Paul Rodriguez

Kaitz Dinner Raises $1.7 Million

Paul Rodriguez — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 14:08:59 GMT

The media release just went out for the Kaitz Dinner:

At its 24th annual fund-raising dinner in New York City last night, the Walter Kaitz Foundation raised more than $1.7 million for programs promoting diversity in the cable industry.

More than 1,300 cable industry executives attended the dinner, where U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY) and ESPN were honored. The amount of money raised by the cable industry in support of the Kaitz Foundation exceeded last year’s total by more than $200,000.

You can read the whole thing here.

How to Be a Mentor

Paul Rodriguez — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 01:19:31 GMT

I thought there was a really clever twist to the L. Patrick Mellon Mentorship luncheon on Monday. Everyone knows that mentoring is important. It's important to find a strong mentor on your way up; it's important to be a mentor to others. But how do you talk about this topic in a fresh way?

You bring on Rachel Vassel, formerly of The Weather Channel and the author of the forthcoming book Daughters of Men: Portraits of African-American Women and Their Fathers, and then you have her interview two successful women about their relationships with their father and two men about their relationships with their daughters. The panel was not only about good parenting skills, but also about cross-generational mentoring. Vassel shed light on the role that fathers play as mentors of their daughters, but also provided insight into what generally creates a healthy mentoring relationship.

The panel consisted of author and TV host Rene Syler, publisher Elinor Tatum, motivational speaker Shawn Dove, and human resources professional Ray Gutierrez. They talked about the best advice they gave and the best they received. They discussed the importance of trust, honesty, respect, and constructive feedback.

The discussion brings to mind an article that appeared in the first Kaitz Quarterly: "Five Key Steps for Effective Mentoring Relationships" by Audrey J. Murrell, Ph.D. The article, still available online, provides guidance on the myths and realities of mentoring relationships and provides practical advice on developing these collaborative connections.

Serena Williams and MLK III to Present

Paul Rodriguez — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:57:19 GMT

The Walter Kaitz Foundation has announced that the presenters for the Diversity Champion and Diversity Advocate Awards at this Wednesday’s annual fundraising dinner will be tennis superstar Serena Williams and international humanitarian Martin Luther King III.

Presenting the 2007 Diversity Champion Award to ESPN will be Serena Williams, one of the world’s top tennis players and the winner of eight Grand Slams. Serena’s remarkable rise as a courageous and breakthrough athlete combined with her impact in the worlds of acting and fashion make her perfectly suited to introduce ESPN as this year’s Diversity Champion.
Presenting the 2007 Diversity Advocate Award to U.S. Rep. Edolphus Towns will be Martin Luther King III, the second oldest child of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, and the founding president and chief executive officer of Realizing the Dream Inc., a national nonprofit organization that carries on the important work embodied in the legacies of his parents.

Both people embody the spirit and passion for diversity and achievement that are hallmarks of The Walter Kaitz Foundation.

Leadership & Language

Paul Rodriguez — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:50:34 GMT

This morning's Opening General Session at the NAMIC Conference was Leadership 2.0: A New Paradigm, moderated by Monica Bertran, the host of Bloomberg Television's Market Movers. The panelists were Bob DeBitetto, EVP & GM, A&E Network; Peter Firestone, Managing Director, US, Media and Entertaining Consulting, Deloitte Consulting, LLP; Scott Mills, President & COO, BET Networks; Christina Norman, President, MTV; Evan Shapiro, EVP & GM, The Independent Film Channel.

One theme that emerged from the discussion is that today's leadership doesn't necessarily consist of a top-down structure. In many cases, the power of diverse thought can lead to creative solutions. As Shapiro put it, "No one is smarter than everyone." Norman likened a leader's role in that situation to that of a shepherd or an air traffic controller. Strength can come from letting go of power.

One other note: DeBitetto made a passing comment on Digital Natives versus Digital Immigrants. This is a concept popularized by Marc Prensky that distinguishes between those people born into the Digital World, who are completely familiar with its workings, and those who have had to enter into it and learn the geography. There are young people who don't know a world without color television, remote controls, digital cable, the Internet, high-speed data, personal computers, and so on. Prensky argues that young people "think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors," because they were born into the Digital World and are native speakers of its inherent language.

This is, of course, yet another argument for diversity. If you're trying to reach all consumers, you need people who speak the language.

Continuing Education Workshops at NAMIC

Paul Rodriguez — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:27:33 GMT

Yesterday was actually the first day of the NAMIC Conference, which brought the day-long Continuing Education Workshops for Executive Leadership Development Program and Leadership Seminar Alumni. That's a mouthful, but my NCTA colleague Pam Ford, President of NAMIC's Mid-Atlantic Chapter, was able to explain it in more detail.

Executive Leadership Development Program (ELDP) is for employees at a director level or higher. The Leadership Seminar is for assistant directors, managers and supervisors. Both offer the kind of professional development for minorities that will help you to excel.

It's important to remember that hiring is only part of the solution to addressing your company's diversity needs. You also need to nurture your employees and help them develop into tomorrow's leaders.

Any way, yesterday's workshops were for people who have already participated in ELDP or the Leadership Seminars. It's a good opportunity to continue self-assessment, learn from others, network with your peers, and develop to skills to be a leader in your workplace and industry.

Diversity Week '08

Paul Rodriguez — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 12:07:43 GMT

I'm back up in New York City once again for the annual Diversity Week activities, particularly The Walter Kaitz Foundation Annual Fundraising Dinner on Wednesday night.

I'll be reporting on activities in town, such as the NAMIC annual conference, Cable Positive's 8th Annual Broadway Benefit and the Kaitz Dinner.

What was hot at CES?

Paul Rodriguez — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 02:38:56 GMT

The big event of the week wasn't even at CES, as Steve Jobs announced the iPhone at the Mac World conference. Then lawsuits commenced.

But there were other things more relevant to the cable industry. One big issue for programmers visible at the show is the issue of multiple platforms. Consumers can already get content on a wide array of devices. Programmers will have to create new strategies, figuring out how to take the content and push it out to many platforms simultaneously, while still figuring out the best way to handle Digital Rights Management.

Sling Media announced a new technology called Clip+Sling, which may address the question of how programmers can tap into the current trend of viewers taking clips from TV shows and throwing them on up YouTube and Google Video. While there are still lots of details to be worked out, to my eye, Clip+Sling offers some intriguing possibilities.

If you follow hi-def TV, you know about 720p and 1080i. Well, 1080p was highly visible at CES. This is 1080p/60 -- that is, 60 frames per second. There doesn't actually seem to be much content available now or in the near future in this format, but carrying such programming may present bandwidth issues.

There was also the HD Camcorder from Panasonic, with 8 GB of storage (about 90 minutes of footage), and set to be priced about $1,500. If consumers start shooting videos on it and then uploading them to the web, this may be another bandwidth hog to keep an eye on.

FCC Chairman Martin on the Integration Ban

Paul Rodriguez — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 02:22:41 GMT

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin spoke at CES on Wednesday and made it clear that cable operators shouldn't count on getting waivers of the FCC's July 2007 deadline for the set-top box integration ban. Some of the coverage has suggested that this move is a benefit to consumers, but there is a hitch. I refer you to our Talking Points on the Integration Ban:

The cost to consumers is considerable, while the benefits to consumers who would use those boxes are non-existent. A new technology being developed by the cable industry – downloadable security technology – will soon make this debate moot by enabling cable operators to download the system security software to any set-top box or to a DCAS-enabled digital television purchased at retail.

NCTA reacted to Chairman Martin’s speech with a statement:

"The denial of cable's waiver requests would mean that, starting in July, consumers would be paying a new $600 million tax, costing cable customers another 2-3 dollars per month. It is incomprehensible that the FCC would deny these waiver requests at a time when Congress and the Administration have made the digital transition a national priority and are trying to manage the costs to consumers. We urge the Chairman and the Commission to move in another direction on this issue and grant cable's requests to relieve consumers of this potential burden."

Goodbye analog, hello digital

Paul Rodriguez — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 11:20:55 GMT

The digital television transition is naturally a big issue for the consumer electronics industry, since they make all those hi-def sets. Yesterday, CES held the panel "Get Ready for the End of Analog TV and Say Hello to HDTV." Cable vet Gary Arlen moderated with David Donovan, President, MSTV, NCTA's President and CEO Kyle McSlarrow and John Taylor, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communications, LG Electronics USA, Inc. appearing as panelists. The discussion was remarkable cordial, with all three sectors -- broadcast, cable and CE -- expressing great enthusiasm for our digital future. There are more than two dozen HD programming services that have been launched and, as of June 2006, there were 97 million homes passed by HD service by cable operators.

Tomorrow's media platforms

Paul Rodriguez — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 10:53:29 GMT

Tuesday morning, Multichannel News and Broadcasting & Cable held a breakfast panel on the migration of content to multiple platforms. This issue concerns both operators and programmers, since there are technical issues to be worked out and business models to be built.

The panel included Bill Wheaton from Akamai, Jim Henderson from Comcast, Nick Chakalos from Motorola, Ed Huguez of Starz, and Peter Stern from Time Warner Cable (pictured here). One interesting issue came up when an audience member asked about the future of a media center in the home, that magic box that will control all your entertainment. The two operators seemed a little skeptical about the idea of having just one "box" to handle your content. First, because it creates a weak link; if the box crashes, then you're in trouble. Second, because there are already multiple hubs serving you. Your DVR is a local hub, handling some video, while the headend is also a hub, since it's not practical to put thousands of hours of VOD in the home.