As he announces his departure from the role of IBC Chairman, Tim Richards contemplates a decade of rapid technological change, the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the enduring strength of the IBC team.
Looking through the credits of Tim Richards’ multi-decade career, it’s not hard to form the opinion that he is a genuine media renaissance man. Having started his career as a freelance photographer and independent producer, he went on to complete a 10-year stint as EVP for Walt Disney Television International and three years as a COO for the international Hallmark television business.
He is also co-owner of business improvement consultancy Ravensbeck and, in February 2024, moved from the role of COO to CEO of precision timing technology company Hoptroff. But towards the end of this year, he will relinquish another role that he has held for the past decade – as Chairman of the IBC Partnership Board.
Asked why he considers now the right time to step down, Richards says: “It’s approaching my tenth anniversary in the role and it has been incredibly enjoyable and very rewarding, but I came to the conclusion that it’s probably the right time for a change. There are also some changes in terms of the partner make-up of the board, so it’s probably as good a time as any for a transition to the chair as well.”
With regard to his successor, Richards says that a “search and interview process” is currently ongoing. “Things are moving quite fast, but I think the idea is that there will be some sort of transition period so that my successor will be ready to take up the mantle with a bit of an overlap around the time of the December board meeting.”
For his own part, Richards’ full-time role as CEO of Hoptroff will continue unabated. The originator of Traceable Time as a Service (TTaaS), Hoptroff supplies precision timing for financial services and media verticals around the world by using distributed computer infrastructure to synchronise server clocks in different locations to Universal Time (UTC) without the need to install additional timing hardware. UTC is delivered via existing networks and is available in the cloud.
“I have been doing that in parallel to acting as non-tech chair of IBC, so although I’m standing down from that position I’ll be continuing with my role [at Hoptroff],” confirms Richards.
Transformative tech
“There have been some tremendous changes,” observes Richards when reflecting on his decade-long tenure as IBC Chairman. “If you think back through all the [new technologies] we have seen, from 3D TV to HDR and AI. We have been reminded again and again that the industry is constantly evolving, and although ideas sometimes come and go, the industry keeps pushing ahead.”
He implies that two of the current trends – the migration to the cloud and the adoption of AI – are likely to be among the most significant the industry has ever faced. “The moving of ability to the cloud has been a huge transition for the industry. And now, over the last year or so, we have seen this incredible focus on AI, which is going to be one of the big stories of the show this year – not only on the [exhibition] floor, but also in the conference.”
The rise of remote and hybrid production has been another significant trend over the last few years, and at the height of the pandemic there were some industry commentators who wondered whether the long-term future of in-person events was now in serious doubt. But the surge in visitor numbers since the first post-Covid show in 2022 has confirmed that such claims were ill-founded. Not surprisingly, Richards nominates his involvement in steering the event to recovery as one of the proudest achievements of his 10 years as chair.
“Getting the show through the pandemic years was a bumpy road – as it was for every business and, frankly, every person – but I think we’ve now come out of the other side, and that’s one of the things I’m most proud of,” he says. “And, in fact, it also started to influence my decision-making in terms of stepping down from the role because we’ve now had a couple of years of the show being back and moving at full-strength.”
Asked whether he ever harboured any doubts himself about the viability of the IBC Show during the worst moments of the Covid crisis, he responds: “Well, I think there was a lot of overarching confidence that what we had with IBC was something special and something that the industry valued. [But] on a day-to-day basis, we were constantly dealing with the unknown in precisely the same way as any other business. We always knew we would be back in some shape or form, but until we came out of the other side of the pandemic, nobody really knew what life was going to be like in this new sort of hybrid world in which we live.”
Face-to-face value
Ironically given the dramatic evolution of technologies that facilitate virtualised events, media trade shows have overwhelmingly resumed the in-person format they had beforehand. “I think what was fascinating, and really gratifying, to see with the first show after the pandemic was that everybody was so keen and enthusiastic to get together in person,” says Richards. “The whole aspect of face-to-face contact is a function of who we are as human beings, and the more spontaneous conversations you get at IBC – less agenda-driven but where you are exploring new ideas – are really important. One of the things that is very special about IBC is that we have permission from the industry to foster collaboration in a way that [otherwise] doesn’t tend to happen.”
This ethos has reached its apex to date in the Accelerator Media Innovation Programme, which was introduced in early 2020. Providing a framework for fast-track, open and collaborative innovation, it is focused on projects that address critical media and entertainment industry business and technology challenges.
Describing the huge uptake of the Accelerator programme as one of the “greatest successes” of the past 10 years, he says that the scheme provides a way “to bring together people who, in the outside world, might be deemed to be competitors, so they can share ideas and work together to get solutions. It’s a curated environment that really supports this type of collaboration.”
Strength in numbers
Whoever is ultimately is appointed as Richards’ successor will undoubtedly have some profound shifts in the industry to contend with – many of them likely to be connected in some way to AI. But whatever the future brings, he says that the next IBC chair can always take comfort from the capabilities of the IBC management team and Board.
“There’s great strength there,” he confirms. “Michael [Crimp, CEO], Drew [Englebright, CFO], Steve [Connolly, Director] and Tamsin [Christofides, Director of Operations] are a great leadership team within the business, and they’re supported by some really strong partners who have their finger on the pulse of the industry. So IBC as a business is very well-positioned to continue to listen, learn and grow as the industry evolves over the coming years.”
As for his last IBC Show as Chair, Richards indicates that his essential ‘MO’ will remain unaltered. “I always try to attend as many of the Conference sessions as I can, because there are always surprises and something new to be intrigued by,” he says. “It’s a great coming together of people young and old, experienced and less experienced, across the industry – and that always delivers some great takeaways.”
Such an observation also reinforces the opinion that IBC remains a show founded above all on people and their passion for technology. “When I think back to 2022 and the first show after the pandemic, even the most cynical, jaded engineers were like children in a sweet shop,” says Richards. “It was fantastic to see the enthusiasm with which everybody greeted each other and ran around the show catching up with developments – which is absolutely what it’s all about.”
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