Archived conference from 12/15/98 ...
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(Transcrption from Earlier Broadcast)
December 15 1998 09:30pm EST
Talk-Stock
9:30:02 INTRODUCTION: Showstar Entertainment Corporation (SHST) is a fully integrated entertainment company that has uniquely divided the entertainment industry into three strategic categories: entertainment management and production, eCommerce, and merchandising. As a national producer of concerts and sporting events, SHST packages entertainment products for small to medium-sized markets. SHST secures venues for these events, and then promotes and markets them. SHST has become a leader in the packaging of entertainment products and services. It's joint approach to entertainment, and entertainment merchandise has also enabled SHST to secure a dynamic partnership with a revolutionary electronic merchandising delivery channel known as eStation.
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9:30:17 Tonight's guest is Mr. Barry Forward, President and CEO of SHST.
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9:30:30 MR. FORWARD, COULD YOU GIVE US A BRIEF BIO ON YOURSELF?
Mr. Forward
9:30:57 Certainly … President of company for 3 years., since its formation in 1996. My history's been mostly in the entertainment industry working in management and operations, I've also worked as an on-air host and a journalist. From 1993 to 1995, I was Publisher/Managing editor of the magazine "The Entertainer."
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9:31:17 WHAT WAS THE THINKING BEHIND THE FORMATION OF SHST?
Mr. Forward
9:31:50 My partners and I saw an opportunity to capitalize in the entertainment industry in a way that had never been done before. We brought together 3 existing businesses -- a manufacturer, a merchandiser, and an entertainment production business. We brought these companies together under 1 roof and called it Showstar.
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9:32:11 WHAT DOES SHOWSTAR'S MANAGEMENT TEAM BRING TO THE TABLE?
Mr. Forward
9:32:43 We have an exciting management team -- our CFO Gary Diamond has been in the entertainment business many years, from a traditional accounting firm background all the way up to operating his own film company. Now he's even supervised his own films as executive producer. Our entertainment division is headed by Dan Fiala.
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9:33:01 DAN FIALA IS A FAMILIAR NAME IN THE SHOWBIZ INDUSTRY. TELL US OF HIM.
Mr. Forward
9:33:27 Dan's been producing concerts and sporting events since the 70s. He was a principal with Concerts West before moving on to managing his own entertainment. He's been putting together our entertainment packages. He's been
Mr. Forward
9:33:52 bringing some exciting new projects to us while also assisting us with our current ongoing operations. It's been exciting to see the growth under his management.
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9:34:17 CAN YOU GIVE US AN OVERVIEW OF THE REVENUE STREAMS THAT SHOWSTAR HAS DEVELOPED? BOTH SHORT AND LONG TERM, IF YOU WOULD.
Mr. Forward
9:34:48 Long term one's a little more visionary, but our short term comes to what Dan Fiala has been working on specifically related to the entertainment area -- the production of concert events, sporting events, across the West Coast and easing eastward. We look for significant growth in this area for 1999, and that is based on the number of concerts and events we put on.
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9:35:08 CAN YOU DESCRIBE THESE CONCERTS AND EVENTS THAT SHOWSTAR IS INVOLVED WITH?
Mr. Forward
9:35:33 One of note in 1999 is a comedy troupe called Firesign Theater, and they've just come out with a new CD that's on the Billboard Top100 comedy charts. We select sites and performances for this troupe, throughout North America in various venues.
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9:35:47 IS THIS PART OF YOUR LONG-TERM PLAN?
Mr. Forward
9:36:13 Our long term plans for entertainment are to produce acts like this, get connected to them, and introduce them right across the United States. We look at an act like Firesign Theater and say, "Hey, these people should be in these venues!" Then they come to us and ask if we can do it for them -- and we do! I'd like to stress
Mr. Forward
9:36:42 that we go to the small and medium-sized markets. Not to the "L.A.s of the world. " There's a whole bunch of smaller venues that do very well for entertainers, and that's what we're concentrating on, it's what we focus on. You can't take a Rolling entertainment we have, such as Gordon Lightfoot, Roger Whittaker, do very well in these medium-sized Stones to some of these smaller places, but the markets.
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9:36:58 CAN YOU GIVE ADDITIONAL EXAMPLES OF WHAT A MEDIUM-SIZED MARKET IS, IN THIS ARENA?
Mr. Forward
9:37:21 Santa Barbara, California, small towns outside the major markets -- these are what we're talking about.
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9:37:34 AND WHAT KIND OF DRAW DO THESE SMALLER CITIES HAVE?
Mr. Forward
9:37:51 Our venues usually range from 1500 to about 3000 seats.
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9:38:07 WHAT WOULD SHOWSTAR NORMALLY CHARGE ON A PER-HEAD BASIS?
Mr. Forward
9:38:32 Well, that depends on the entertainer. But it's pretty competitive in terms of pricing, there is a whole range of prices that varies from market to market.
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9:38:47 WHAT KIND OF REVENUES DO THESE EVENTS PRODUCE FOR SHOWSTAR?
Mr. Forward
9:39:05 The projected net revenue from the entertainment portion of our business is about $1 million in 1999.
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9:39:26 GIVE US A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF WHAT WE MIGHT ANTICIPATE SHOWSTAR DOING LONG-TERM, OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS.
Mr. Forward
9:40:00 Well, our long-term prospects specifically relate to our involvement in eStation. This is an exciting new concept in "eCommerce" merchandise delivery. The revenues from that, we believe are going to significantly impact the company's revenue stream positively in the next few years. We're looking to see eStation up and running in about 6 mos, however.
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9:40:22 PLEASE TELL US OF SHOWSTAR'S THREE CORE BUSINESS ACTIVITIES? THAT IS, A DESCRIPTION OF EACH ONE, AND HOW THE REVENUE STREAM FOR THAT PARTICULAR BUSINESS ACTIVITY WORKS.
Mr. Forward
9:40:53 The #1 core activity is our entertainment concerts and sporting events, that we build and stage and put on across the country. Showstar has built a strong base in venue management, and has endless experience in tour management and tour production. What this boils down to is revenues from concerts -- we are working on building the number of concerts and entertainers that come to us so we can increase our exposure in that area.
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9:41:15 ON THIS SUBJECT OF YOUR CORE ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS, WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF CONCERTS AND ENTERTAINERS THAT SHOWSTAR IS CURRENTLY HANDLING?
Mr. Forward
9:41:39 It's not a question of how many concerts we are handling, but of how many venues and dates we have. In 1999, we expect to average between 15 and 20 concert events a month.
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9:41:53 AND NOW, THE SECOND CORE BUSINESS ACTIVITY?
Mr. Forward
9:42:22 Merchandising, and the merchandising is directly and indirectly related to the entertainment division. What we do is produce entertainment-related merchandise for entertainers and events. The revenue, of course, comes from the sales -- hats, t-shirts, anything that might be merchandised by an entertainer.
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9:42:41 SO SHOWSTAR IS BEHIND ALL THE HATS, PARAPHANELIA, SHIRTS, ETC. THAT WE'VE PURCHASED AT CONCERTS OVER THE YEARS?
Mr. Forward
9:42:54 Yes we've certainly done many concerts.
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9:43:08 AND THE THIRD CORE BUSINESS ACTIVITY?
Mr. Forward
9:43:40 That's the new E Commerce delivery system for merchandise. The eStation system is a stand-alone kiosk that will sell merchandise, allow you to check your e-mail, buy tickets, etc. The eStation is the first kiosk system that brings a whole variety of Internet and merchandising together.
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9:43:56 LET'S MOVE NOW TO SHOWSTAR'S ENTERTAINMENT MANAGEMENT DIVISION.
Mr. Forward
9:44:30 For the 30th anniversary of the film "Easy Rider," we're looking at taking Sturgis on the road. Sturgis is the biggest motorcycle bike rally in the world -- over 350,000 people gather there every year. That is indeed something new, with a big following. We want to take smaller versions of the rally to other areas. It's an exciting project, and we're looking forward to it. It's going to be an exciting 1999.
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9:44:51 HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE YOU LOOKING TO ATTRACT TO THESE "MINI-RALLY'S?"
Mr. Forward
9:45:26 It's conceptual at this point, but we're looking at around 25 - 30,000 people to each venue. This venue is only one event we're planning to put on … we're planning to put on 15 - 20 events a month! Another is a new sporting event, from Japan, that was introduced into North America this year -- it's called K-1. It's a martial arts sport, and the "K" is for all the forms of martial arts sports (Kickboxing, Karate, Kung Fu, etc) put together. We were
Mr. Forward
9:45:54 involved in the introduction of this event at the Mirage, in Vegas, in early August. We did all the merchandising, it was exciting -- 4500 people in the Mirage watching this performance! And buying merchandise!
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9:46:12 WILL YOU BE DOING THE MERCHANDISING FOR ALL K-1 EVENTS?
Mr. Forward
9:46:33 Yes! We will be participating and providing the merchandising at those events.
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9:46:52 WHAT TYPE OF COMPETITION DOES SHOWSTAR HAVE?
Mr. Forward
9:47:19 In merchandising, the competition is heavy, but in the bridge between producing entertainment and producing the merchandise, there is NO competition. It's this umbrella approach that we have where there appears to be no competition right now.
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9:47:43 MANY MEMBERS OF OUR AUDIENCE ARE INTRIGUED BY THE "STAND-ALONE E-STATION KIOSK." COULD YOU PLEASE ANSWER SUCH QUESTIONS AS, "HOW IT WORKS, WHEN WE CAN ANTICIPATE IT, AND WHERE WE CAN FIND IT."
Mr. Forward
9:48:08 It's about the size of an ATM machine, and connects consumers to the world of merchandising. It's a direct retail system. You'll be able to walk up to it, use a touch-screen and visual display. Showstar has secured the exclusive entertainment merchandising rights for
Mr. Forward
9:48:33 the eStation. We are the entertainment merchandise providers for this exciting concept. We're anticipating these will be introduced to convenience stores, high traffic locations such as airports, resort areas, casinos, etc. in about 6 mos.
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9:48:53 IS THIS PAST THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PHASE?
Mr. Forward
9:49:17 Oh yes! We're only about six months away from seeing these machines sprouting up all over the place.
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9:49:33 WHAT KIND OF REVENUES WILL E-STATION PRODUCE?
Mr. Forward
9:49:58 Our estimates, for the first year, are $10 million. That's a rough estimate, but our new CFO Gary Diamand is working on those numbers, so next time we talk I'll have that number solidified.
Talk-Stock
9:50:21 AND WE LOOK FORWARD TO OUR NEXT ONLINE TALK. THANK YOU FOR TAKING OUT THIS MUCH TIME, AND FOR GIVING US MORE THAN A BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF HOW SHOWSTAR FUNCTIONS.
Mr. Forward
9:50:28 Thank you.
Talk-Stock
9:50:35 GOOD NIGHT.
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