IABM conference: growth up but market confidence down
IABM concluded its 10th Annual International Business Conference & Awards by releasing key findings from its research study. These included year on year sales growth of 7.7%, year on year profit growth of 11.2% and 68.1% of companies in profit. However, market confidence was down from last year.
Covering four broad themes – business overview, corporate intelligence, influence of technology and critical success factors – the conference was chaired by John Ive, Director of Business Development & Technology, IABM and the key research highlights presented by Peter White, CEO, IABM to open the conference agenda.
“The industry is still in a state of unparalleled change,” said White. “And while we deal with the challenges associated with this shift, it is heartening to see that overall the outlook is positive.
“This conference has been designed to deliver practical solutions and advice to our members on how best to cope with these changes, against the backdrop of finding new business models, operating in a multi-platform content delivery environment and handling the cultural shift from hardware-based broadcast technology, to software-led operations.”
The event featured key industry figures and experts delivering presentations and participating in panel debates that covered topics such as new business models, the adoption of IP across broadcast workflows, cloud and software-defined environments, and consumer trends.
Day one of the event concluded with an end-user panel discussion featuring Andy Quested, BBC; Steve Fish, Turner Broadcasting; Chris Johns, BSkyB; and Steve Plunkett, Red Bee Media, looking at what customers expect from the technology supply community and how companies within that market need to adapt to meet those needs, as well as those of the changing industry.
Day two began with a keynote delivered by John Amaechi OBE, an ex-NBA basketball player, NY Times best-selling author, psychologist and organisational consultant. Amaechi discussed how organisations can develop a winning strategy setting the theme for the day and building up to the concluding panel discussion titled Identifying critical success factors. The wrap-up panel session included Peter White, John Amaechi and Mark Harrison from the BBC, and revisited several of the key messages of the conference to provide delegates with thoughts and ideas to take back to their respective offices.