Did you get a Lifetime bag on the way out of the dinner? Here's how to handle bag distribution with style and panache.

As mentioned below, last night MTV Networks was recognized with the Diversity Champion Award. As the award was announced, there was a little buzz in the room, at least where I was standing, whether Tom Freston would be acknowledged.

In fact, that's exactly what happened. As you can see in this bird's eye view, MTV Networks Chairman Judy McGrath is up at the podium receiving the honor for MTV. She credited Freston for his championing of diversity and the room erupted in applause.

Here are a couple of random photos from last night's event.

From left to right, Decker Anstrom (Landmark Communications), Char Beales (CTAM) and Kent Gibbons (Multichannel News).

From left to right, Dr. Rouzbeh Yassini (of YAS and the "Father of the Cable Modem"), Mike Schwartz (CableLabs) and Stephen Quinn (TVC Communications).

As mentioned in a previous post, last night brought Cable Positive's annual Broadway Benefit. The show was the Tony Award-winning show The Drowsy Chaperone. After the performance, some of the cast members came out for a Q&A; a few of them even came along to the After Party at Blue Chili. It was quite a Who's Who evening.  Pictured to the left is C-SPAN's Rob Kennedy and Bruce Collins leaving the performance.

In the photo below, you can see the cast with a few cable folks in The Marquis Theatre.

 

 

As already noted in this blog, diversity means different things in different contexts. There is diversity in hiring and promotion. There is diversity in the vendors to whom we contract work. And there is diversity in the content that we offer to our customers.

This morning at NAMIC, during a panel on digital media entitled "New Opportunities = New Revenue," a question was directed to Albert Cheng, Executive Vice President of Digital Media at Disney/ABC Television Group, about whether, in this digital age, it was better to bring ideas to large companies like his or try to go the independent route.

He replied that you should make that decision based on whether your content is a mass-market offering that might benefit from a large company. As an example of an alternative approach, he offered Rocketboom, a site which offers a three-minute daily vlog (or video blog), in the form of a mock newscast. It quickly climbed from a couple hundred daily viewers to tens of thousands; it currently receives 200-300,000 daily downloads, equivalent to the audience for some cable programming. The creators utilized viral marketing in the blogging community to drive popularity; later appearances in the mainstream media drove the audience even higher. They now also have distribution through TiVo and iTunes.

Cheng brought the discussion back to the topic of this week by pointing out that diversity is about people willing to challenge conventions, people with different backgrounds who think differently. This is one of the key business benefits of diversity, both in the people you hire and in the offerings you develop for your customers.

This morning's general session was entitled "Ad Sales Add Up When Diversity is Multiplied." The moderator was CableFAX's Paul Maxwell, leading a discussion with Sean Cunningham (CAB), Eglon Simons (Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation), Mark Walton (The Africa Channel), Phillip Woodie (Comcast Spotlight), Wendell Scott (ESPN ABC Sports Customer Marketing & Sales), and Vimal Verma (American Desi TV).

One of the themes that emerged was how today's frenetic environment -- very competitive, very profit-driven -- makes diversity more difficult to achieve. In a world where bosses are on their BlackBerries all day, they may not have to time to act as mentors or make thoughtful hiring decisions. We are going to have to make the time and commitment to ensure diversity's success.

Panelists warned about faulty hiring practices. Look past people with the perfect résumés or applicants that seem just like you. We often like people who look good on paper or who resemble ourselves. Step outside your comfort zone and try to seek passionate people with the intelligence and drive to make your business a success.

Kyle McSlarrow kicked off this morning's session at NAMIC with some brief comments, outlining the policy ramifications of diversity. As he noted, one aspect of diversity is reflected in cable's programming offerings. Not only has our business created hundreds of channels -- including news and public affairs, religion, Spanish-language and other ethnic programming, family and educational programming, documentaries, sports, and general entertainment -- but the offerings available have appealed across the broad spectrum of the American populace.

Whether it's the issue of a la carte or multicasting, there are threats looming which may impact channel line-ups across the country. At the same time, telecommunications regulation is being debated in D.C. McSlarrow put the call out for the cable industry to talk about these issues, to put a human face on our business and communicate our role as leaders in innovation.

Here I am, second from the right, appearing on a panel during the Supplier Diversity Workshop. Supplier diversity is a key issue for diversity; not only is it an issue of who you hire, but what kind of vendors you use for services ranging from finance to printing to public relations. It's good for the industry and helps your business too.

The panel is "The Art and Science of the Pitch." At the right of the photo is MaryAnne Howland of Ibis Communications, who gave a great presentation of how to pitch a potential client. Interestingly, a lot of the same issues came up in my presentation on using the Internet to market yourself. You need to communicate effectively, you need to be service oriented, you need to bring value to the relationship, and so on. Your website is really key these days and it can be very helpful to women and minority business entrepreneurs.

There was a lot of interest from the audience in utilizing blogs. Clearly, that strategy can be very helpful for some businesses, not so much for others. It's also no substitute for having a strong presentation. It is a way to gain some attention and get in for a pitch.

At the far left is Lloyd Grant, publisher of The KIP Business Report.  He reported on how blogs are having a big impact in the business world today.  Contrary to their reputation as the private diaries of young people, they are also a tool for big corporations.  Second from the left is David Porter, the new Executive Director of the Walter Kaitz Foundation.

Today marks the five-year anniversary of the attack of September 11. Some people were freaked out about coming to New York today; I'm sure some people (understandably) chose to stay home.

In the photo you can see the opening of the conference, as NAMIC Chairman Manish Jha (ESPN Mobile) asked for a moment of silence in commemoration.

I was at work at my office in Maryland that morning. It's still a vivid and surreal memory, and it may feel strange later today to be in this city on this particular day.

Here's a shot from the NAMIC conference. You can see attendees grabbing a quick bite before the opening session.

The conference begins with a Town Hall Meeting on Multiple Views of Diversity, with Lisa Quiroz, Senior VP of Corporate Philanthropy from Time Warner.

Back in April, NCTA brought you our first-ever blog, the National Show Insider.  Now we’re back, bringing you wall-to-wall coverage of Diversity Week in New York.

One of my highlights in Atlanta was meeting Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point.  His second book Blink provides some useful lessons for diversity efforts.

As part of his examination of how we make unconscious decisions, Gladwell points out the ramifications of the internal prejudices we never examine.  Checking a list of the CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, Gladwell found that most of them were white men, which probably doesn’t come as a surprise to you.  But he also found that most of them are tall: “…on average, male CEOs were just a shade under six feet tall.”  The average male is five foot nine.  About 14.5 percent of all American men are six feet tall or taller, while 58 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs match that physical description (read more here).

You probably try not to take gender or race into account when you hire people, and I'm sure you don't consciously think about their height!  But studies show that we unconsciously behave in ways that may have a negative impact on the diversity of our companies.

There's also a fascinating section at the end of the book at the impact on the hiring of musicians for orchestras once blind auditions became common practice; in other words, the musicians performed on stage hidden behind a screen, so they were being judged solely on their playing. There are some interesting lessons in Blink for how to make diversity a reality.