BoxOffice® Pro - December 2010

EXECUTIVE SUITE > EXCITING TIMES AND REEL CHALLENGES (continued from page 14)
recommended practices for theater employees to follow, and broad
knowledge of the awards program offered by NATO and the MPAA.
Speaking of the awards, since the inception of the program in 2004,
we have given $111,000 to approximately 300 theater employees.
With a challenge as severe as movie theft, however, the problem
never goes away—it just moves. Now movie theft is a significant
problem in territories like Mexico and Europe, among other places.
During ShowEast, we met with our members from Mexico who are
lobbying the federal government for a strong anti-camcording law.
And conversations with our colleagues in Europe will continue in
December, when John travels to the continent for cinema leadership
meetings.
NATO was planning to hold its 2011 Annual Meeting in Los
Angeles, as NATO’s Executive Board previously decided to hold
the Board Meeting alternately between Washington, DC and Los
Angeles (two key business centers for our members). At its September
meeting, the Board decided to move our LA meetings to evennumbered
years in order to properly align our lobbying efforts with
the federal election cycle. Now, we can hold the DC meetings in oddnumbered
years when Congress is in session and not out campaigning.
Thus, NATO’s annual meetings in the fall of 2011 will be held in
Washington, DC, and the 2012 meetings in Los Angeles.
CINEMACON WILL BE AMAZING
IMPROVING THE ACCURACY OF INTERNET SHOWTIME
INFORMATION
The Executive Board adopted a recommendation of the Codes
Committee and the Advisory Board that NATO reach out to the
purveyors of movie show times to encourage more regular inclusion
of captioning and descriptive narrative information in their
listings, and to ensure that show times and pricing information
are accurate. At ShowEast, NATO staff met with representatives of
West World Media, the operator of CinemaSource, a leading company
in movie show times listings. They agreed to work with their
clients. We will also contact Tribune Media Services, the other
leading provider.
Preparations continue for NATO’s new national convention to
be held March 28–21, 2011 at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. Exhibitors,
vendors and studio partners have all provided their suggestions
and enthusiastic support as we have traveled the country. The new
CinemaCon website is up and running at www.cinemacon.com.
The trade floor is nearly sold out and registrations have been strong
since the opening in September. Please mark your calendars, book
your hotel rooms and register now for an exciting and productive
week next spring.
POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE FORMED
CHANGE IN ANNUAL MEETING LOCATION SCHEDULE
The NATO Executive Board of Directors approved the creation
of NATOPAC, the association’s new political action committee. NA-
TOPAC will enhance the presence of NATO on Capitol Hill and give
our organization an additional tool to continue the success it has
achieved in its lobbying efforts. The paperwork has been filed with
the Federal Election Commission and the members of the PAC board
have been approved. We will be seeking member contributions in
the near future and hope that all will participate so we can have a
say on those issues that affect our industry.
Finally, we are delighted to report that during ShowEast, NATO
and Boxoffice representatives met and decided to extend our sponsorship
agreement. We appreciate the service Peter and his team
provide to the industry, and continue to value the strong relationship
between our two organizations.
16 BOXOFFICE DECEMBER 2010