Re: Avid says No to NAB 2008

I both agree some and disagree some with my venerable and esteemed friend, Walter.

I agree that Avid's reputation as a stodgy and smug company with an attitude has hurt it. I can't count the number of times that I have called people at Avid only to realize that Jimmy Buffett was right when he wrote the song, "If the phone doesn't ring, it's me."

But just as Autodesk, Adobe and others have been through major restructurings, so has Avid and it was one that used a fairly wide and large broom. ;o)

When we called Avid for an interview with Graham Sharp yesterday, we had it in minutes. That's never happened before.

But I disagree when simplifying purchases down to making up one's mind on what can be gleaned from a showfloor.

Why?

I have been to many deep all day product roadshows, some that have lasted for two to four days. With a tool like an Avid, I have probably five or six days of intense all-day seminars digging into the features and I am far from knowledgeable about all that's there. I doubt that I have covered a third of what makes an Avid, an Avid.

But what I learned on a showfloor sitting in my seat for 10 to 20 minutes? Not much.

Apple plays well at NAB. Adobe's presentation from all I heard, was a far second to Apple's "wow, the crowd" approach. Avid? Well, let's be nice and ask did they even have a big press event last year?

;)

Regardless of the outcome of Avid's decision, companies like Sony have left Comdex, a show that was one of the pivotal shows for them. In doing so, they set the stage for many others to follow their lead.

The tradeshow industry is in a world of hurt, far more than Avid.

Already gone are a long list of shows like Showbiz Expo (that had been a Hollywood cornerstone for years and years), gone also are the NY DV Show and LA DV Show, Videomaker gave up their show a few years back, the DVD Tech Expo is gone, DV Expo is a 20% to 25% of what it once was at its peak, Siggraph continues to get smaller and smaller each year, NAB is shrinking in both size and importance, and the list could go on and on...

Whether Avid has made a brilliant move or has just shot itself in the head, remains to be seen. But the fact remains that they have $2 million in a war chest to play the kinds of strategies that Graham Sharp played in Europe to remarkable success and profit -- all while avoiding IBC.

Tradeshows are important but they are not indespensible -- nor in this day of the internet are they indestructible.

Just watching the paradigms shift again.



Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net
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