Goin' Back to Cali

I've been in LA for 4 days now and frankly I'm loving it. The sun makes a HUGE difference - I'm happier, the people around me are happier, it's a great scene. I'm here as part of the Kellogg Media and Entertainment Club's LA trek, essentially a 3-day learning and networking opportunity for those interested in the media biz.

So I arrived Wednesday, checked into my deluxe accomodations ($70/night for a double with internet, certainly did the job) and grabbed a couple of cocktails with my classmate. Good times, but for some reason I remember Westwood being more interesting. Anyway, when we stepped outside the next morning, it hit me - sun shining, birds chirping, rollerbladers, joggers, rice rockets, silicone loveliness, $200 t-shirts, and bentleys - the East Coast has its advantages and will no doubt be a broadening experience, but Cali's definitely home.

Most of Thursday and Friday was spent meeting with various media companies - Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures, Disney, NBC Universal. Although I've always been interested in music-nightlife-digital, I've never managed to get a solid grasp on how traditional media firms actually operate. The meetings confirmed several of my hunches:

• The proverbial divide between the creative and the business is not just a myth. Some functions play in the middle (i.e. business affairs, the guys who approve budgets and contracts pitched by producers) but not many.
• In most parts of the business, an MBA is not all that valued and possibly not even that valuable. The most promising entry points seem to be corporate development, digital strategy, and home entertainment. The latter essentially functions like packaged goods with a heavy retail component. If your goal is to run a media company, however, you'll need to get your hands dirty on the creative-operational side of the business.
  
• Success in the industry seems largely driven by relationships. That's probably true of all industries but it seemed even more so here. This impression solidified when we met the president of Sony Pictures Television. Successful, welcoming, charismatic guy who grew up in the business. Lots of sales experience and it showed.
  
• Even though the product is sexier, at the end of the day a big company is a big company - lots of divisions, lots of titles, free beer on fridays, blah blah blah. As much as the content of the jobs would be interesting to me, I'm not sure that the context would be.