At this point in a normal year, the National Association of Broadcasters Show (The NAB Show) would be going full blast in Las Vegas. Past shows have typically drawn 90,000 attendees from 160 countries and attracted more than 1,600 exhibitors. Attendees have learned from featured industry leaders and innovators, and enjoyed hands-on experiences with the newest technology that brings information and entertainment to our homes. In response to the coronavirus, this year’s live show was cancelled, but NAB has come up with a virtual alternative.
Hop on the Express
NAB Show Express will take place online May 13-14. The event will include over 100 educational sessions and the traditional state-of-the-industry address from longtime NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith.
The online experience will revolve around three educational tracks, similar to those offered at the traditional Las Vegas show.
All information and entertainment that gets delivered in our current environment goes through a computer at least once, and probably multiple times. So, if you are an industry techie, you will want to board the BEIT Express. BEIT means Broadcast Engineering and Information Technology.
NAB Show Experience provides non-techies with a variety of sessions. Topics will include new-product showcases, a range of educational classes, and interviews with broadcast industry trailblazers.
Industry news site Broadcast Beat will provide Tech Talks. These interviews will go in-depth with NAB Show community influencers.
Each of those three channels will broadcast eight hours per day and offer the content on-demand as well. In total there will be more than 100 educational sessions. If you’ve ever attended previous NAB Shows and wished you could be in two places at once, now you can. NAB’s podcast, a hallmark of previous shows, will continue this year.
More Options
Besides all the above, NAB will offer three additional online events, for which separate registrations will be required.
On May 11, entertainment newspaper Variety will help produce an Executive Leadership Summit. This will be free to attend.
Two other events will require registration fees.
Keeping hackers away and environments secure will be the focus for Cybersecurity & Content Protection on May 12. This event will be co-produced by NAB, the Content Delivery and Security Association (CDSA), and Media & Entertainment Services (MESA).
No show is over till it’s gone through “post.” Post-Production World Online will take place May 17-19. NAB will co-produce this with Future Media Conferences.
Hashtag, Please
Registration opened April 20 at NABShowExpress.com. Details and events are still being worked out for this new version of the NAB Show. And what would an online event be without a hashtag? I searched Google for #nabshowexpress and it returned over a thousand posts from vendors and participants enthused about this new online option.
I will miss meeting filmmakers, the hands-on experiences with cameras, remote vans, the tons of software and other equipment normally part of the show, and the beer garden in the Las Vegas Convention Center courtyard. The online experience will have its advantages, however. We can all hope that NAB will succeed in going live again next year. Until then, see you online.
(Photos by author)