Toray, headquartered in Prostějov, Czech Republic, joins the city in welcoming the International Tennis Federation (ITF) back for the 2018 World Cup Junior Tennis Finals for boys and girls under 14. This is the world’s most prestigious ITF youth event and attracts the best national teams for boys and girls in this category. It is a world-class youth event that first came to Prostějov in 1999 after holding the event in Japan for eight years. The ITF has trusted the Prostějov tennis courts since then as an ideal location for the final World Cup tournament.

By Andy Marken

This year’s NAB (National Association of Broadcasting) show was healthier, more interesting and more technology driven than ever.

The big (good) news for them was that ATSC 3.0 – the next generation of broadcast standard that will benefit viewers, broadcasters, manufacturers – is real!

By Andy Marken

On my office wall I have two images Picasso’s Don Quixote de la Mancha and the unofficial military public information crest, “Last to Know … First to Go.”

It’s tough getting the entire corporate team moving in the same direction and doing/saying the same thing when you are:
- Constantly tilting windmills to slay dragons
- Not certain if the team is going in the same direction as part of a parade or someone is intent on running others out of town

By Andy Marken

O.K., I admit it… VR (virtual reality) is going to be big in a few years.

After experiencing The Martian at SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers) and hearing from friends at Sundance about the lines of folks waiting patiently to put on the gear for the dozen or so films.

Then there was the drill-down VR session at HPA (Hollywood Post Alliance) Tech Retreat.

It’s safe to say that the industry is taking VR film work seriously.

By Andy Marken

Last year, I found myself diving with an SAR (search and rescue) officer and somehow the subject of retirement came up.
His response was, “Not for a long, long time.”

By Andy Marken

Not long ago, "The New York Times" ran a rant that social media was having a negative effect on quality journalism.

When Dan Gilmore, former tech writer for the "San Jose Mercury News", first advanced the idea of citizen journalism as the web and social media was beginning to sprout. It sounded great at the time.

By Andy Marken

It's somewhat ironic that a 20-year Navy veteran would retire in the frozen tundra of Wisconsin and spend most of his free time around flying machines. But John Ross is a master of anomalies.

By Andy Marken

Just Show Up – Trade show, conference and convention activities require more than just rolling up, opening your stand and picking off customers. The best results come from planning, establishing objectives, analysis and understanding what worked/what didn't.

By Andy Marken

Recently I read a piece in Ad Age that said all of Coca-Cola's social media buzz efforts didn't help sales ... zip, zero, nada.
O.K., not quite that bad. It rang up a fantastic 0.01% short-term sales effect.

That isn't enough to even move the needle!

By Andy Marken

With units selling for $80 to $30,000 plus, there are a lot of drones available and a lot that fall (pun intended) between idiot toys and military armament.

This year, sales are projected to be about 4.3M units with an estimated value of about $1.7B, which represents a 167 percent sales increase in two years.

Businesses across the board are coming up with new ideas on how they can use the devices every day to save time, money and do things that keep folks out of danger.

By Andy Marken

Companies do a great job of categorizing/monetizing two segments of the film industry:
- Tens of thousands of kids/parents who make good to little or no money shooting video shorts and uploading them on YouTube (600 hrs of content a minute), Facebook, Tumbler, you name it. It's a loosely knit crowd that goes to events like VinCon to cheer and hope for a studio contract, follow the Streamy Awards.
- Large, medium, small studios doing $10M - $100M plus films using project/contract film capture/production people turning out short to full-length movies. They're part of a multi-billion dollar industry that attends IBC (International Broadcast Conference) and NAB (National Association of Broadcasting) show.

By Andy Marken

With the end of the Mad Men series I wanted to get another jolt of those good old days, so I read a couple of books on David Ogilvy, often called the father of advertising.

The two made me think about the crazy growth projections for IoT (Internet of Things), IoE (Internet of Everything) , big data and the wild rush by marketing to own all of it in their respective companies.