NATPE 2011 Market and Conference

By: Valerie Milano – Hollywood, CA (Hollywood Today) 12/15/10

This year NATPE Market & Conference is being held at the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami, January 24-26^th. The organization provides its members with information, resources and support, networking opportunities serving a worldwide community for development and distribution of television programming.

 If registration is a clue to the interest and excitement of this year’s event then it is sure to be a success. In a conference call on December 9 with president and CEO of NATPE||Content First and Kevin Beggs, NATPE chairman and Lionsgate president of programming and production, Feldman explained, “We have sold out our hotel block at the Eden Roc and at the Fontainebleau, which were our two primary hotels to start with. We had roughly 1,800 or so rooms in those two hotels and now we just got anther 200 rooms at the Grand Beach Hotel.  HT will be there to cover it.

“We already have 500 legitimate buyers signed up from over 40 countries. We have approximately 250 exhibiting companies already signed up, which is about what we had last year, but we are seven weeks out.“

After 9 years in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay resort, The Fontainebleau layout allows for easier navigation with most of the distributors in suites.  The floor locations and the suites are separated by the lobby which he said, “is a very easy walk to come down from the suites and go across the lobby, which is going to be a fun place to be anyway, and then onto the floor.” 80% of the suites were already booked as of last week, and floor space is almost sold out.

Kevin Beggs commented on Feldman’s idea of taking the show on the road, as they say, “The move to Miami represents a recognition that the business is ever-changing and that some of the constituents that figured less prominently in NATPE’s make-up are more prominent now: international, the Latin market, the cable market, which is primarily focused in New York, and all those constituencies are showing up.”

The week begins with the kick-off party at the Eden Roc Hotel on Sunday and the “Coffee With…” sessions begin Monday. NATPE will introduce 2 new digital tools for the 2011 marketplace: NATPE Connect – an online social networking site guests, and the NATPE Online Show Guide which provides all conference information.