Networks Promoting Themselves; Internet Streaming

I know this is not something new, in fact it’s kind of an old news already. But I wanted to talk about the streaming of TV sows and movies through Internet instead of using regular cable. I must confess that I had heard about services like Hulu and Netflix but hadn’t had the curiosity before to look deeper into the matter; even though I have a Wii console and an iPad. Maybe it’s because right now I’m finishing my Master’s program and I’m starting to have some extra time to occupy my mind in other stuff is the reason why I got somehow interested. Having been back to my student life for a while and not being able to work I think theses services are very helpful to let you stay on a budget and because the young audience is generally addicted to new movie releases as well. I personally regret not having paid attention to this earlier for budgeting reasons. Of course, these are not limited to students only, really it’s for anyone who can pa around $8.00 a month and have access to all TV shows and movies. But students should definitely be a target market for these services.

I also have had some apps on my iPad for quite some time that had not had the chance to take a look at before as well, including Hulu Plus and Netflix. One of those is ABC’s app, which contains all their TV shows and episodes. I just want to comment on how great all this is and how the Internet continues to excel above everything else as a distribution channel for ANYTHING! Onward I consider these apps a way for this companies to promote themselves as well as they can have hands on control over their product instead of using another channel in between. Also, it enhances the customer-company relationship because this way of interacting lets users feel somehow more connected to them and the things they like

Wrapping up our Master's program

Well we are already in our last and final course of our master’s program and as part of wrapping up I would like to share with you some of the things we did and learned

throughout these 12 months course by course.

Media Literacy and Research Methodologies

Being from a South American Country this course was key for me because I was able to learn, practice and adapt to the writing techniques in the English language and more specifically to the way of formal writing in this country. APA style writing guides that were given to us are still on my computer’s desktop and will be for a long time because before learning about APA, to be honest, I had no idea it existed and that it was the technique that’s been used as formal communication and it’s the way Americans still communicate. I really appreciate the material was taught during the first month.

Learning about RSS and Diigo was also useful as, again, I had no knowledge of these tools to filter down your searches and interests. And speaking of search, there were other tools and guides provided to us upon how to search on the Internet and break down the information and filters and the guides on recognizing if your search sources are valid. UC Berkeley’s Online Workshops on ‘Fininding Information on the Internet: A Tutorial/Evaluating Web Pages: Techniques to Apply and Questions to Ask (2010) and Purdue Writing Lab’s (2010) were very useful as well.

Executive Leadership

I found very interesting several of the things taught in this class. For example, I was new to the Pecha Kucha style of making a presentation. Which came very handy since we used it several times later along the continuing of the program. Under this same format of presentation we had to choose a person that we considered our leader in the entertainment industry as well as another personality that we didn’t get to choose but was designated. I liked these activities because it allowed the class to learn about vey influential people that some of us were not as mush aware of their accomplishments

Very important in this class were the two books we read, “Developing the Leader Within You” by John Maxwell and the “48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene.

Project and Team Management

The purpose of this class was to learn skills on how to manage group works and manage teams, which somehow complemented our previous course. As for in order to manage a team it would be ideal that the person would have some leadership skills. Our activities were based on this standpoint and we learned a very useful tool called MindMaster which helps improve mapping the order of assignments of determined project.

Business Storytelling and Brand Development

I saw this course as the artistic and creative side of marketing as we learned about how to develpo a brand based on a story, the type of mark and on some patterns of design such as colors and fonts. As a guideline it was very useful since part of this program was constructing the brand identity of our companies. In this course we did a market research paper, which was our first step in researching for our business plan. Also learning about the difference between a slogan and a tagline.

Entertainment Business Finance

As the name indicates, this course was our first step on researching and writing down our needs as far as income for the opening of our business and projecting an estimate of our income for at least the consecutive three years onward. Also I found very helpful learning about some basic formulas that are very necessary when getting together your numbers, such as: net sales, gross profit, operating income, net income, income after taxes, ROI, contribution margin, among others.

Negotiation and Deal Making

This was one of my favorite courses because we had weekly exercises based on true cases and using real contracts related to the industry. Where we had to acquire skills on negotiating for our own benefit without letting the other party notice.

Product and Artist Management

This class was extremely useful as for teaching insights on artist management through “The Business of Artist Management” by Xavier Frascogna and Lee Hatherington. Our class assignments also helped us prepare for our final course as we had the opportunity of working for the first time on our investor pitch presentation. As well, as another activity where we had to research and prepare a live event presentation.

Advanced Entertainment Law

This course was extremely important as we learned about the law aspects of this industry in this country. More specifically about trademarks and copyrights for those of us who will be creating something.  Among our class activities I remember having created a presentation of an idea of a contest where related to this course we were to highlight all aspects of the issue of liability. We also presented a research about famous celebrities facing legal challenges among their careers.

Entertainment Media Publishing and Distribution

This course was also one of my favorites as it was based around learning skills mostly on how to self-publish your work. Whether a composer, book writer or a screenwriter, since getting a distribution contract for the first time is very difficult or can cost you a lot of money. We also learned how to write query letters as part of the task of knocking on doors and finding new opportunities.

Digital Marketing

I found this course to be one of my favorites as well because it taught us about all the new tools available to market your company online and above all, doing it yourself. We learned about feedburner, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, Google Sites, Email Marketing, online surveys, customizing our blogs, and building surveys. We also got to start on our marketing strategy for our business plan.

Business Plan Development

As the name indicates this month was all about writing and putting together almost all of the pieces of our business plan to have it ready for our final month when our presentations were due. Among the sections we wrote and we learned how to during the process were: company description, management, operations, marketing and sales strategy, financials, industry analysis and trends, target market, the competition, technology plan. To make this happen we used “The Successful Business Plan, Secrets and Strategies” by Rhonda Abrams.

Final Project Business Plan

During this course we concluded our program. We completed the final sections of our business plan, like the executive summary, and table of contents. We also exercised our elevator/investor pitch and presented our final project. We also went through, income statements, balance sheets, depreciation, debt financing, star-up, fixed and variable costs, taxes, and equity. We learned how to search for a job and how to write clear cover letters.

Know your Key Players

When putting up together an event, whatever its nature is, I suggest knowing the key players in determined industries that will help you improve and achieve your goal. Because not all the events you will produce will fall into the same category you will need to know or at least search the target for each different topic or category and the same will apply as for the sponsoring and the production itself like, location, permits, licensing, and even providers. Start building a good network, stay connected, maintain your professional and friendship relationships, and be as professional as you can be. Prove that in the practice you are actually what you demonstrate. The reason why I suggest you do this is because as good as you might be at something you wont be able to do it all yourself. Most of the time you will need support from others to get what you want and in those moments is when you will wish to have been connected to someone you never spoke to again, or you will wish to go back to that moment when you had the opportunity to talk to someone and you didn’t. Be connected, know the key players, keep a good relationship with all of them or at least the people that you know will connect you to someone you know will be of great help.

It has a little to do with having a diplomatic relationship with everyone you know, even if sometimes you don’t see the point in maintaining communicated with people sometimes you don’t like much. This combined with a good professional record builds a reputation that you will want to take care of. A good reputation some people say is priceless and they might be right. And it’s not because of what others say but because most of the times you will learn that it will be the determining point that will help you open the doors that are kept closed for other people around you. 

Following Up on Business Plan Writing

Going back to my first blog post this month about the two experts in the business plan and investing field that we chose to write about, in my case Nic Brisbourne and Tim Berry, I can say that their inputs were very useful. Especially since this is my first time that I find myself writing a business plan and sometimes studying and reading about the knowhow is not enough. Books, classes and guides can sometimes oversee the reality when focusing on explaining every step of the BS and how to write it. That’s when, in my point of view, reaching out somehow to experts can count a thousand times more. Because it’s their job, their passion, and their opinions are priceless. And most importantly when they give insights on how investors act and what they are looking for when it’s you the one acting as the creator of a new business for the first time.

In my case I consider Brisbourne’s advice on going straight to the point summarizing concisely the financials, the product, the market and yourself very realistic and applicable since he speaks from his standpoint of being a venture capitalist in ‘Understanding how a business plan is read’ (2010) from the his ‘theequitykicker’. The most valuable insight is the one he points out when he says that venture capitalists are constantly reading and receiving business plans which makes them sometimes unable to go through the entire document and so they just go directly to the financial sections and a description of the company and the market. A little alike the when producers are reading a movie script where they to page of minute 10, 30 and the end and if it gets their attention then they read the complete document. It might seem unfair for the business man/woman but that’s the way it is so we really have to take advantage in going straight to the point concisely in order to get the capitalists attention.