The inaugural RedTech Summit took place in Paris, June 2–3, against the backdrop of fundamental change in the audio broadcast industry.
The close-knit meeting of business and technical leaders agreed the time had come to put aside competitive differences and forge collaborations and partnerships that would secure the industry’s future. Furthermore, such partnerships should extend beyond the familiar and comfortable. Steaming platforms are shifting their offering – they’re gunning for live radio’s intimate, connective appeal.
The Summit, held simultaneously to the Paris Radio Show, cemented what the leaders suspected: they were not alone in their take.
CEOs and CTOs from Germany, India, Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Uganda, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Sweden, Turkey, Dubai, Namibia, Austria, Switzerland and the United States found commonality not only in challenges but in purpose.
For this reason, they openly exchanged ideas on what they were doing in their respective markets, what had worked, what hadn’t, and some of the lessons they had learned.
They agreed it was now time to rethink radio’s positioning and standard models of practice. Radio was not in decline; it was in transition.
Linear radio and digital content production and distribution are not in competition; they’re complementary. Creatives and tech should collaborate to define the direction of broadcast technology design, not compete for influence.
And building a successful and sustainable broadcast culture within a station or group comes from the bottom up; it’s not forged in boardrooms.
RedTech is a global platform for the radio and audio industry to inform, connect and exchange, so we will provide some of the insights from the Summit here and in upcoming editions of the magazine.