SatelliteGuys / Dish Network Meet And Greet Report

[Scott Greczkowski]

Today SatelliteGuys and 15 lucky members we able to sit down with Dish Network executives at Team Summit in Denver Colorado.

This was a private meeting with Dish Executives, however Dish Network CEO Charlie Ergen turned the tables on us and asked us more questions of us then we did of him and his staff. Charlie actually sat with the SatelliteGuys members while his team of new and old execs jumped in with both feet.

Because it was a private "off the record" meeting I can not go into details of what was discussed, I will however say this... (And I hope people can read between the lines)

TURBO HD CUSTOMERS... DISH HEARS YOU AND IS WORKING ON A SOLUTION TO THE NEW HD ISSUE. PLEASE BE PATIENT THEY ARE WORKING ON A FEW THINGS TO MAKE YOU HAPPY.

Joining us today from Dish / Echostar was:

Charlie Ergen - CEO
Ira Bahr - Chief Marketing Officer
Mark Jackson - President, Echostar Technologies
Dave Shull - Sr. VP Programming
Bernie Han, Chief Operating Officer
Tom Cullen, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development

After the meeting with the Dish / Echostar staff I was able to take the SatelliteGuys members to the Tech Expo Floor where I got to give them a full demonstration of the Dish Slingloaded ViP 922 HD DVR! All of the members got to play with the new remote from the 922 and seemed to really like the guide and new menus.

With that the official meet and greet was over and I took those in attendance to Bubba Gumps Shrimp Company for some drinks and food. We also gave away some really cool prizes, one SatelliteGuys member went home with a Dish Network TV2 IR Converter Kit, another member went home with the Dish Network Uplink Center book that was signed by the man him self Charlie Ergen!

It was great getting to sit down with all of the members, we had a fun time at Bubba Gumps.

I would like to thanks a few folks at Dish Network for making this possible, first Charlie Ergen for taking time out of his busy schedule to spen and hour and a half with us. (And that thanks goes to all Dish staff who attended!), I would also like to thank Parker from Dish for making this all happen, you don't know how much work this guy did behind the scenes to put this all together. I would also like to thanks Francie and Robin from Dish for their help today and for making this event a success. Finally I would like to thank your members who came out from across the country for this very special SatelliteGuys event! (Oh and a thank you and I miss you to my wife, its been a long 5 days wthout her.)

 

[jdmacor]

That is amazingly cool. I hope the next Team Summit is in Dallas! I would love to get a chance to grill Charlie in person! Or maybe he would grill me... Either way, that sounds like a very cool experience.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

I do hope you can join us. Not sure where it will be next year, but God willing I will be there.

I will say one thing, you can read a lot of stuff online and build up some big pictures in your head of whats going on and it is really refreshing to hear what is really going on from the horses mouth. (Sorry Charlie didn't mean to call you a horse)

But when you actually hear whats up it gives you a much different outlook then the picture you built up inside your head.

 

[dont24]

How did Charlie end up in the back of the group photo?

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

How did Charlie end up on the back of the group photo?

He wanted his new exec team to be out front.

 

[Phil T]

A very special thank you to Scott, Charlie and the other Dish Network and Satellite Guys folks who made this happen!!

The Dish Network team was very interested in what we had to say and stayed over the alloted time to make sure they answered all of our questions!!

 

[DJ Rob]

Thanks so much Scott and Dish Network for the chat/meet and the greet!

It was fun to meet you and some other members here. And it was good to see that the Dish Network folks do want to know what is on our minds.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

I wish I would have been there after my experience with Dish last night. I would have walked up to Charlie and kicked him square in the balls. I got royally screwed by Dominique on the Executive Resolution Team. And not screwed in a good way!

 

[kc0zhq]

Thanks for the opportunity Scott. It was very informative and a ton of fun. I hate to say that I'm not very photogenic though. I look like crap in pictures...

 

[HIFI]

who's the female?:

 

[anonymouse99]

I was pleasantly surprised that the Dish exec team showed up in large numbers to listen. Thanks to Charlie, Scott, Dish staff and management for your time on a weekend. Scott, thanks for taking us out for drinks, food and for sharing your industry experiences! It was educational and fun. It was really nice to see some of you satelliteguys forum members - I am able to associate human faces with usernames now !!

 

[JonE]

Nice to know someone up top knows about the Turbo HD Issue. I can only hope it's resolved before 'Rescue Me' is off the air.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Nice to know someone up top knows about the Turbo HD Issue.

Some did not know about it... but now they do.

 

[kstuart]

Scott, I think the #2 issue of SG members was " HD RSNs 24/7 ".

Did you get a chance to ask this at any point this weekend ?

 

[tigerfan33]

Any word on ESPNU hd or RSN hd fulltime?? (Sorry to beat a dead horse but since you brought up the animal)

Did Charlie give insight on how many hd channels would be added (since he did say things were about to change in that department). If so, do YOU have reason to believe him??

 

[wardconnor]

Can I be so bold to ask what the issue is with the Turbo HD package?

What is there that needs fixing?

 

[tigerfan33]

Some did not know about it... but now they do.

This still seems a big problem at Dish.....communication!!!

 

[BobaBird]

Scott, I think the #2 issue of SG members was " HD RSNs 24/7 ".

Did you get a chance to ask this at any point this weekend ?

When they were asking what missing HD channels were important to us, I let them know there were a lot of people waiting for these and that it comes up repeatedly. I also told them it would make me happy personally if the RSNs all went away completely . At this point it's a little hard to say which way they'll go.

Thank you to Scott and the Dish staff for putting this event together, and to the panel of executives lined up in the hot seats in front of us SatelliteGuys and Charlie. :up

 

[TNGTony]

I wish I could have joined you all this year! I'm happy to hear it was a rousing success!

See ya
Tony

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

If anyone at todays event took any pictures, feel free to post them.

I didn't get a chance to take any for myself.