Streaming Media Transmits New Image
By Margo McCall -- Tradeshow Week, 4/26/2004
Under Penton Media's ownership, Streaming Media was a tiny pavilion in the once-gargantuan Internet World show. But now that the brand is owned by Information Today, it is an intimate, conference-rich show designed to reach a whole new crowd.
Information Today, a publisher and conference organizer based in Medford, N.J., bought Streaming Media – a company consisting of a Web site, a research arm and tradeshows – from Penton in late 2002. Coming up on the third Streaming Media show since the acquisition, the event is beginning to gain traction.
It's taken some time to realign the event and educate potential exhibitors, speakers and attendees, said Dan Rayburn, Streaming Media executive vice president and conference chair. "We changed the direction of the show and are focusing more on end users. It used to be about the industry talking to the industry," he said.
The company strives for 150 speakers per show, about half of which are end users, and about 2,000 attendees. The exhibit floors are comprised of a couple dozen or so exhibitors, but Rayburn said the number is growing. Streaming Media East has grown from 15 exhibitors in 2003 to 30 in 2004.
Rayburn, who co-founded Live on Line, an early streaming media webcasting production company, said the current arrangement requires less investment from exhibitors, but more from targeted buyers. He later founded and established Globix, a streaming media service provider.
Rayburn said of Internet World, "It was the wrong crowd. Exhibitors had to spend tens of thousands to show up at the Javits. We were hearing from exhibitors that they would rather have 50 qualified people as opposed to 500 walking through looking for free stuff."
Information Today still holds spring East Coast and fall West Coast versions of the show, but has discontinued the European and Asian versions that Penton tried out in its high-tech heyday. Rayburn said he plans to announce a September Washington, D.C. event targeting government buyers of streaming media services and products.
Streaming Media East is slated for May 11-12 at the Hilton New York. Streaming Media West is scheduled for Oct. 26-28 at Silicon Valley's Santa Clara Convention Center. The East Coast version tends to attract those from the financial and government sectors, while the West Coast event draws more people from entertainment and technology companies.
Among Information Today's publications are Information Today, Searcher and CRM. Its conferences and exhibitions include InfoToday, KMWorld & Intranets, Internet Librarian and Computers in Libraries.
Rayburn said the event should benefit from streaming media broadening to include videoconferencing and desktop collaboration, as well as being integrated into set-top boxes, Internet Protocol TV and wireless. "The great thing for us is we're starting to get a lot of new traffic and new people. All the technologies are coming together," he said.
