Industry360: Are there too many industry bodies?

Kim Portrate, CEO, ThinkTV

What do you think of the accusation that Australia has too many industry bodies?

I think its probably the wrong question. I’d be more inclined to examine the contribution that each body makes to benefit their shareholders or members and then make a call on too many or even too few. The size and complexity of industry means there are lots of very different groups with very distinct desires and wishes. Perhaps the question of “too many” comes from folk who don’t really understand the rate of change that many of the associations work with members to navigate? If an industry association helps one of these distinct communities accomplish its goals, then who am I to pontificate on the correct number.

That said, ThinkTV is definitely the newest kid on the association block so we’re still working out how to best deliver this value to our shareholders – and the stakeholders – we serve. The current pace of change in the TV industry is rapid. When this happens there is a real need to gather all industry members and give them a chance to get them behind mission-critical issues like transparency, measurement, privacy and effectiveness in a way that transcends day-to-day commercial realities.

We’ve also found other industry bodies very collegiate. They’ve all, at one time or another, helped us find common ground and progress areas of mutual interest. Development of training and education programmes, new product development and even establishment of common standards for video measurement and segmentation have all enjoyed an accelerated rate of delivery because of these informal discussions so I would say we have just the right amount of players in this space.