Electronic Media 

Published: 02-21-94 





WHAT I LEARNED AT MY FIRST NATPE    



Byline: By Joe Fedele 



 Last month I had the opportunity to go to my first National

Association of Television Program Executives convention.

 Unlike the annual National Association of Broadcasters

convention, both NATPE and the Radio-Television News Directors

Association convention are somewhat of a mystery to most

engineers. Because they aren't considered technical forums, it's

rare for engineers to attend.

 I recall an incident when a former general  manag- er I  worked 

for  scoffed  at the  idea of  me at- tending  NAT- PE.

 ``It  will be  a waste of your time,'' was his answer as he

gruffly shrugged me off.

 Why was he going, I wondered. Why do they all go? Is there some

secret they are unwilling to share?

 Naturally I was curious to see what it was all about and hoped

to compare it to the NAB con-vention. But there was no

comparison to be found.

 Because NATPE was in my home base of Miami, I was finally able

to infiltrate this stronghold of the programing and executive

domain so the truth can finally be told: My ex-boss was, in

fact, correct; it was a total waste of my time. 

 The NATPE convention is a collection of highly priced, spacious

and magnificently decorated booths whose only purpose was for

attendees to sit, talk, eat and drink. Complete, I might add,

with catered buffets and open bars!

 But what really amazes me is that most executives I have dealt

with in the past seem to consider the NAB convention to be an

engineering boondoggle and a total waste of the station's money.

Can you imagine the gall!

 Now I understand why they won't let engineers attend NATPE.

They don't want us to know what they are doing with the

station's money.

 From an engineering standpoint, NATPE was the most utterly

boring and useless convention I have ever attended. After all,

there were no gadgets to see and no widgets to touch.

 Now we know, my fellow engineers. It is they who are the

boondogglers. And it is they who are boozing it up and carrying

on with the company's money.

 OK, now that I have thoroughly enraged all the NATPE proponents

and programing executives, I have a confession to make. This

article was a ploy. I used this space to suck you in and make

you all think twice about something.

 Conventions are a necessary tool for both managers and

engineers. The price tag for such instruction is not always

precisely definable.

 And just as it is unreasonable for engineers to make judgments

on the usefulness of NATPE to programers, it is equally

unreasonable for executives to denigrate the need to send

engineers to NAB, the Society of Broadcast Engineers convention

or other similar engineering forums.

 So before you say no to your chief engineers when they ask you

to send more of the staff to an engineering convention, just

remember how useful NATPE was for me.