One year on from the launch of Radiodays Europe in 2010, the 2nd edition of the conference in 2011 was again held in Copenhagen. It took place on 17-18 March 2011 with 650 participants from 45 countries.
Once again the programme for the 2nd Radiodays Europe embraced all the major topics in radio at the moment, while providing insights, strategies and predictions for the future.
Digital and everything it would mean for the radio industry whether that was moving to a digital distribution platform or the possibilities offered by the internet was one of the main focuses of the conference. As noted by Nik Goodman in his blog about the event, the keynote set the scene for the conference on this topic, “All of Europe’s radio markets are at different points on the ‘evolution of radio’ curve. Some are embracing the digital future and ‘diving on in’ and swimming around the ‘pool of digital fun’! Some are splashing around in the shallow end with the full intention of having a swim, once the water gets a bit warmer. And some are still in changing room, fully clothed, with no intention of going swimming at all… even if it’s 35 degrees outside and the sky is blue!”.
Other sessions noted by Nik included, “Z100 is just like any other hits radio station, just with a larger population to serve than most, and a decent budget for talent. The have exactly the same positioning issues as any other major market station, and apply some classic positioning strategy to differentiate themselves from the competition. And they just play the hits!” while “We learnt that Ryan Seacrest is the “Mayor of Hollywood” and delivers a great morning show every day, by following some of the tried and tested ‘rules’ of production that Dennis Clarke drills into him on a regular basis! Dennis always talks sense in a very ‘un-frilly’ way, and communicates his points fantastically well. And he’s one of the few speakers who gets a cheer as he’s going UP to talk!” Most interesting was a discussion on Spotify and WIMP…WIMP hmmm.
The then EBU Director General, Ingrid Deltenre, opened the second Radiodays Europe. She reminded the audience of “the important role that radio was playing in Japan, in the aftermath of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear emergency. She took the opportunity to express solidarity for colleagues at the Japanese public service broadcaster, NHK.”
The keynote panel of speakers Chaired by Cilla Benkö asked the BBC’s director of Audio and Music, Tim Davie, and the Radio France Director of Strategy, Francois-Xavier Labarraque, to predict where radio would be in five years. ”The panelists agreed that radio’s future was digital, hybrid and multiplatform “on a broadcast backbone”. Future success in a world of unlimited choice for consumers would depend on radio’s traditional strengths of mobility and ubiquity.”. Have we reached this 9 years on from this discussion?
Hybrid radio was also a key topic in many of the presentations given through the 1.5 days, at this time hybrid was in it’s infancy. Advertising and radio also featured heavily in the programme and the rise of Facebook and what this meant at the time for radio – if anything? Once special guest was Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the former Wikileaks spokesman. While Fake News was not on the horizon leaking news was.
To find out how far radio and the radio and audio industries have come in nine years join us in Lausanne 2019 for the 10th Radiodays Euorpe – Register Today
