Re: ............ NAB IS DEAD ........really?

Thanks for the clarification, Rennie.

Like you, I live in a nowhere town hours from anywhere. We are halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco and it seems that our area, like yours, is out of the flow of this industry.

But as I said somewhere else, NAB is great because it's a party -- not because it's necessary.

That my opinion.

I don't argue that NAB *posts* that they get large numbers. But there is only one event that posts audited numbers and that is DV Expo. NAB posts the number of people that sign up. But there are far fewer that actually show up.

Many that work the booths joke during breaks, etc., that we see the same people going back and forth for days. And it's true for those that work the COW booth as our business is people and so we are looking at them, not at a computer screen.

I'd guess that NAB's *real* floor numbers are somewhere between 40,000 to 60,000. Still a huge number but without any kind of third party verification, it's hard to say what's really going on.

That's why we love Alexa.com, Compete.com, TrafficEstimate.com and Google Analytics. Between them, we can prove that we have five-times the traffic every month of the year that NAB has at its peak.

I am NOT saying that we are more important than NAB and I do not believe that for a moment. What I *am* saying is that the market is changing and as sites like CreativeCOW.net continue to grow, traditional venues that people went to for information -- like magazines and expos -- become less and less important and it is why they struggle.

As Tim and I like to say, we aren't chasing news in the Creative COW Magazine. Why? These forums do a far better job ferrting out press releases, reviews and other traditional fodder of dead tree-based journalism than we ever could. So we look for the deeper stories, more broad-scoped analysis and commentary on things that really matter in the long run -- this, as tools change all the time but over-riding principles usually don't.

It's why the COW Magazine is growing faster than we can add people to our database. We have budgeted monies to keep the magazine in the black and so we only add just so many with each issue. Most all of our competitors would love to be in that position. But they aren't. Why? They are all chasing the same news and reviews and have the same hunks of plastic on their covers every month.

Times are not only a' changin', but so is the market and since writing this article here at the COW, I have been written by people at most all the major networks who have said that they loved reading it.

Our membership sign ups are three-times normal and we had the biggest sign-up day in our history yesterday.

While there are indeed a lot of people that love going to NAB, the truth is, there are many who have been in this industry for decades who never want to walk its hallowed halls again, it seems.

More and more of the people we met at NAB over the last few years are newer users who are just starting out. The old guard that we used to meet and talk with is fading out and tell me that they love sites like the COW just because it helps them keep up with things without being obligated to travel anymore.

For those who love to travel, god bless 'em, me says. ;o)

But I can too understand those who say that they'll just take the information please, without all the sensory overload, thank you.

Again, that is just my opinion and I am not asking you or anyone else to agree with me.

Best regards,

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net
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