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 By Dave Ferrara, HRTS Executive Director
Ok. My column has been MIA the last couple of issues and for that I apologize. The dog didn’t eat my homework. I didn’t take a leave of absence to do humanitarian work in the Congo. No. The simple explanation is…I’ve been really busy!
You may have noticed that HRTS has been on a roll lately. You know the old saying “be careful what you ask for…you might get it”? Well, a couple of years back I was asking the HRTS Board to allow me to attempt to expand our services and activities in a number of different areas that I felt were key to the future growth and success of our organization. This included creating a full-featured online presence to extend the value and benefit of our live events beyond the couple of hours spent at the luncheons. It also included a focused expansion of our junior membership, and the addition of a full slate of activities for our junior members intended to assist in developing the skills and relationships that will be key for their future success. I also identified expanded alliances with other industry organizations as a key goal going forward, as well as a more fully articulated and scheduled series of Newsmaker Luncheon events to allow our members the ability to plan and schedule HRTS into their busy calendars. Ambitious yes, but to me it appeared absolutely critical to insure that HRTS maintain and enhance our position as our industry’s premier information and networking forum.
So…fast forward two years and where are we today? Let’s start with our HRTS online efforts. HRTS.org is now the primary portal through which our membership deal with HRTS. Ticket purchases, membership renewals, new member applications, online profiles and articles about members and member companies, a complete online video archive of past HRTS events, social networking, as well as live streaming of HRTS events (free for HRTS members) are all included in the new HRTS Online community. If you have not visited HRTS.ORG recently, you should! It is a whole new experience and frankly, we’re pretty proud of our online efforts.
 Regarding our junior membership, if expansion of members and activities is any indication, we’re well on our way towards our goals. What started six years ago as a grassroots effort to bring together the assistant and coordinator level of our business has now grown to encompass over 300 young future industry execs that maintain a year-round schedule of educational, networking and philanthropic activities. In addition, we’ve piloted our first edition of our HRTS/JHRTS mentoring program to very successful results. The junior membership is active, engaged and committed to doing the things necessary to become better equipped for success in our industry.
As our industry evolves, the position of HRTS at the center of our business has become even more pronounced. As you know, HRTS is the only organization in our business where the entire leadership level of our industry regularly gathers under one roof multiple times a year and the rest of the biz has noticed. We have developed relationships and have co-produced events with organizations such as the TV Academy, NATPE, The Paley Center, EIF, the MPTF and are currently working on potentially a very cool special activity with the NCTA in conjunction with the upcoming Cable Show. I hope to have more information for you shortly on that. Suffice to say, HRTS has become the “go to” organization for those organizations who want to reach the top leaders from across our industry and our ongoing efforts to reach out to other industry organizations will only bring more access and benefits to our entire HRTS constituency.
 On the luncheon front, as you may have noticed, the business seems to be getting back to normal after a couple of… shall we say “challenging” years. This year’s luncheons have regained the buzz from years past and the schedule of panels, from our Digital Chiefs Summit with Bob Iger to our upcoming Cable Reality and State of the Industry panels over the next couple of months are drawing record crowds. The rooms are buzzing, the panels have been provocative and informative, and we’ve also expanded our reach via live stream to industry leaders across the country. I hope you are planning on joining your industry peers at our next luncheon on April 21st at the Beverly Hilton featuring top producers from the area of Cable Reality programming. And save the date: Wednesday, June 23rd will mark the return of our ever popular State of the Industry Panel. This post-upfronts look at the business of the business features top Broadcast, Cable, Agency, Advertiser and Studio execs taking an in-depth look at where the business is going in the coming year.
So yes, we’re having a great year, a busy year and a successful year as an organization. I think its a perfect time to acknowledge the HRTS Board led by Board President Kevin Beggs. Volunteers all, they have been tirelessly pushing to bring you the best HRTS possible. It’s a task they take on willingly and as we all know, time is such a valuable commodity. Their commitment and enthusiasm to the cause is to be commended. I also have to acknowledge my great staff for the tremendous amount of creativity and effort that has been brought forth making all of the change and progress happen for you.
So like the saying goes…be careful what you ask for…you might get it! We here at HRTS have been a bit busy and yes, I’ve missed a couple of homework assignments. But I really enjoy getting to share with the membership the successes that we as an organization have achieved so I commit that I’ll be more timely with my columns in the future. I’m not complaining mind you, it’s been a wild and fun ride getting to where we are today and we are nowhere near the end of the process. Hell, this evolution has been going on for 63 years and shows no sign of slowing down so with that I ask you…what do you want from HRTS? What can we do to help you? What kinds of programs and activities and alliances would you like to see? Let me know because at the end of the day, this is YOUR organization and it should reflect the needs and wants of the membership. In the meantime, thank you for your support and I’ll see you at the next luncheon!
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