TV marketing organization PromaxBDA will host the Station Summit this June, a two-day leadership summit at which television station general managers as well as marketing and promotion executives will gather to discuss how best to market and monetize their content across multiple platforms. The summit will take place June 8-9, 2011, in Las Vegas.
"The local TV industry is such a dynamic, interesting and unique community that we really needed to provide them with their own event," says Jonathan Block-Verk, PromaxBDA's president and CEO. "The issues that they are coming up against in 2011 are fundamentally different than the ones they were facing in 2001 or even three years ago. A station summit will give them a unique opportunity to connect to share best practices and ideas."
The short summit will be divided into two parts, with the Studio Day scheduled for June 8 and Promax BDA Local scheduled for June 9.
During the Studio Day, syndicators will sit down with station executives to "learn innovative promotion tactics and new methods for increasing efficiency and generating revenues," according to Promax's statement.
Four syndicators - Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, CBS Television Distribution, Sony Pictures Television and Debmar-Mercury - are sponsoring the conference, providing both executive input as well as financial support so that stations can attend.
"This is a great opportunity to focus on the changing marketing needs of the local stations," says Susan Kantor, executive vice president of marketing for Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. "It's been great working with the other distributors, station groups and the execs at Promax to put together an exciting event that will truly serve an important business need."
Day two will be a "day full of sessions, speakers and presentations about the creative innovation, social marketing strategies, technological advances and new market-driven revenue opportunities affecting success in the local media landscape," according to Promax. "The focus will be on providing the most relevant, contextual and current information that can be used to affect a station business' bottom line."
The summit's second day will be capped off by the PromaxBDALocal Awards, which will reward creative marketing and promotional efforts by TV stations across various categories.
"This is the first time we've done an awards show that is catered specifically to the local TV industry," says Block-Verk. "Ironically, it's taking us back to where we began."
The call for entries, which are being accepted at a reduced rate, began Jan. 11, 2011, and runs through March 30, 2011.
More details can be found at PromaxBDA's Web site at www.PromaxBDA.org.
Several station groups - including CBS, NBC, Sinclair, Raycom and LIN -- already have scheduled marketing-focused meetings after the Station Summit on June 10. NBC, the network, also will be hosting an marketing meeting with affiliates on June 7.
"We focus on leadership and learning," said Bill Butler, vice president of programming and promotion at Sinclair Broadcast Group. "Because this new event is specifically focused on the issues, trends and needs of local broadcast stations, we look forward to attending the summit this summer."
PromaxBDA's conference, known as The Conference, remains a separate event and will take place June 28-30, 2011, at the New York Hilton in New York City.
