Speakers Bureau Overview

The NAB Speakers Bureau will narrow the gap between hearing/reading about the transition and fully understanding it.

To stimulate viral marketing and one-on-one communication on the DTV transition, NAB is spearheading a national DTV Speakers Bureau to directly educate consumers on the transition. NAB has recruited speakers from local TV stations and state broadcaster associations, training them and providing materials for speaking engagements. This includes arming them with converter boxes and PowerPoint presentations, and scheduling appearances for them at locations ranging from senior centers to Kiwanis clubs to manufacturing plants to schools. NAB is also contacting local newspapers, radio and other media to cover the events. Centralizing the effort through NAB enables the industry to focus its efforts where consumer awareness is lagging and provide an opportunity for local broadcasters to answer any questions consumers may have about the DTV transition.

The Speakers Bureau currently consists of approximately 1,000 speakers from stations covering every metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. Speakers will present to 8,000 audiences nationwide during the campaign, which began in early fall 2007 and will continue through January 2009. With a goal of reaching an average audience of 184 per speech, broadcasters and local station representatives will directly reach one million people during the course of the campaign.

Goals of the NAB Speakers Bureau:

• Inform and educate the public about their options for receiving broadcast signals after the transition;
• Raise public awareness about the transition and why it is taking place;
• Reach local communities with consistent messages about the transition using local broadcasters;
• Involve media to raise awareness among consumers about the transition