IBC conferences and trade shows are the content and media industry’s biggest events of the year. On Episode 35 of The Content & Media Matters Podcast, we were joined by Till Sudworth, the CMO and Head of BU Video at NPAW, to discuss his experience of attending the event. He also shared his predictions for the future of the industry based on what he saw at the event. Read on for Till’s insights. 

IBC 2024 was obviously a really big show for you guys. What were some of the key takeaways from this year’s show?

It was a super good trade show. It was almost the most successful IBC we’ve ever had in terms of leads, people stopping by our booth, and in terms of willingness to do business. So it was a very positive IBC, which kind of surprised us a little bit, because we know in the industry there have been a lot of cost cuttings and layoffs among our customers and prospects. I was surprised by the positive atmosphere and mentality that we saw at the IBC. 

On the other side, it was an important trade show for us. IBC is always one of the most important trade shows for us in the world. But this year was specifically important as we launched a lot of new products, and we made an important step in the transformation from being a one-product company to a multi-product company. That was very interesting, and actually, a lot of fun, because we can now serve a lot of different requirements from our customers and prospects. 

Were there any new solutions or products that you wanted to highlight from the show?

It was our first step into the European market. Although the IBC is not a European show, it was held in Europe, which was important for us to launch a lot of new products on the other side. One of the products was an AI product, which was all over the place at the IBC. We were working with data, which is an obvious use case, but we had worked on our supportive AI pretty hard for the last few years, and we finally have a great product which enables and supports our customers to engage with data more easily than before. Our tool not only proactively shows you any anomalies in your system but also helps our users access the data more easily. Our customers that we showed it to really loved it.

Based on your experience this year, how would you say the industry’s moving forward, and what are some key opportunities?

Honestly, I didn’t have a single moment at the IBC to walk around and see anything. So, unfortunately, I cannot say how the industry is moving in terms of other vendors, but what I see from our customers that I spoke to at the event is that there’s light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the industry becoming more stable. There were a lot of layoffs and cost-cutting that were necessary for companies to become profitable in the past two years or three years. A lot of them did their homework already, while some are still in the middle of a transformation, but at least from our perspective, we see the atmosphere becoming better. Ultimately, platforms need to understand the end users and the quality of their experience to remain compatible or competitive in the industry. 

To hear more from Till, tune into Episode 35 of The Content & Media Matters Podcast here. 

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