Radio / Television News

Canadian Suite at NAB ends its run

Canadian Suite news.jpg

MISSISSAUGA – After a successful 50-years, the Canadian Suite organizing committee has announced the Canadian Suite at the 2016 NAB Show has been cancelled due to a reduced level of sponsorship that is well below the point of event viability.

The Canadian Suite was a unique, long-standing tradition that brought the best of Canada’s media industry together in a relaxed atmosphere for three evenings during the National Association of Broadcasters Show in Las Vegas.

Created by Michael Stechly, founder of Applied Electronics (the company which ran it well for all these years), it began as a small social gathering of a dozen industry friends and clients in Michael’s hotel room over the course of three evenings during the NAB Show.

“The business of technology was discussed, but more amusingly, drinks, stories and laughter of remarkable NAB experiences were shared. The comradery amongst that group of individuals strengthened and it was quickly realized that this gathering of Canadians had to happen again. Michael’s hotel room was unofficially branded ‘The Canadian Suite’. The following year, the group got bigger and the Canadian flag was hung in the Suite,” says today’s press release.

As each NAB Show approached, the popularity and anticipation of this social gathering grew in tandem. Volunteers, Gord and Edie Ballantyne, from Applied Electronics soon took on the responsibility of planning, coordinating and organizing the Canadian Suite, moving the gathering to a larger space and taking on official sponsors to help to cover the expenses of hosting the Canadian Suite.

The NAB Show was held in different cities throughout the U.S., and when it became stationed in Las Vegas, the Canadian Suite lived at the Flamingo Hotel. It offered an excellent opportunity for many Canadians and friends of the Canadian media industry to meet, mix and mingle during the industry’s largest, busiest and most exciting conference and exhibition of the year. It wasn’t long before the Canadian Suite saw support from as many as 102 Sponsors in 2008 with an average of 1,300 attendees each night.

Cartt.ca was also a sponsor for the past eight years.

April of 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the Canadian Suite and an outdoor poolside celebration at the Flamingo Hotel’s Beach Club Pool provided a wonderful ambiance for such a momentous occasion and was a fitting and well-received change in scenery from the traditional ballroom.

Although it was a well-attended and highly successful social gathering, the Canadian Suite started to see a decline in sponsorship when the industry entered a recession in 2008. Combined with the unfavourable impact of the U.S. currency exchange on the Canadian dollar, companies began to reduce expenditures, including eliminating their sponsorship of the Canadian Suite, explains the press release.

The Canadian Suite saw a reduction in sponsorship by 28% from 2010 to 2015; yet attendance remained unchanged, which left the remaining sponsors covering an increasingly substantial bill. Despite in-depth analysis, communications with existing sponsors and implementing cost cutting measures, the 2016 Canadian Suite could not be staged without further financial strain on the existing sponsors.

The last proposal from organizers – who did their level best to keep the tradition going – was to take the event down to a single day but even that could not raise the amount of support needed from sponsors.

“We would like to thank all of the sponsors who supported the Canadian Suite throughout its remarkable 50-year run,” said Applied Electronics president Paul Stechly, on behalf of the committee. “We should all feel very proud of our contributions to the industry and in creating a distinguished Canadian Identity at NAB.”