The Offset Podcast - The Offset Podcast EP013: Trade Shows

Episode Date: July 1, 2024

Trade shows have always played a big role in the production and postproduction industries.  Pre Internet, outside of going to visit a company or reseller directly, a trade show was the only way to get valuable information about products, workflows, and in general, where the industry was headed. In the 1980s through the early 2000s shows like the National Association Of Broadcasters (NAB) or the International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) were hosts to hundreds of thousands.  Equally as important as visiting the show floor were the plethora of networking events, parties, and hangouts - some of which are still whispered about in convention center hallways for how epic they were!In this episode of The Offset Podcast, we discuss what shows like NAB mean to us as colorists, educators, and technology-driving guys and why even post-pandemic where the crowds and investments from exhibitors are smaller, trade shows still play a vital role - even if that role is just networking and seeing colleagues you only know virtually or see at trade shows!   While we're a bit heavy on NAB in this episode -  as it's the show we know the best and the one we've gone to the most. The things we discuss in this episode apply to other big trade shows like IBC, BIRTV, Interbee, CabSat, Broadcast India, and othersIn this show some of the things we'll discuss including:Getting time in with software developers of your favorite tools to suggest features, workflows, and bugs.Face time with peers and colleagues that you might not see or speak to regularlyRubbing elbows with industry heroesLeveraging educational sub-conferences and presentationsSurvival tips & techniquesBuilding a contact database and following up post-trade showCost saving tipsEnjoy the episode!

Welcome back to the Offset Podcast. In this episode, we're going to be talking about NAB and recapping our experience and talking about the conference and conferences in general in the post-production industry. Stay tuned. This episode is sponsored by our friends Flanders Scientific, who are leaders in color-accurate display solutions for professional video. Whether you're a colorist, editor, DIT, or broadcast engineer, Flander Scientific has professional display solutions to meet your needs. Learn more at flanderscientific.com.

Hey, welcome back to the Offset Podcast. I'm Joey Deanna. And I am Robbie Carmen. And in this episode, we are talking about NAB. Specifically, we're talking about the experience of NAB and what it means to us as both post-production professionals and kind of educator and his communicators in the business. So Robbie and I have been going to NAB for me. many, many years. And what we don't want to focus on is what's the cool new stuff that we saw this year. I'm sure you've seen all of that. We want to talk about what NAB means to us,

why we go every year, what are the important things to do, to remember while you're there, to prepare for, to get the best experience possible, and all of the little details that people don't often think of when they're preparing to go to a conference like that. So, Robbie, let's start with you. What did you do at NAB this year and tell us a little bit about it? Well, so first of all, I've been, I just think it's important to say that trade shows have been a part of my life for my entire professional career, all 25 years. I actually, up until the COVID pandemic, I had a streak, I think of,

21 years straight of going to Las Vegas for NAB and then mixed in with that, you know, occasionally going to IBC over in Amsterdam, which is the, you know, big European show. I've been to Intrabee over in Japan, Cab Sat, Dubai, like, and part of that was that I was often going to these trade shows under the auspices of education, teaching classes, that kind of stuff, right? But, you know, through the years also have done quite a bit of work for, you know, companies that we're friendly with and, you know, and, you know, working, kind of doing demos and education and those kind of, you know, ways too. And so this year, yeah, our great sponsor, finder scientific,

they had me out to man a little, like, private demo booth room that they had, which was, which was a whole lot of fun because, honestly, I've been on the show, the show floor proper for a lot of years, you know, doing stuff for companies where there's 10 bajillion. people around. So having a little private room, especially also with my level of germophobia that was really nice. Because, hey, it wasn't too long ago that you actually

got COVID coming back from NAB, right? So it happened. We'll talk about that too. How do you stay healthy during these conferences? So yeah, I was made in this booth actually with Nate McFarland from Dolby and we were talking about some of the new Flanders studio LEDs. We're talking color management.

We were talking Dolby Vision. So yeah, it was a nice, low-key, fun experience this year around, you know, around the show floor. And actually, I thought it was in general a great year. It was busy but not too busy. And, you know, the show, I think, has kind of, you know, it used to be this mega, mega, mega thing. And then it kind of scaled back over COVID. Now I think we're kind of hitting a nice sweet spot, getting traffic again as well. But you were there this year as well, Joey.

Tell us a little bit about what you're doing. Yeah, I have done this year along with probably, I think, the past. six years in a row, I had the absolute privilege of demoing DaVinci Resolve on the official Black Magic booth for Black Magic. And you know, you know this. Everybody I've talked to knows this. It's my favorite time of the year. It's my favorite thing in the world to do. I've done the teaching thing. I've done sessions. I've done panels. To me, none of it compares to just doing live demos, thinking on your feet, answering questions, showing off new features on real footage, solving problems in real time with just people coming and going.

Yeah. Behind you and around you constantly. It's so fun to do. Now, for those of you who don't know what this setup looks like, I want you to close your eyes and kind of envision this for a second. Black Magic, I don't know if this is actually true, but I'm just going to say it is, has the biggest booth at NAB of all the various show hall,

the hall floors. They are generally located in the south lower hall right at the front. and they have, I don't know, how what it is, it's probably 40,000 square feet of space or something like that, where they have various cameras and demo sessions and presenting stations and whatnot. Now, Joey's not trying to be, you know,

kind of whatever about this. He is literally in the center of the booth, the center of attention, working the big, you know, advanced panels, and obviously kind of demoing off new features over Blackmagics, you know, premier product. and it is pretty funny Joey I have to say after having seen you do this for a number of years

one your level of excitement is undeniable how like weeks in advance you just cannot talk about anything but getting out to anybody two you know I often tell people like I'm like go see Joey at the black magic booth and they're like where is you going to be and I'm like well you'll hear him before you get there right

because your exuberance is is there and then and then three I think it is it is really kind of fun because I have a whole lot of pictures. I'll put a couple in the post for this particular episode where Joey just does, he is just a rock star, right? You got like, you know, 50 people around you, some of them big time colorists even, you know, and you know, showing new features and that kind of stuff. So it's a cool experience. Yeah. And for me, it's, it's, it's two things.

It's that, the experience of talking to all the, the colleagues and users and colorists out there and helping them solve their problems. Yeah. But also, it is a time where you can have some really quality one-on-one-time with the development team. Yep. And talk through problems that both you've noticed and that users that have talked to you in the booth have noticed and really just get their ear and talk through these things. And it's an invaluable resource. So I think that's the biggest thing, Joey, is right there is what I think people should

understand about trade shows. There is a certain sect of people that just come in just like, hey, I want to see all the cool stuff, new toys, whatever. And they're really just there to kind of party, right? We'll get to that part in a second. I think if you're going to get the most, as a user, if you're going to get the most out of the show floor experience at any trade show, right, it is kind of mapping out your game plan of, I'm going to go here,

I'm going to go there, I'm going to see this and what individual products. But it's also trying to be as specific as you can with that time that you have with the decision makers, the dev team, even the marketing people at these places, right? They're so used to like, you know, people just coming up and go, oh, show me something cool, right? Like you're much, you don't get that opportunity very often for FaceTime with these people. So going to these booths with, you know, your top, you know, whatever, five pain points or things you'd like to see that's useful for you because you've got answers to your questions directly from the teams. But also, it's a very important thing.

And the reason why these companies spend mega bucks on these trade shows is because they crave that interface with their customers, right? And so I think for people to get the most out of their trade show experience, going there. with a plan, questions, things to look at, specifics, is way more valuable than just, I don't know, show me something cool, right? You're going to get much more out of it that way. Yeah, and that brings me to what I think is the most important part of NAB or any other trade show, which is you can get the new features and the news on the internet very easily. But you can't get is one-on-one face time with both all of the people that you deal with

from a vendor side of software vendors, harbor vendors, et cetera, but also your colleagues, other colorists, other artists in the industry that you may or may not have ever been able to meet in person. You might have talked to them online.

You may, you know, have been in some of the communities around, but not been able to get FaceTime with people. It is, we often say that this is a people business first, and NAB is the best time for everybody to be in one place at one time.

I mean, I can't argue with that. I mean, I think that it's, I think if you talk to a lot of people about why they go to the show, it's that catching up with an old friend, you know, kind of it's the, it's the late nights sitting out of bar, it's the going out to dinners, it's the, you know, the various events and parties. And I think, you know, as somebody who battles a little bit of like, you know, I'm not a big fan of people, right? Like, one of the things that it's important for me all the time to go to those shows is to be out there and interacting with people.

And because I think a lot of, you know, we hear a lot of times from people that, you know, I'm a solo operator. I'm an individual colorist. I work out of my house. Like, it's really difficult sometimes to know if you're doing it the right way or not or what the latest and greatest technique is. And so it's amazing going to these shows, you know, talking to people from all sorts of geographic locations, right, around the world, working on a wide variety of types of projects,

some of them working at facilities, some of them working at smaller shops, some of them working on their own, and gaining that kind of perspective and information. And sometimes, like, the weird thing about it is that sometimes, like, you're constantly shifting where you are on that scale. Sometimes you're talking to A-level colorist

from big-time shop who's graded, you know, the latest tent pole film. It's like, now you're just this little micro person. You're like, oh, playing homage to them, right? Then other times, like, you're like, Joey, right? You have a crowd gathered around you, you know, like, let me show you what the latest and greatest feature, and you are that guy, right, or that girl. So it's interesting to me, too, how about the trade shows kind of, like, you have to kind of like, you know, shift a little bit depending on the scenario that you're around.

Yeah, you're always on your feet. Yeah, but I would say the one thing that's interesting to me about NAB is going, or any trade show, but especially NAB because it's, you know, here in the States and the biggest one, is going into it with kind of like, I know nothing. I need to absorb things as a sponge kind of thing, right? And I think that, you know, people think of trade shows as just that, just the floor portion with exhibitors showing their wares. It's really important to note that all of the trade shows in our industry, at least, have large information and educational components to them, right? So at NAB, for example, there's Post Production World,

which is a huge education conference. It's for pay, but it's a big education conference. There's gals in gear, which is an awesome new initiative, I think probably in the past five or six years, where it's driven by female filmmakers and people in post and, you know, in production, you know, giving talks and chats, you know, sympathy and all the various standards bodies. They do things. I mean, even the manufacturers oftentimes will have educational places. You know, I remember this year, you know, I attended one that was about learning more about laser projection, you know, because that's sort of been, you know, in my radar, but something I don't understand very well. And so there is opportunity to also get, you know, educated and learn more at these experiences than you might have just, you know, sit behind looking at a product on a computer screen.

Yeah, and that goes back to what you originally said, which is make a plan, right? Look at the vendors that you're going to be really focusing on and see what offerings that they're, have. Like, you, this time around, they weren't charging for sessions with you. You just had to sign up for one. Right. Right. That was something that Flanders was just providing to anybody that signed up. And there are resources like that across many different manufacturers, many different vendors. They'll set up their own classes, their own presentations, stuff like that. You in most cases, don't have to pay for or don't need to do anything but sign up. And if you kind of come in with a plan of I want to see this, I want to see that, these different events or ones I want to go to,

you can get a lot of value just from show floor presentations and things like that. Yeah, hands down, hands down. Yeah. And I mean, I think the other thing that I often talk to people who are new to going to these trade shows about is that a lot of the, you know, I mentioned at the very part top of the show of like going into it with a plan of questions, pain points and places you want to go, products you want to see. But there's the other side of that, which is the casual interaction part of things that I think cannot be underestimated, right?

And that means going to, you know, various events that are put out there. Like, you know, for us, the colorist mixers. And years past, there was things like the media motion ball. But even big parties like, you know, the B&H party, age party, party, like whoever, those, those have value. And I'm going to say that one of the things that I try to do every year is put myself in uncomfortable situations, right? And what I mean by that is just simply introducing to myself to somebody I don't know and be like, hey, man, like, you mind if I hang with you for a little bit? Or, hey, can I follow along while you go over to that

booth, right? And I found over the past 25 years or so that a lot of people that I know in this industry. I have met through that very technique of, oh, well, we only see each other at trade shows, but it's great catching up. And I've learned more about what they do. That's related to work sometimes. So putting yourself in those social situations, too, I think are good. And I would say that, you know, to those of you who are a little bit like me, who are like, well, I'm scared of people. I don't want to, I don't want to talk to people. With the exception of- We're all nerds at NAB. Yeah. With the exception of one or two people who probably honestly were just too inebriated to have good conversations.

Almost everybody is, you know, it's bear hugs, it's high fives, it smiles on their faces, willing, you know, willing to engage. Like, I mean, I had a conversation with somebody at the colors mixer, you know, and I was like, I went up to them. I'm not going to name their name, but I was a little, you know, they were like a big name. And, you know, they're just like anybody other other person. They were like cool.

They were cool. You know, I said, hey, I really buy your work and blah, blah, blah. We started talking about one of the projects. They gave me a little inside baseball on what it was like, you know, working on a particular project. And it was chill. So I would just urge people not to be timid and afraid of, you know, seeing people that they might recognize or no or whatever. People are just people. You approach it with respect and kindness.

People are going to be cool. Yeah. Like we always say, it's people business first. Now, I want to talk about something that I think is very important, especially to the new NAB goer or the casual NAB goer, not the C. and NAB warriors like us. How do you survive the trip, right? And what I mean by that is NAB from a physical and health perspective

is a absolute murderous slog. Even before we had global pandemics to worry about it. Everybody you talk to coming home from NAB is usually sick with something. Anybody that's talked to me on the booth for the past, like however many years knows I lose my voice by like day two

and start like scratching and like sounding like I'm going to die. So here's what, here's the deal, right? You're going to Las Vegas. It might not even feel that hot because it's not in the middle of summer, but it is dry. And the air conditioning runs 24-7 everywhere.

So I want to give you guys just some pointers that I've found over the years. And I've gotten better at it, better and better over this. One, don't over drink. That's number one. It's very easy to over-drink. and I'm not saying don't have a good time. This is the week to have a good time,

but what you don't need in Las Vegas to be more dehydrated, force yourself to drink so much water. Like, even if you're not thirsty, just keep drinking water constantly because it makes such a difference. This year, I made a point. I had a bottle of water with me all the time, and any chance I got,

I was just drinking the water, thirsty or not. And I tell you what, my voice lasted longer this year, than it ever has before. Yeah. Right. Another trick that I figured out just this year is I actually just turned down the AC in my room. So I could get better sleep because I wasn't up coughing with the dry air.

I just let the room be a little bit warmer. That made a huge difference for me. Yeah. The other one that's like that too that I don't realize until like day two of conference shows, how much it's going to impact me because it's like, hey, you started at 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock the morning, you're talking until 5 or 6 o'clock in the morning, and then you're talking all night with people in casual. To me,

chapstick, man. I cannot tell you how big a deal bringing chapstick. The worst feel in the world is that your lips are all cracked and broken up. It's just like chapstick. I buy and use chapstick for one week a year. Right. That's the week. Also, I would say on that same edge, that same line,

having in your backpack or your pocket having some cough drops, some mints, you know, something like that is in, like, again, for the dryness reason, and the amount of talking that you do is in a visible thing. And then related to that, which is really only affects people like you and I, Joey. And that is, is I, I'm often telling myself in these situations to turn the volume down. Right. Because we get excited.

We're loud, gregarious guys anyway, right? Like, we end up like screaming conversations, especially at the social events. Oh, my God, I know. At social, one of the things I, it serves me well on the booth because I can project. But it's murder on your throat. Well, I've actually, I've actually at social events at trade shows, I, you know, if it's like a big, you know, like a colorist mixer or something, I'm like, hey, let's go have this conversation outside over there or something like that where like you don't have to be competing with the music of all the other people. Remember one year, we were organizing the colors mixer and when we were doing the big raffle microphone, entire PA system stopped working. And I was just like, don't worry.

I'm the microphone. Yeah, yeah. And it worked. We got through it. It was not comfortable. So the other things, obviously, about trade shows in general, right, is, you know, you want to look cool, but your feet need to be comfortable. That's the biggest thing. You know, I look, you know, when I look at my watch every day at a trade show, you know, at home, I probably average, I don't know, six, seven thousand steps. You know, perhaps, probably should be getting more, but probably somewhere that. You know, on the Monday of this year's NAB, I hit over 30,000 steps, right? And, you know, and, you you know, a lot of times, especially at NAB in Vegas, nothing is nearly as close as you think it is. Please don't try to walk because you'll die. There's no short walks in Vegas. Everything is a cab ride or an Uber or some other kind of transportation. If you think you can walk from one point to another point in Las Vegas, you're wrong.

Yeah. And that includes the, that includes the show floor. All these halls are very long, very wide. You'll do a lot of walking there. So comfortable shoes, socks, et cetera, is another one. And that goes back into planning too. You know, the show floor extends across multiple halls. multiple buildings, figure out your plan.

Like, you don't need to hit every building the first day. You just don't. You need to pace yourself. People don't pace themselves and they realize like a day and a half in like, oh, I'm done for the week. Totally. The other thing I would urge people to do is that there's a lot of swag and crap given out around anybody.

And if you're not, if you don't have a stable location to store things in at the show, right, like I.E. you're working at a trade show booth or something. having some sort of backpack or bag or whatever, fanny pack or whatever, you're going to find indispensable because next thing you know, you're loaded up with 73,000 giveaways and all that kind of stuff, having a place to put all those things.

Also, I would say, and this is maybe just me, but it's been actually, it's come to my attention even more because of the pandemic. This year, man, I have my backpack loaded with like little bottles of hand sanitizer, right? because here's a thing is that trade show illness is a real thing. Even before we were talking about, you know, global pandemics, I every single year I'd get back on the flight and, you know, I'd blame it on. Oh, I'm just a little tired.

It'd be fine. But sure enough, two or three days after I get back, those germs have, you know, done their thing. And then I have a cold for a week, right? I generally now at trade shows revert to the old fist bump instead of the handshake, which everybody understands these days. and I'm you know I probably got some strange looks from some people but like literally I'm just you know

hand sanitizer like didn't you just do that yep I just did that but I'm doing it again right and actually this year didn't have returned without a cold so there is some there is some I don't believe I I feel great coming home I I test that to the water

it could it could be the other thing I would say too is that when it comes to kind of your health and well-being is that like, you know, you mentioned this in the context of not getting dehydrated too, but like, you know, three o'clock in the morning is not going to do anybody any good with their immune system, right? Like, try to get some sleep, right? And, you know, and kind of implant that out. I have, you know, when early days of going to NAB when I was 25, it was, yeah,

stay out until 5 o'clock in the morning. And now I'm like, eh, I've been to that bar. I'm going to go home and go back to the hotel. Yeah, and just kind of judge what your, your tolerance of extreme partying is. Yeah. You know, for what your goals are for the show, right? Like, Robbie and I were both working this, this entire show. So we did not have a lot of particularly late nights partying. If you're just going to hang out with meet and meet people and have a good trip, you could probably be a little bit more flexible with that than, than we are. Yeah. And then the last thing I'll say about the general trade show experience is if you're going to go there to, do business and ask questions and get answers to your problems and suggest ideas, whatever.

You know, there are so many people that people working at booths meet every day at the trade shows that, you know, your particular next great idea might have gone, you know, in one ear and out the other year for the person that you talk to, right? So getting contact information and following up and following up post show with somebody is a really big thing. And I've actually found that like I parlay one trade show into another. trade show. Hey, remember that great discussion we had at NAB? Let's continue it at IBC, right? And I'll follow up with them. So getting contact information and following up with people that you meet is a big one.

I keep a whole pocket full of business cards and that people have given me. Yeah. Right. And I try to at least send an email to everyone that I have contacted before. Just, hey, great, either seeing you again or meeting you for the first time at NAB. Just wanted to make sure you had my contact information. We can stay in touch. I hope you had a safe, you know, pleasant trip home, you know, just a friendly follow-up email to keep you on people's radar because you never know. There's so many different aspects of the industry in one place at one time with so many different webs of connections between each other that, you know, making that point of contact with the right person at the right time could mean the difference between a job down the road and not. You know, you never know where these contacts lead and this is the best place to get them because you're so. start with face-to-face time, and then when you follow up, they're remembering who you are. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's so true. And I have those experiences all the time, like in cabs or

Ubers, you know, like, oh, you're going back up to that hotel. Like, do you mind if I jump in with you, that kind of thing? Like, you know, being prepared to, you never know who you're going to meet. You never know what's going to lead to the next, you know, the next great thing. So having, you know, either paper copies of your card or a digital version of it or whatever, like being prepared in those situations. The other thing I would say, and this is going to sound really geeky about this, but I have learned that having some

sort of, how should I say, elevator pitch about what you do and who you are, it's a really nice thing to have, right? And just, it doesn't have to be perfect, but kind of like the short, like, because you're going to, somebody's going to say, oh, yeah, what do you do? Right? And you don't want to take 30 minutes of that person's life, right? Just like, oh, I'm a colorist based out of wherever.

This is the kind of stuff I work on. And, you know, here's my website. Like, whatever it may be. just being prepared for that quick elevator pitch because I can't tell you how many times people come up to me and I'm like, cool, I would love to get your life story at some point in time, but I got to go over here and do this, right? So being short and succinct

and kind of having that elevator pitch, I think is helpful as well. So yeah, I mean, so NAB, IBC, Andrew B, all these various places, I think that they are, if you have not been to a major industry trade show, I think it's a great, you know, great thing to do at least a couple times. Do you need to go every year like we do?

Probably not. I mean, because it is expensive, right? It can add up. But it is still nice, especially with things that do require tactile look and feel. Like, you know, thinking cameras and lenses and things that, you know, you're going to interact with their control surfaces, right? Yeah, I can't tell you how many people get super excited when they come to the Blackmagic booth and I'm demoing the advance panel. And I'm just like, here, you drive it. I'll show you the basics.

And they never sat down and try it because it's all about feel and tactile control. And some people are like, whoa, I get to play with it. Like, of course you get to play with it. That's why these companies are here. Yeah. And I think combining kind of just, you know, touring around the show floor also with trying to get some free or, you know, relatively affordable educational opportunities at these shows is a big thing. And then, again, as we discussed, you know, not, you know, trying to be as social and as networky as possible. in these events is always going to pay off.

And, you know, honestly, some of my best clients, connections, friends have been in situations where, you know, trade shows. And also, it's just one of those things where, like, you will come up with a trade show group of friends, right? Yeah. I'm thinking of, you know, my buddy Simon. And it was like, I don't think I've ever seen Simon outside of a trade show, right? It's just like, oh, here we are again.

Oh, you're working that booth. I'm working this booth. You know, so it becomes like a little bit of a traveling circus as well. So good stuff. Yeah. And like you mentioned, it can be expensive. But there's ways to mitigate that. Within reason, right?

First, I'll say this. Never ever pay for a pass for the show floor. They're free. Every vendor has a sign-up sheet on their website where you can just say, hey, you get a free NAB show pass. So it's like 15 bucks or 10 bucks, whatever. They would charge you if you actually signed up yourself. You can sign up through any number of exhibitors

that are going to be there as long as you do it in advance. And I think an important thing to mention that's NAB specific is they have changed the show. They started doing this last year, I think, or maybe the year before. Two years ago, man, anything. They changed the show from starting on Monday and ending on Thursday to starting on Sunday and ending on Wednesday. And what that does is it allows people that can't really afford to leave their 9 to 5 for a lot of days, a full open day on a Sunday that they can make it out to the show

even if it's just for one day and have the opportunity to do some of this networking to get the show experience without having to sacrifice an entire day of working and as a result income. I think that was a move on NAB's part that surprised a lot of people because like, wait,

the show starts on Sunday, that's a little weird. But once you kind of understand it, it makes a lot of sense. And I think it opens up the opportunity for a lot of people that couldn't go for various scheduling reasons before. Yeah, and specifically with NAB, there's a couple other cost-saving things that you should consider. Number one, NAB runs a housing website that opens up a couple months before the show actually begins. This is essentially NABE themselves, the National Association of Broadcasters, block booking rooms at various Vegas hotels.

And these range, obviously, from, you know, the ultra-cheep up to the ultra-luxurious, right? so you can kind of choose your poison for what works for you there. The other thing I would say in terms of cost savings and stuff like that is that the Vegas monorail is actually pretty good, runs down the entire side of the strip that the convention center is actually on. So kind of starting up at MGM and going all the way a little bit past the convention center. So you can actually get weekly passes. So instead of spending, you know, $25 in a cab or Uber every time,

you can jump up and down that. Two, I would also say that, yes, Vegas is known for its, very good food, but everything in Vegas is really, really super expensive. So one of the things that I've started getting in the habit of doing, especially working the shows, is like, I'll get, if I get in, usually a day early, I'll take a cab over to a grocery store or Costco or something like that, buy a case of water, right? Buy, you know, some snacks and like, you know, protein bars and stuff like that. So instead of going down to the hotel lobby and spending, you know, $13 for a water or whatever, I have that ready to go. And actually, in Vegas, there's a whole bunch of

options as well for kind of non-traditional, like, you know, hotel rooms. What I mean by that is not a casino. Like, some of them are like, are like extended say places almost. So you can have a kitchen and stuff like that. So if you're going to be there for a while, that's another thing. And then last thing I'll say about, about Vegas in particular, this is not always the case with every trade show, but in Vegas in particular, there's just a lot of cool things to do in Vegas. I mentioned food as being one of them. There's a lot of great restaurants. But you're not far, obviously, from the Grand Canyon.

Downtown Old Vegas. Have you ever been to Old Vegas, shall I? Remont Street. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, man. Old Vegas is a hoot. It's a really good time to do. I recently, not this year, but the year before,

had gone to the Pinball Museum, which was a really cool place to go. There's a variety of things to do that are also social, and you'll find a lot of these events happen at some of these places, too. So that's worth a check as well. So yeah, man, you know, Vegas is a hoot every year. I mean, I took a little bit of break because of the pandemic, but I'm glad that was back at it this year.

You know, honestly, as I told you, I had a lot of trepidation about going back to the show, mainly for all my germaphobe pandemic kind of reasons. But I'm glad that you and some others forced me to go because it kind of was like getting back on the bike. And then once I came back, I was like, oh, yeah, man, that's what I remember. That's what I liked.

And sure, there was some of the pain asses. Pain the ass factors of whatever, chapped lips and lost voice and whatever. But it is really great experience to be able to see people that you don't get to see often. Yeah. And like I said, you know, it's every year for me, it's my Super Bowl. And I love the entire experience. And we kind of were at an inflection point with the pandemic, with the pandemic, where I felt like there was real risk that NAB was going to get killed.

It got delayed. It got delayed. It got delayed. then it kind of came back and everybody showed up. You know, the first year it came back, more people showed up than they expected. And I think that kind of brought it back and now we're good. Right.

Yeah. And it's in a good spot. I don't think it's the same as it was in the heyday of the early 2000s, late 1990s. But I do think it's now in a pretty good sweet spot. You know, the only unfortunate thing is that as our industry has gotten more diverse, and more democratized for smaller companies, that kind of thing, it still is prohibitively expensive for a lot of companies to display at the actual show floor.

So that's actually one last point I'll say is that you might look at the list and go, oh, my favorite company or a company I want to talk to is not actually on the show floor. They are. They just don't have a booth. Yeah, they're probably walking around. Also, a lot of companies will rent out hotel rooms to do demos and show off their wish

because that's significantly cheaper than getting physical space. But you also might be on the lookout for, you know, if a software developer or whatever is a small company, they might be like, well, I'm here at the show, but I'm at the Adobe booth or I'm at, you know, the Black Magic booth, wherever they may be, come meet me there. So there's still those opportunities as well. Yeah, so check in with all your people before you go and figure out where people are going to be because it really is most companies have some kind of presence there.

Good stuff. Well, as always, big thanks to our editor, Stella, who makes us sound intelligible. Big thanks to our sponsor, Flanders Scientific for the great support and getting, helping us get the offset podcast out there. Of course, you might be watching on YouTube or listening on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, wherever you are consuming this. If you have the ability or the time, please do its favor and like the show and rate the show. Leave us a comment about the show on this episode or any of the other episodes we really leave. And as always, we really appreciate you taking the time to listen to us in our opinions about all things related to color, post-production, and so on. So for the Offset podcast, I'm Robbie Carman.

And I'm Joey Deanna. Thanks for watching.