RAIN Dallas event delves into mobile platforms, social tools, and the perennial royalty issue

More than 250 attendees, sponsors, and panelists joined us yesterday in the beautiful Wedgwood Room of the Hilton Anatole for RAIN Summit Dallas, the 2012 edition of our annual fall event (timed to immediately precede the RAB NAB Radio Show). 

The day's highlights included the keynote address from Clear Channel President of National Sales, Marketing, and Partnerships Tim Castelli (see RAIN coverage, including the SoundCloud link to audio of his address, in today's issue). Tim focused on the transformation of his company from a collection of locally-centered radio groups to the nation's largest media company with a 360-degree approach focused on content. Listen to Castelli's address via SoundCloud -- look for it today in RAIN. 

We also presented the 2012 RAIN Internet Radio Awards, which you can read about in today's issue.

A RAIN Summit traditon is publisher Kurt Hanson's "State of the Industry Address." This year, Kurt took lessons from Clayton Christensen's The Innovator's Dilemma to show how disruptive new technologies (in our case, Internet radio) usually unseat the incumbent industry leaders, but this needn't be the case: broadcasters, if they recognize the disruptive powers of digital and webcasting, can position themselves to be there when the mainstream makes that massive shift. And again, you can listen to Kurt's address via SoundCloud in today's issue.

RAIN Summit Dallas featured six 30-minute panel discussions covering topics like online radio content, social media tools, monetizing the growing audience using mobile devices, licensing and legal concerns, and online strategies geared to the local broadcaster. One panel, "Identifying Opportunities for Advertisers in Internet Radio," featured the IAB's Michael Theodore speaking to agency buyers about how they use the medium. Thanks to our panel moderators, who also included Edison Research's Sean Ross, Triton Digital's Jim Kerr, Inside Radio's Paul Heine, Wilkinson Barker Knauer's David Oxenford, and CBS Radio Dallas' Dan Halyburton. We'll be covering the panels in-depth soon, including audio.

Thanks also to knowDigital's Kelly Ellis for the update on her company's ongoing "Successful Audio Streaming Strategies" research, and to Radionomy's Thierry Ascarez, who announced his company is now launching in the U.S. market to allow consumers to create their own online radio station or discover online stations created by others.

And no RAIN Summit would be complete without the RAIN Reader Cocktail Party, held right in the Wedgwood Room hallway (a very classy space), which included a quick greeting from Pandora founder Tim Westergren. Look for photos from the party soon.