Back in 2000 Kristen Petrovich said when she was dazzled by the first HD images, she saw the future. Six months later she intrepidly launched the first HD Expo in Los Angeles.
High definition is now firmly entrenched, as will be demonstrated by the 3rd annual Chicago HD Expo to be held at Navy Pier June 6-7.
The entire space of 70 exhibitor spaces has been sold out for weeks and record attendance is expected from throughout the Midwest.
“This is going to be a truly Midwestern show,” said CEO/founder Petrovich, “with 75% of the registrants coming from outside Chicago.”
“The Midwest needs this show,” said Tom Fletcher, whose company, Fletcher Chicago was the first to embrace the then-emerging medium a decade ago.
“HD Expo is the best way to hear about fast-changing advances and to talk to the national product managers of the big companies, so we can move along with L.A. and New York instead of being five years behind them,” he said
On June 6, a series of high level conferences will be held led by experts in leading national companies throughout the country, Petrovich said.
A cocktail party will round out the June 7 trade show day “and provide a really good networking opportunity.”
Petrovich, the third generation of her family in the entertainment industry, spent more than a decade in production and post. She was production manager for a London-based company, and in L.A. she concurrently ran a post facility and was production manager of network programming for a producer of reality, sports, and documentary shows.
In 1997, Petrovich formed KMP & Associates, a marketing and managing organization, where she recognized the considerable desire for an understanding of the rapidly changing technological environment.
In 2001, six months after seeing her first HD demonstration, she launched HD Expo, considered the most significant trade show and conference in the world for high definition.
Two annual HD Expos are held in L.A.: one in Beverly Hills in March, and in Burbank in November.
New products bow at Chicago HD Expo
