Leaving Las Vegas

NAB continues to evolve, and yesterday's sessions no better example. Stan Lee spoke to the convention, and here is a man who's career and reputation is firmly build in the world of legacy media. While officially moved on from Marvel Comics and from the fawning crowd could easily spend his retirement years soaking in the adoration of the masses, he's forging straight ahead into POW Entertainment and doing things like motion comics with Disney. With Reed Richards dexterity, Lee continues to lead his content creation industry.

Last year was eye-opening, personally, to how much an event that officially is the National Association of Broadcasters was adapting to the reality of changing media. Good luck finding that long phrase anywhere -- its NAB Show; sort of like KFC instead of the oh-so-regionalizing Kentucky Fried Chicken.

There's a reason for that -- "new media" dominated the sessions in the Post|Production seminars. Even the videographer and director segments were things like "Directing for the Web".

Presentations about brand management and awareness of brand reputation were particularly relevant to our world here, with the business community embracing after learning some very hard lessons about ignoring the conversation and the on-line community.

Engagement was the buzz word -- companies now sending their staff into chat rooms and on-line communities to represent the brand, posting in the open under their real names and real jobs. No surprise to those who follow this space, but a great validation for those who continue to think that they are the sole arbiters of their institution/team/organization's reputation.

It's a conversation now, more than ever.

And yes, I know I've promised more entries from the sessions with notes relevant for the college sports community. I beg your temporary forgiveness as a very special project cropped up on Tuesday and needed to be engaged. Let's hope for the best.