So let me piece it together. I recall the crowd was enormous and flowing to capacity. At a time when NAMIC attendance is down severely, the breakfast had more than 300 attendees. The room couldn’t hold more.
And surprisingly nobody was complaining about the early hour or looking too worse for wear at 7 am. In fact, NAMIC board member Michael Cooper greeted me warmly, looking fully awake. (I could have sworn Michael was networking into the wee hours of the morning. How does he look so good on 5 hours’ sleep?)
I have to say it, you can talk all you want about diversity, and you should, but when there’s someone at the top of your company who embodies diversity, it makes things much easier. That’s why it was great to see company heads like Starz Bob Classen, Steve and Bob Miron and Nomi Bergman of Bright House Nets, Showtime’s Matt Blank, Josh Sapan of Rainbow and WE tv’s Kim Martin attending the breakfast.
After a generous plate of fresh fruit and some non-cholesterol eggs (I can dream), my colleague Mike Grebb and I took to the stage. Our panel was an all-star group: Comcast’s Charisse Lillie, Showtime’s Ray Gutierrez and Disney’s Albert Chang.
To say they knocked Mike and my questions out of the park would be a gross understatement. And they were eloquent. Charisse spoke well about how Mae Douglas of Cox and other NAMIC members took her under their wing when she joined Comcast 5 years ago. Albert had a similar memory of his own entry into cable. Ray boldly said “nobody in this room” can not say he or she was not helped by NAMIC or WICT.
Of course we had to speak about mentoring, and everyone had a story. Albert told us one of his mentors was Disney chief Bob Iger. Although I asked Albert if he had the name of Mr Iger’s tailor (his suits are impeccable), Albert noted that Mr Iger had been a calming influence on him during his early days at Disney. Albert wasn’t sure if being on the tech side would be the best place for him career-wise. Mr Iger had told him that his determination, hard work and intelligence were far more important than what department he worked in.
Ray remembered his mentor telling him “to clean up your act” and taking him to Macy’s in Herald Square to pick out 2 suits for him. “You also need to have your shoes shined,” his mentor said. Obviously Ray heeded his mentor’s advice. While I’m not sure clothes make the man, they certainly send a message. I’d say Ray sent a message of success with his remarks and his attire.
The breakfast ended on time and we had plenty of opportunity to honor CableFAX’s list of the most influential minorities in cable. We also had plenty of time to schmooze before the 9:15 am start of NAMIC’s opening general session. Now if I can only track down the recipe for those non-cholesterol eggs.
Seth Arenstein - CableFAX Magazine
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