Avid recently announced that they had appointed a new executive vice president and general manager of Avid’s Professional Video business unit. Kirk Arnold recently took that position and spoke last Thursday about her new position and where she sees the company going in the future. Though Arnold doesn’t have any specific experience in the media post-production world she stated that she has a passion for “great companies faced with challenges.” She is certainly getting her wish with Avid. There were 4 objectives that Arnold talked about: increasing the value of Avid’s products, workflow and services; advancing technology and customer support; targeting and investing in media professionals; and establishing a two-way dialog with customers. To me that two-way dialog is one of the most important as that is something Avid has lacked in the past.

When speaking about the future I asked what Avid plans to do to establish themselves in the hearts and minds of young editors who are growing up in a world of Final Cut Pro. While not speaking of any specifics Arnold said this is something they “will address.” One thing that struck me was that Arnold said that the decision to skip NAB was “not a financial decision” and they want to “reapply the energy” and they can better do that by not having a booth on the show floor. That has been hotly debated but we’ll see how that goes after NAB. She said they are planning to have some customer appreciation events in Las Vegas during the big show so there will be some presence there in the city.

While there weren’t anything earth-shattering in the conversation with Arnold at least they are trying to get the word out that this is a new Avid moving into the future. This is a good thing as a post-production world without Avid would be a much lonelier place.