Ever since the Television Bureau of Advertising moved its spring marketing conference in from Las Vegas to New York City in 2002, it has been a popular stop on the annual broadcast convention and conference circuit.

Held at the Javits Center in conjunction with the New York International Auto Show, the conference has attracted several hundred TV broadcasters each year who attend sales-oriented sessions, meet among themselves and, while in town, grab a little face time with reps, advertisers and agencies.  

But don't put the conference on your schedule for 2009. It's not going to happen. 

Last May, the TVB board decided to combine the conference with its fall forecasting conference next year. The one-time consolidation of the meetings was a simple acknowledgement of the poor revenue outlook for broadcasting in 2009 and the stations' tightening T&E. 

"Trying to put on a conference in the first quarter or first half of 2009 is going to be difficult for anybody," says TVB President Chris Rohrs. "The budgets for people to go to them are just not going to be there." 

With the country apparently heading into a long and deep recession, the decision is looking twice as smart now as it did in May, says Rohrs. "Little did we know how challenging this would all become."

So far, the TVB spring conference is the only casualty of the economic troubles. 

But other organizers of broadcast events share TVB's concern about operational budgets and are trying to make whatever accommodations they can to keep attendance from following all the economic indicators south.

Take the NAB, for example. It's already developing a package deal to give TV networks and station groups an added incentive to attend this year's annual convention, April 18-23 in Las Vegas.

``We haven't completely put it together, but we should have it by the end of November," says NAB's Chris Brown, executive vice president, conventions and business operations.

NAB wants station executives to know that the NAB "can work with you, get you better rates on space and discounted registration for larger groups," he says.

"If there is a silver lining" to the financial meltdown, he says, it would be that Las Vegas hotel rates are going down.

Nightly rates have dropped from $175 to $139 at the Luxor; from $249 to $199 at MGM Grand; from $206 to $185 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and from $215 to $199 at the Treasure Island. 

NAB is also promising to help stations deal head-on with the current economic crisis through panel sessions and workshops.

"There will be a greater emphasis on managing in a challenging economy," says Brown. "There will be more panel sessions geared at identifying new sources of  advertising revenue and non-traditional sources of revenue such as the on-line market."

According to Brown, the economy has not hurt the NAB floor, which last year featured 1,600 companies spread across more than 900,000 square feet of exhibit space. "We are running just slightly ahead of our pace with regard to exhibitors," he says.

Brown says all the major vendors will be back, including Sony, Panasonic,  Harris, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Adobe, Autodesk, Canon, JVC,  Tandberg and Thomson/Grass Valley.

It's too early to gauge what impact the economy will have on attendance at the Radio-Television News Directors Association annual meeting, which is held each year in conjunction with the NAB. Registration doesn't open for another month, explains President Barbara Cochran.

Like NAB, Cochran says, RTNDA is tweaking its program. "We're trying to make sure we offer as much bang for the buck as possible," she says.

NATPE, which opens a three-day run at Las Vegas' Mandalay Hotel on Jan. 26, knows that it is being eyed by the budget cutters.

NATPE has the "ill fortune to be going early in the year," says NATPE President Rick Feldman.

"Nothing about the economy over the next couple of months is going to be good for anybody," he says. "I think we are all going to be affected by a down economy; it just remains to be seen how much."

According to Feldman, NATPE 2009 may not match this year's attendance of 7,500.

"People still need to get together. People still have business to do. The companies that have always been a part of NATPE will all be there. Will they bring as many people as they brought before? Probably not."

Despite the ominous signs, Feldman says that vendor side of the convention is "right on target from where we were last year. All of our suites are sold out. The floor space will look about the same as it did last year."

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