Breakfast (on Steroids) at Condé

Were we the only ones bemused that the big breakfast on sports media and technology was held in the ultimate bastion of female fashion accessories? But, amid the just so yellow-rose centerpieces, fresh fruit, muffins, yogurt and granola in the Condé Nast building's 4th floor frosted-glass-apportioned conference room sat a lot (mostly male, mostly suited) New York media power players. Ken Auletta let us shake his hand before hosting a talk with NBA commissioner David Stern, Sports Illustrated managing editor Terry McDonell and ESPN honcho George Bodenheimer, who no fewer than twice shouted out to his Disney bosses about how great their leadership was. The title was "The Electronic Future of Sports," but the topic was really "how do we keep making money?" McDonell let us play with his new ESPN cellphone, released this week and which Bodenheimer proudly said was not just a licensing deal -- the phone and programming (such as Sports Center highlights)are all ESPN's; they do lease the airwaves from Sprint. The rest was variations on what you've heard or read before: it's all about what you want, when you want, and giving it all to the fans in sliced and diced chunks in the medium they prefer â€“ whether it's the new 108" plasma screens shown off at the recent Consumer Electronics Show or a 2" phone screen. Stern noted companies like MediaFlo programming for small screens, and said that 20 percent of views of NBA.com every day are to its Mandarin language site, mostly from China. He said how some day you'll be able to watch both home and visiting team feeds of a basketball game. McDonell noted how only 2 1/2 years ago in the "Pleistocene era" they held material from their Web site to break it in the magazine two days later. They all seemed concerned with younger viewers who want a synopsis and highlights. "Analysis of the game could be as important to the game to the new generation," Stern said. "They don't want to sit for three hours." He went on to talk about how video game versions of a sport can be more enticing than watching the televised event, but insisted all the money-making media spring from the game, itself, and so that's always his main focus. Oh, and of course, blogs blogs blogs, ("they don't have the burden of truth," Stern said), though we don't think any of the speakers had looked at Deadspin.com; they were asked, and none said "yes." Bodenheimer said it's all about the brand. "In a sea of change, your brand is going to be your number one asset." Other luminaries on the guest list included our own Laurel Touby, Lloyd Grove, Myron Kandel, sports anchor Veronica Contreras of Telemundo's WNJU-47 (whom Stern told he had to get better at Spanish), and Nancy Aaronson of speaking agency Royce Carlton, who told us "media ecologist" Douglas Rushkoff is a cut-up in class at NYU. (We'll try to go and let you know what we think.) Steve Wadsworth, who heads Disney's internet group, was on the list, but we think he wasn't there. Too bad, because he repeats a lot of stuff about this stuff.

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Breakfast (on Steroids) at Condé

Dorian

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