Recently, I had the pleasure of attending the annual NAB Show in Las Vegas. Few people would use the word “pleasure” to describe being at a large trade show, with the long days, the latest buzzwords, repetitive meetings, and overpriced food. Yes, NAB has all that, but it also has something lacking at most other industry trade shows: a vibrant community of people who genuinely enjoy being together and learning from one other. And it truly was a pleasure to reconnect with so many people with whom I’ve developed relationships over the years.
Particularly at trade shows, but also in the times in between, you can feel the distinct sense of community across the media technology sector. It’s unlike any other industry. Bigger than vendors and customers, this community is about end users helping each other, tech suppliers working together, and even competitors sharing lessons learned. When people have challenges to overcome or problems to solve, others come forward to help. While many industries are characterized by relationships that are purely transactional, or even adversarial, our industry is remarkable for sincere conversation and connections that are real and lasting.
Heading home from Vegas this year, I realized that these connections — and the larger community they create — are foundational to the overall success of our industry.
Collaboration and Community in Media Tech
The media tech industry thrives on collaboration. We often talk about integrations and partnerships — as I have in recent blog posts — but community goes beyond ensuring one technology works with another. Ultimately, it’s about people working together to reach larger goals, and to accelerate progress toward those goals.
While vendors build partnerships to help drive integrations, they also collaborate out of mutual trust and the expectation that together they can achieve more for their customers. As a result, customers can approach vendors not just with requirements, but also with their ideas and aspirations. And if something breaks or needs to change, strong vendor relationships mean that people step up to solve problems rather than point fingers or try to expose others’ failings or limitations.
I’ve worked in other sectors where a strong community dynamic was missing. Discussions sometimes felt less like collaboration and more like performance or competition. Now though, in the media sector, even tough conversations with customers and fellow vendors are rooted in a shared desire to get things right.
Why Our Community Is Unique
One reason we’ve been able to realize this dynamic across media tech is that our industry is fairly small, with relatively few media organizations and fewer vendors too, many of them on the small side. So, over the years, you get to know people. Companies may change, but the relationships remain. At the same time, young companies emerge and fresh entrants to our industry quickly become part of this community. Together, connections and continuity build trust, which is essential in deploying technologies and solutions that together facilitate business-critical operations.
In fact, the trust built across our community stems from the very nature of the work we do and support. Media workflows are often complex and time-sensitive, with difficult technical challenges, and their success or failure can be highly visible. Because there is little room for uncertainty or failure, vendor accountability is essential. Dependable partnerships are a must.
Why do I feel so strongly about this community? Our industry is facing technological change moving at an unprecedented pace. Economic uncertainty, evolving viewer expectations, and new business models likewise put pressure on media operations to adapt, and fast. Collaborative relationships across the broader community benefit individual organizations and the industry as a whole.
In this environment, no one can go it alone. Differentiation requires innovation, and innovation requires collaboration — among technology providers, and between users, too. If we’re to effectively explore new ideas, test fresh possibilities, and push boundaries, we need to do so together. Community is the framework that makes that possible.
Fostering Strong Community
At SDVI, we think a lot about what it means to support our community. Yes, we focus on great partnerships and best-of-breed integrations. But we also believe in creating spaces in which people can connect, share, and learn from one other.
During NAB, we hosted our annual networking reception at Allegiant Stadium. If you’ve been, you know it’s all about building relationships and connection. Throughout the year, we host multiple SDVI Roadshow and Meetup events, bringing together media operations professionals from around the world. These gatherings aren’t product pitches. They’re opportunities for users to talk to each other — to exchange insights, experiences, and lessons learned.
We’re also seeing community-led efforts flourish outside of vendor activity. One example is MediaSupplyChain.org, a site started by Dave Klee, VP at A+E Global Media, to encourage knowledge sharing among media supply chain professionals. It’s a growing repository of real-world insight from practitioners, for practitioners, and a great example of community in action.
Looking toward future events, we’ll continue investing in events and initiatives that foster this kind of engagement. We believe it’s good for our business and good for the industry. In doing so, we’ll keep building a community that values openness, honesty, and a shared commitment to progress.
So, keep an eye out for an SDVI event near you. We promise not to give you a product pitch! What we really want is for people to connect and share their stories, their solutions, and maybe a few lessons learned along the way.
