CinemaCon 2021

[Sean McKinnon]

As part of the crew that makes the studio presentations at Cinemacon happen it is really disappointing to me on a personal level that we even have to question whether the show will happen. I had really hoped we would have been out of the woods by now so to speak. Cinemacon is one of (if not the most) favorite gig that we do. There is nothing quite like calling and running the DCP portion of the show in front of 5,000 of your peers in the cinema industry running two booths and up to ten projectors/servers. I take great pride in the fact that in the shows I have run to have a streak of no glitches or mistakes in the shows I have run. This is due to many many hours of rehearsal and tech and one of the greatest crews in the industry not just from my employer but from the major manufacturers. It is personally heart breaking to think there is a possibility that we will miss this again.

[Bobby Henderson]

Maybe I am grumpy but... I don't see how business can survive unless somehow trends are reversed across the board. And I am not just referring to the impact of C19. Why does our government see the ongoing attack on, and the erosion of, our ability to communicate and our personal privacy as a political issue? Business was so much easier in the 1980s.

Some of these big changes of meeting "remotely" rather than in-person were bound to happen as consequences of improving technology. Internet bandwidth and speed has improved by leaps and bounds in recent years. The same goes for various portable and stationary devices able to display HD-quality video. There was a lot of broad, Luddite-style resistance to using this technology for remote video telecommunication, even if it could save a company a hell of a lot of money on air fare, hotels, etc. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic forced many people to learn how to use this new technology whether they wanted to or not. There is a lot of pissed-off school kids worried that "snow days" may become a thing of the past.

Again, some of these changes were bound to happen eventually even without a pandemic. Millions more Americans are installing video monitoring and security systems in their homes to guard against burglaries or keep an eye on loved ones, be it a family pet or an elderly relative. Many businesses have video surveillance systems set up for similar reasons (or as a means to make sure employees are working rather than goofing off).

Even with radically improved video-telecom technology there will always be a need for meeting in-person. I work in the sign industry and we have plenty of equipment that requires occasional service (mainly large format printers and routing tables). Employees have to train how to use the software and hardware. You can't really teach someone how to load a roll of vinyl into a Latex-based printer via a Zoom call. I'm sure there are plenty of examples that apply to the movie industry.

The future is going to get a lot harder for sales people however.

[Bruce Cloutier]

By the way, Bobby, in my quote I mean't to write "Why doesn't...". I've corrected my original post. Basically, I think that we need to somehow curtail the level of malicious spam, phishing and all of that. Somehow we were able to halt the onslaught of fax solicitations that happened in the early 80s. But that is the only time that some annoying abuse of a communications medium has been handled that comes to mind. Of course, that still happens at some level but who has fax machines in use anymore (we do.. not that anyone has actually used it)?

The issue with video conferencing is in reaching new customers. It works well with existing customers and people you know once you get them over any kind of phobia or technology competency issue. But you cannot create the cold call that way. Not without broadly promoting, becoming part of and contributing to the deluge of unwanted email, tweets, etc. Podcast and Webinars are great for folks that have found you or already use your product where you can directly reach out to them. Getting the word out to the rest of the market is difficult (let alone to new markets). Building a podcast does not mean that they will come.

There is the issue of video conferences that have been interrupted by hackers. That is when you notice the hacker, I wonder how much information is extracted from those sessions that we don't know about when hackers that are more discreet.

Sean's post makes a good point in that CinemaCon is a lot more than the exhibits. Obviously, the exhibiting is our immediate concern given that we should be budgeting, planning and making reservations if things were to be happening (and worth participating in). The impact in not holding the show is far reaching.

[Bobby Henderson]

Email as a sales tool has become almost useless due to all the spam. The issue wouldn't be so bad if not for a pretty significant number of people who can't or won't use their computers securely; a great deal of spam is barfed out from infected "bot" PCs all over the world. Even when a piece of sales email comes from a legit source users will have a tendency to delete the message without viewing it. I get email notes from Adobe and several sign industry related companies on a daily basis, sometimes multiple times a day. I don't have time to read all that crap. Unless there's something in the subject line that catches my attention I'll probably delete it without opening the message at all.

I'm surprised anyone still uses fax machines. We have one hooked up at my workplace, but it doesn't get used very often. Thankfully the amount of fax-related spam has decreased (at least for us).

The act of literally cold-calling someone on the phone has its own modern-day problems. Phone-bot spam has become so bad that I've adopted the practice of never answering my mobile phone unless the number of the person calling is already in my contacts book. A legit caller has to leave a voice message. The two ladies in my office who answer most of the calls usually hang up on any automated response and don't take calls from unfamiliar people, such as someone trying to pitch us cheap LED signs from a new-yet-sketchy company in China.

In the end, that does leave things like industry specific trade shows and conventions as an extremely important sales tool. Maybe even more important than ever. A sales person has to do more than just sell a product. They have to establish relationships with new customers, even to the point of becoming friends with them over time. Being able to meet at trade shows, and go eat dinner, drink and party while there is a powerful sales tool.

Some larger companies that cater to the sign industry will organize their own conventions. Adobe had its "MAX" show recently. Daktronics, perhaps the most prominent maker of LED signs/displays, has their own annual meeting to invite customers to their facility to learn more how to sell, use and service their products.

[Bruce Cloutier]

Bobby, I couldn't have said any of that any better. It precisely reflects my perception of the situation. I had to hit 'Like' on that post. My point earlier is that I feel like someone needs to deal with it. Because our ability to communicate is severely impacted. It is not only preventing sales activities. All of the BS is likely why all of these elections are so damn close. None of us really knows what is going on.

[Frank Cox]

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I just got this in my email.

[Martin McCaffery]

Yours is a lot flashier than the one I got.

[Mike Blakesley]

NATO just announced they are shifting the dates of CinemaCon '21 to August 23-26.

EDIT: Damn, I thought I was scooping everybody!

[Bruce Cloutier]

They let it slip to us earlier in the week and asked us to wait for their announcement before telling anyone. It's why I brought up shows in the second half of the year. I suppose that we can wait now to see what success there is with a COVID-19 vaccine and where travel and cinema might be as Summer approaches. But, as they say, Winter is coming. Um, well, at least in my half of the world.

[Leo Enticknap]

Email as a sales tool is useless if it's cold and unsolicited, but can be more effective if you're working in a relatively small industry and have an active interest in products and services that vendors have to offer. For example, if I see an email from Dolby with the subject line "Announcing our new IMS," then I'm going to open and read it. However, if I see one from an Alphonso X. Grapefruit (which I did recently!) with the subject line "Your long lost uncle" and a suspicious looking XML file attached, I will push the delete button instantaneously and with extreme prejudice.

I'm not primarily a sales professional (beyond sometimes suggesting equipment purchases to existing or potential customers), so I don't know how successful the alternatives to in-person calls and trade shows that have sprung up in response to C19 have been. Dolby, QSC, GDC, and Cinionic have all made extensive use of webinars, and I've found several of them pretty useful (though others have been an hour of waffle that could easily have been replaced by five minutes reading a PDF).

I'm guessing that NATO is looking at August for CinemaCon because the school year will have started, vacations will be over, and it will therefore be easier for people with kids to travel. But Vegas in August? It can easily reach 120 on The Strip in the middle of the day. I hope that Caesar's Palace has their HVAC thoroughly serviced before our arrival!

[Bruce Cloutier]

Presence as an exhibitor at a trade show for me has always been important in establishing that your company is a serious player in any particular market. Of course using a portable booth in a 10-foot space along the back wall in the last minute corner of the exhibit hall doesn't do it. We did that for years. It is also a problem in an industry with competing trade show venues and where there are numerous regional events. But not exhibiting in that environment at all leaves us feeling detached.

Email absolutely still works when recipient recognizes and respects the sender. I just wish that technology (certificates, etc) would step up and eliminate the unsolicited malicious background noise. All you need is for there to be some way for law enforcement to be able positively identify and make a sender responsible for the content of their emails. There are, and have been, tools/approaches for that but none have been adopted in general by all of us. Partly because most of that came with a fee. What is free is too complex/advanced to be employed by most.

Anyway, while it is older tech most of the open-source development world still works with list servers. We are looking to bring one up. Most of you use our support email address to handle problems and questions one on one with us but there is no way to foster interaction between our customers. If we are going to be even more dependent on word-of-mouth marketing it would help to develop a users community.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I think trade shows are still useful and hope they recover. It's a bit like walking through a mall or big box store (though those are not doing well!). We have an opportunity for customers and sellers to get together, see the products, talk with the people behind the products, etc.

Here are a couple stories from the National Association of Broadcasters convention where my company exhibited for 20 years.

The show started on Sunday, and exhibits had to be unloaded from trucks by 5pm Friday. There was a bug in the firmware for a transmitter control system that I was having trouble fixing. Finally, at 4am Friday, I gave up and threw everything in the truck to start the 8 hour drive to Las Vegas. I got the truck unloaded, and my partners started setting up the booth as I got some sleep. Saturday morning, I had a source code printout (MC6800 assembly) on the floor along with an EPROM programmer to hand code patches. The show was closed to the public, but the chief engineer of West Virginia Public Radio managed to get in and see me working on this. I found the bug and got the system working by Sunday morning when the show opened. He came by again, saw it working, and ordered a system to control all their transmitter sites in the state.

At another NAB, we were selling an audio mixer for television stations. One of my partners caught the attention of a guy walking by and convinced him to come into our booth. From that chance encounter, we sold over $250k of the audio mixers for use on Navy ships.

So, I still like trade shows!

I agree with the others on email marketing. The email needs to come from a trusted source and actually have something important to say. Getting on the email list needs to be done through a confirmed request. Emails need to be infrequent and have unique content. Don't just say the same thing over and over.

I use Spamcop and Spamhaus to reject incoming emails. Anything that is spam and gets through is forwarded to Spamcop and Spamhaus for analysis of the headers. The owner of the IP address block used to deliver the email as well as the IP address block for advertised web sites are sent reports. If enough people report the IP address (Spamcop uses the ratio of reported spam to total email), it is reported as a spam source.

Here are a few recent entries in the maillog:

Nov 7 09:53:53 s18855546 sendmail[23508]: ruleset=check_relay, arg1=[141.98.10.143], arg2=127.0.0.4, relay=[141.98.10.143], reject=553 5.3.0 Spam blocked see: http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=?141.98.10.143
Nov 7 09:54:58 s18855546 sendmail[23527]: ruleset=check_relay, arg1=[185.36.81.33], arg2=127.0.0.4, relay=[185.36.81.33], reject=553 5.3.0 Spam blocked see: http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=?185.36.81.33
Nov 7 09:57:57 s18855546 sendmail[23596]: ruleset=check_relay, arg1=[193.169.252.208], arg2=127.0.0.4, relay=[193.169.252.208], reject=553 5.3.0 Spam blocked see: http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=?193.169.252.208
Nov 7 10:01:42 s18855546 sendmail[23706]: ruleset=check_relay, arg1=[183.253.10.166], arg2=127.0.0.11, relay=[183.253.10.166], reject=553 5.3.0 Spam blocked see: http://www.spamhaus.org/query/bl?ip=?183.253.10.166

And here's a report from this morning's log report:


--------------------- sendmail Begin (detail=3) ------------------------
STATISTICS ----------
Messages To Recipients: 151
Addressed Recipients: 151
Bytes Transferred: 29628837
Messages No Valid Rcpts: 2
SMTP SESSION, MESSAGE, OR RECIPIENT ERRORS ------------------------------------------
Client quit before communicating: [Occurrences >= 1] Total: 119
Authentication warnings: Total: 6
Timeouts: [Occurrences >= 1] Total: 1
Unknown local users: [Occurrences >= 1] Total: 2
BlackHole Totals: Total: 505
Total SMTP Session, Message, and Recipient Errors handled by Sendmail: 633
---------------------- sendmail End -------------------------

[Frank Cox]

Spam lookup sites like spamhaus and whatnot aren't the be-all and end-all for spam filtering. There's a non-trivial number of legitimate email senders whose email is blocked unnecessarily by one or more of those sites.

It's not even consistent. I have an email mailing list of my customers who get a weekly "what's playing" email, and for the past couple of weeks I've been getting this sort of thing when I send out the weekly email:

Nov 6 10:31:25 world postfix/smtp[25173]: 0F704F91C: to=<customer1@sasktel.net>,relay=mx1c11.megamailse rvers.com[69.49.101.234]:25, delay=4.4, delays=1.3/0/2.4
/0.7, dsn=2.0.0, status=sent (250 2.0.0 0A6GVMo3030953 Message accepted for delivery)

Nov 6 10:31:35 world postfix/smtp[25173]: 0F600F91C: to=<customer2@sasktel.net>, relay=mx1c11.megamailservers.com[69.49.101.234]:25, delay=4.5, delays=1.3/0/2.4/0.73, dsn=5.7.1, status=bounced (host mx1c11.megamailservers.com[69.49.101.234] said: 550 5.7.1 0A6GVWm0017263 This message has been blocked for containing SPAM-like characteristics. (in reply to end of DATA command))

Two emails with exactly the same content sent ten seconds apart to the same mailserver; one is blocked as spam and the other goes through without issue. Why? Who knows? I sent the emails out to the exact same list of people last week with no bounces at all, but the week prior to that (and this week) some of them bounced.

The chance of someone at megamailservers.com actually fixing this is somewhere very close to zero, too.

[Harold Hallikainen]

Thanks for the comments, Frank! It LOOKS like the email was rejected based on content instead of being based on the IP address that is delivering the email as Spamcop and Spamhaus do. I send my mail through a relay and have that listed in an SPF record on my DNS. Once every year or two the relay gets blacklisted on Spamcop or Spamhaus. The owner of the mail relay and the IP block has checked into the issue and resolved it (perhaps removing a user, but I don't know). These two services are also "self healing" since they remove the block when spam reports stop coming in.

I like them!

Harold

[Sean McKinnon]

Sean's post makes a good point in that CinemaCon is a lot more than the exhibits. Obviously, the exhibiting is our immediate concern given that we should be budgeting, planning and making reservations if things were to be happening (and worth participating in). The impact in not holding the show is far reaching.

You are absolutely correct Bruce. The studios, NATO, and the Caesars crew really put a lot of effort into providing spectacular shows for everyone. Every year my mind is blown by the talent, choreography, and planning that goes into these presentations. I imagine that the rest of the convention works the same way regarding the time and effort folks put into their tradeshow booths and parties it really is impressive! I find it quite surreal at 3 am when most of the attendees are sleeping or heading off to bed and we are doing rehearsals. What we do is a small part the lighting, audio, Video Cameras, etc... is an immense undertaking and I have to say the crew at Caesars has been awesome to work with.