My team and I just spent the past three days at the NATPE conference in Miami. It was very insightful and a great catalyst for sharing new ideas and hearing about best practices. It was time well spent with colleagues, peers and industry leaders. Innovation was on display everywhere, it was inspiring to be a part of it. I have asked two of my colleagues to share their insights about the conference, which you will see below. I hope it will prove interesting, and provide you with a small window into the NAPTE experience. Enjoy it as much as I enjoyed participating in the event!

Adriana Cisneros with Peter Tinoco, Ana Teresa Arismendi, Rafael Garcia, Steven Bandel, Miguel Dvorak, Juan Carlos Sosa, Gabriel Montoya, Karen O’Neil, Yolanda Talamo, Victor Kong, Ed Hernandez, Jorge Rincon, Juan Andres Rodriguez, and Carlos Bardasano

“The U.S. Hispanic market, and I am not referring only to those who speak Spanish, was a recurring theme during the NATPE conferences. It was addressed during topics such as the launching of a new channel for the U.S. Hispanic market by Fox and RCN in Colombia, production by the key players in the general market” of English content keeping in mind “acculturated” Hispanics (second and third generation Latinos), and traditional producers in the Spanish and English markets announcing partnerships to generate content with a Latin “twist” and signaling towards a 300MM market rather than a 50MM market. All of this reaffirms our determination to venture into the production of English content which was mentioned by Adriana during her interview on Monday with the journalist Anna Carugati”

-Juan Carlos Sosa, Marketing & Communication Director

“It was interesting to see how much emphasis there was in the conference around Online Video.  From YouTube being called the “next network” by various speakers to traditional big-name producers such as Ben Silverman and web-only studios such as Maker all focusing on producing for You-Tube.  Another trend, which goes hand in hand with Online Video, was Branded Entertainment. Steven Amato from Omelet surprised me when he said that about 70% of all brands were planning to invest in branded entertainment in 2012, a big jump from 2011. And finally, let’s not forget traditional TV is still going strong. Paraphrasing Zander Lurie, SVP Strategic Development for CBS, “we are still seeing growth in advertising and as our content is licensed in more platforms and more countries, revenue keeps increasing”.

-Victor Kong, Chief Digital Officer