CABLE INDUSTRY MEETINGS CANCELLED IN WAKE OF ATTACKS
Cable executives who gathered in N.Y.C. for week of meetings on state of industry instead joined rest of nation in focusing on attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon. While most cable meetings and conferences were cancelled, some executives who attended Kagan Broadband Summit were stranded in city by airline shutdown and decided to “tough it out,” continuing to hold meetings, however informal. Some organized trips to local hospitals to donate blood for victims. Others who had planned to spend only one day were left to scramble for hotel rooms and other accommodations. “I came here with only the clothes on my back,” said one Washingtonian, an attorney and panelist at Kagan meeting.
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Word of plane crashes into towers came just as National Assn. of Minorities in Cable (NAMIC) was to begin 2nd day of its annual conference. Event, titled Digital Media & Diversity, was quickly cancelled. By afternoon, meeting rooms at Millennium Broadway hotel were deserted, and hotel officials said NAMIC guests were trying to get home. At Park Lane Hotel, where Kagan conference was starting, one participant received call by cellular phone alerting him, and then everyone turned to small TV set in meeting room. “Someone put on the TV and we could see; first there was one tower burning and then the second,” said Eric Dewannian, dir.- business development for broadband communications group at Texas Instruments in Dallas.
Group, still in shock, decided to carry on with opening remarks and industry forecast, as well as first session, titled Life After Rollout: Real Business Models for Broadband Providers. However, it soon became apparent many participants and panelists were too distracted by events to continue. Dozens excused themselves during session, and by lunch most had gone. It was decided to hold informal discussion Wed. day with 10-20 who remained. Most who stayed were hardware developers, such as Thomas Bohan, senior channel mktg. mgr. for Magis Networks, San Diego company that develops chips for wireless networks within home. “We might as well make the best of it,” he said.
Some, who had come from far away and couldn’t fly home because of nationwide airport shutdown, decided to pitch in and help. As Mayor Rudoph Guiliani, speaking on TV, told viewers where they could give blood, many conference participants wrote down addresses of hospitals and blood centers. Two were nearby. “Some of us are going down to give blood,” said Robert Meditz, vp- syndications for Webster Bank in Hartford: “It’s such a tragedy. I can’t imagine.” Others tried to find ways out of city by car or train. One participant decided to wait in Penn Station in hope that train service would restart soon.
Among other events cancelled were Walter Kaitz Foundation dinner, scheduled for Thurs. Event was to honor Comcast Pres. Brian Roberts for his contributions to promoting racial diversity in industry.