Visitors to the NAB 2009 website are greeted with an animation of a raised white flag… typically seen as a sign of surrender. This is sending the wrong message. The conference is going strong and continues to evolve. I’ve attended and spoken at the conference for the last five years. Despite some high profile drop-outs (like Avid and Apple) in 2008 the show still boasted more than 72,000 attendees. I found it as relevant as ever and enjoyed informative presentations, looked at great products, networked like crazy, and managed to have some fun in there too. I believe in NAB, last year I brought 5 employees with me.
A lot of buzz is already starting, people wanting to talk about how tradeshows are dying. The Internet is great for netowrking and getting information abut products. But coming together as an industry is important. It builds solidarity and even allows for a way to discover what you don’t know.
Just my two cents….
But perhaps they should change the homepage.