet with us.
Paramount turned us down because they felt they had nothing to
show. DreamWorks didn't have <i>Shrek The Third</i> ready for us
so they also turned us down. All the Blu-Ray studios wanted to put
their efforts into throwing a party rather than giving individual
presentations, which I am not going to complain about.

I also think July is a horrible, horrible time of year to hold EMA,
but I am told that exhibitors want it that time of year. Really, if
you want to do this show right, it needs to be done in September.
At that time, the studios have their Q4 product ready to roll and
we could have gotten more of them aboard to show off titles such
as <i>Harry Potter</i> or <i>Transformers</i>. It's the time of
year that the studios really want to push product they have prepared.

All things aside, I think that the presence of consumers at EMA is
an absolute necessity. Of course some may interpret my opinion as
being bias, but from what I saw, the show is in great need of a new
paint job. If I were there as a retailer I would have been bored to
death. As I may have mentioned before, I think what we had going
on in our room was the best part of the entire EMA show.

And you know what? We have already told EMA our interest in
coming back next year. I think that THE BITS/TSOD and HTF can
do something even more amazing next year -- and we would love
to share it with as many Press and EMA attendees as we can.

Bill Hunt and HTF have always dreamed of doing a consumer
software show on our own. Truth is, we can't afford to do it.
Through EMA, however, we have the facilities provided to us and
we are more than willing to work our asses off every year to give
people a GREAT show next year. I know <b>SV SOUND</b> and
<b>BenQ</b> is ready to help us out. I know we can get studios
back out. Additionally, if they move to LA next year, we can get
our group out on a few studio lots and have a great HTF/BITS/TSOD
function next year.

We have received most of the surveys back that we sent to you
in email. Thus far, 100% of the responses we received back say
that swag aside, that you guys want to come back next year for
another function.

Andrew, if EMA does invite us back, we would happy to consider
any advice you would have for us to make the show better for
everyone.

[Michael_K_Sr]

Ron, for some reason I never received the survey. Would you mind resending it, please?