| Take A Ride In My Time Machine  I know it's a busy day, but join me for one minute in my time machine as I visit you in the past, present, and future. Let's start out visiting you today, in May 2010."I'm moving twice as fast these days, checking e-mail at all hours, under severe budget pressure, trying to keep my station afloat, dealing with whining employees, time-wasting corporate paperwork, and a recession, and there is always some advertiser who needs attention -- and you want me to talk about myself on Facebook at the end of the day? Social media is a time-waster. It wastes my time, and it wastes the time of my employees. If I catch them on Twitter or Facebook on my time, they're fired!" I hear that a lot. Let's travel backward now. Rod Stewart's "Tonight's the Night" was the top song of 1977. Let's hear what you were talking about: "Did you hear about those two guys in a garage in San Jose? They call it a 'home computer.' Computers are for spaceships. No way will anyone want computers at home. They don't need them." In 1983, you said this:  "Why would anyone want a portable phone when they can be reached by pager? At $4,500 for the phone and a dollar a minute, that will never catch on. Plus, they can never make a battery that will last for more than an hour."I always loved the '80s. I had a perm then and owned some stations in Salt Lake and New Orleans. Let's land the time machine in the year 1985 to hear you talking, as Wham plays "Careless Whisper" in the background: "Compuserve and this AOL thing are a giant waste of time. There is no one on them. Why should I bother? This is for the geek engineers. Steve Case -- who's that, anyway? Some geek?" Traveling to 1994: "Internet radio? Why would anyone listen to radio on the Internet when they can listen on a radio where the quality is better?" Setting the time dial to September 1995: "They want to broadcast ball games through the Internet? What does Mark Cuban know about broadcasting? And who would ever listen to something called Audionet? He's a former computer salesman. He'll never make a dime on that." Fast-forward to 1996: "Electronic mail is for hobbyists. What a waste of time. I don't think the U.S. Post Office has a thing to worry about." 1998, at the first Radio Ink Internet Conference: "Netscape? I don't get the whole browser thing anyway. Why would a radio station need a website?" June 1999: "Napster, huh? Yeah, like some kid in a dorm knows anything about the music business. People will never download music files and not pay for them. People want the experience of going into record stores to get CDs. They need to hold it in their hands." Time traveling to October 2001: "He calls it an 'iPod,' and he thinks he's going to revolutionize the music business. What is he smoking? MP3 players have been around for years. I think this will be Apple's downfall." 2002: "They call it a 'Blueberry' or something like that -- as if I'm gonna check e-mail when I'm away from the office. Who's gonna take their private time to look at e-mail on a tiny screen?" January 2007: "iPhone? It's just a phone with an MP3 player and a bunch of games. They're in the computer business, not the phone business. What a joke. The people at Nokia are laughing." April 2010: "The iPad? Cool gadget, but I already have a laptop. It's just a toy. Besides that, tablet computers came out five years ago and bombed. This won't catch on." Time travel is a wonderful thing. I can even make it go forward to 2011: "How could I have been so blind to social media? I can't believe I ignored it, and I can't believe the amount of business it's generating. I also can't believe the extent to which it has revolutionized our listener communication and become the single most important connection with our listeners. It's become such a critical tool in communication with advertisers and for sales of advertising and other products. And I thought it was a time-waster. "And who could have ever predicted that more Web browsing would take place through applications than in browsers? I can't imagine life without apps and the income they're generating." My little time machine can fly far into the future. But frankly, the future isn't relevant when you're busy trying to run a radio station. That's why our Convergence conference isn't trying to predict the future and why it's focused on what you can, and probably should, be doing today. Yes, we talk about where things are going, but only to help you gain an advantage so you're ready in six months when it hits. Why Managers And Owners Should Go To Convergence Have you noticed that things are changing? Traditional advertisers who were spending before the recession have become enamored with social media and the Internet. When I spoke recently at the Cumulus corporate meetings, I told the group that my neighbor, who owns a small business, has stopped his traditional advertising and invested in SEO, and he claims to be getting better results at a quarter of the budget. Though radio is already seeing a return of business following the financial drought, many experts, myself included, believe that thriving in the radio business will require managers and owners to fully understand the digital world and how to offer digital solutions to your advertisers. Warning: If you're thinking your digital strategy is a website with banner ads, you may be stuck in 2007. As a manager or owner, you have a responsibility to remain relevant in the world of advertising, and Radio Ink's Convergence is a great way to get up to speed fast. It's the only conference in radio focused solely on digital solutions for radio. The 100% Money-Back Guarantee Has Never Been Used We have always offered a 100 percent money-back guarantee. If you don't feel you got your money's worth, we will refund the cost of your conference ticket. Though we've had some naysayers attend, expecting to take us up on it, they always walk away thrilled. Wouldn't it be refreshing to go to a conference where you actually learn something you don't already know? Group Discounts Allow You To Take The Team The most frequent complaint we hear is, "I wish my manager was here to hear this. Without her blessing we cannot make any change, and there is no way we can translate what we've learned at Convergence." It's true. Roy Williams always said it's like a firehose pointing into a teacup. The information is gushing out, and not only is it hard to grasp it all, it's impossible to take it home and repeat it all. That's why we encourage teams and team leaders to come. It's why we offer a team discount. We even recommend you hang at the hotel an extra day as a team so you can create an action plan while things are fresh in your mind. We believe Convergence will revolutionize your thinking. For team discounts, call 561-655-8778. No Time Machine Required: Designed For Maximum Impact And Limited Time Away Yes, you're busy. We've designed this conference so you can get in and out with only two days out of the office from almost anywhere in the U.S. We start after lunch on day one, giving you time to fly in that morning. We end in time to catch flights back home. West Coasters can even drive and take no more than two days away. We don't lollygag. We pack lots of sessions in our day and keep our breaks and lunch short so we can pack your brain with new information without requiring you to lose more than two days in the office. A Conference Before A Conference  Of course, we have our first pre-Convergence conference this year, the Radio Tech Summit with Skip Pizzi. Bring your engineer. This conference is designed to meld the worlds that engineers, IT people, and managers need to deal with. It starts at noon the day before Convergence and ends right before lunch the day Convergence begins. Book both. We have a dual-conference discount. Why Silicon Valley? Are You In Denial About Your Time Machine?
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