July’s roundtable focused on “The Real Time Web” and the various companies and people that are building on top of the constant flow of live information. From the dissementaion of information to managing the flow of information to leveraging it to build a brand and interact with people and companies.

Hot Potato: Is a service that is focused on connecting friends and fans around live events, in real time.

Participant: Saadiq Rodgers-King

Hapnin.com: Is a hyper-local, time-sensitive, events platform. We help you find things to do that are close to you, going on right now. Our mission is to connect you with the awesome things that are “hapnin” in your neighborhood and hopefully turn some of you couch potatoes out there into go-getters.

Participant: Gergory Schnese

Blurts:  Is a voice annotation utility that allows users to enhance any social post (photo, video, SMS, tweet, written comment) by tagging it with up to a 30 second spoken story, anecdote, narration or voice-over.

Participant: Jeff Stier

StockTwits: Is an open, community-powered idea and information service for investments. Users can eavesdrop on traders and investors, or contribute to the conversation and build their reputation as savvy market wizards. The service takes financial related data and structures it by stock, user, reputation, etc.

Participant: Philip Pearlman

SocialBomb: Provides the infrastructure for your social, mobile, real-time applications.

Participant: Adam Simon

Fanfeedr: Is a real-time personalized sports feed. Pick your favorite teams and players, and they will give you the most-up-to-date collection of news, video, tweets, scores and information about them. They are indexing over 3,000 sources and matching them against more than 50,000 athletes, 4,000 sports teams, including 1,700 colleges and universities across 15 sports.

Participant: Ty Ahmad-Taylor

Hootsuite: Helps organizations use the social web to launch marketing campaigns, identify and grow audience, and distribute targeted messages across multiple channels.

Participant: Dario Meli

WorldLiveMobile: Brings you the best of your world in real-time with the best free iPhone apps.

Participant: Dan Goldman

June 23, 2010
Comments by Guillermo Kopp / @GuillermoKopp
Chairman, GUAU Corporation

PLUGGED IN – FOLLOW UP THOUGHTS

1. Engaged Customers: Text content, bundled with multimedia ads, should spark consumer interaction. Aggregation, localization, interactive tools, and specialization will enhance the customer experience.

 Comment: We believe that similar to silent movies, plain text has lost its steam. Consumers want to have a say, and deserve a choice of media and interaction style. Customers will be most engaged when interacting with live content that enables online participation and collaborative creativity.

2. Multiplatform: Consumers want simple ways to get content on any device, anywhere, anytime. Their increased preference for multimedia calls for a cultural shift away from single platform delivery.

 Comment: We see the strategic opportunity to bundle content within a broader 360 degree multiplatform experience. Interactive multimedia will allow customers to browse and buy products and services from any device. Media companies must connect content with brands and consumer items.

3. Pricing: New media is improving consumer convenience, but must respect the intellectual property of  the content. Multiple opportunities will emerge to monetize a blended mix of advertising and content.

 Comment: We find that massive channels, e.g. a few billions of mobile devices, will open new markets and customer touchpoints. Different media interactions (such as read, view, watch, shop) should blend free and micropayment pricing level content so it is widely perceived to be affordable.

4. Syndicated Business: Companies should open their minds to the needs and preferences of emerging segments. Driven by a flood of new artists and publishers, new ways of consuming content will arise.

 Comment: Companies must understand evolving demographics and find creative ways to serve them. Partnerships between distributors and producers of content will open multi-company gateways, and aggregate media mash-ups. Winners will provide high-quality information that customers need to have.

5. A Need for Speed: The customer experience is shifting towards multimedia interactions. People may no longer rely on passive Internet text browsing as their primary interaction preference.

 Comment: We envision a constructive interplay between rich multimedia content, device capabilities, and broadband delivery. Wireless connectivity, increased network speed, and bandwidth capacity will benefit content providers by loosening up cable and other captive distribution models.

May’s PluggedIn Roundtable focused on “Digital Content” and will cover topics ranging from distribution, consumption, property rights, and challenges.

Digital content is everywhere and it is truly what makes the Internet valuable. Whether it be books, magazines, newspaper, video, music, or photos everyone is looking to increase their discuribution channels and find ways to generate revenue.

5Min: 5min Media is the leading syndication platform for broadband instructional, knowledge and lifestyle videos. Our library includes tens of thousands of videos across 20 categories and 140 subcategories, which are professionally produced and brand-safe.

Attending: Tal Simantov

Amie Street: Is the first online music community designed to discover and promote independent artists. Amie Street helps increase exposure and revenue for new artists through an innovative, demand-driven pricing model based on recommendations by, and rewards for, members who endorse their favorite music on the site.

Attending: Elias Roman

Breaking Media: is a network of websites, e-newsletters, events and social media channels for influential, affluent business communities. This site aims to answer any questions you might have about the company or our brands—Above the Law, Dealbreaker, Fashionista and Going Concern—and the ways we can help you connect with the communities around these brands. It’s also a place where we share some thoughts on the rapidly changing media and marketing landscape.

Attending: Jonah Bloom

Critical Media: Is at the forefront of real-time broadcast video capture, search, syndication and information services. Dedicated to making broadcast video search as ubiquitous as text search, the Company provides tools and services to content consumers, providers, distributors and advertisers that leverage its real-time media capture infrastructure. Every day, our media capture infrastructure, the largest in the world, processes in real time over 10,000 hours of broadcast content on 4 continents, making every minute of it discoverable and monetizable within 60 seconds of airtime.

Attending: Ion Puspurica

WatchMojo: Informs and entertains you through the medium of video, covering both popular culture topics and socially relevant themes that interest you personally, professionally and socially. They help individuals and businesses by promoting the people, places and things that capture the essence of success.

Attending: Ashkan Karbasfrooshan

Outside.in: Is the leading hyperlocal content and advertising platform used by millions of consumers and thousands of local bloggers and publishers each month. Outside.in monitors all the news, blogs, and discussions on the web and dynamically maps them to more than 50,000 neighborhoods in the US.

Attending: Camilla Cho

April 22, 2010

Comments by Guillermo Kopp / @GuillermoKopp

PLUGGED IN MOBILE APP ROUNDTABLE – COMMENTARY

1. Strategic Vision: Strong consumer adoption of selected mobile apps must lead to sustainable business models. As pervasive mobile interactions measure up to the trillions, every cent will count.

 Comment: We envision a strategic shift in the business models of media companies. Revenues will combine monetized value, as afforded by consumers, with a broader value of corporate purpose. Savvy companies will advertise and sell dynamically and more effectively to a captive mobile audience.

2. Advanced Features: Smarter mobile devices will integrate location information, rich media, and video. Live media will give rise to a new breed of “always on” interactive apps embedded in consumer lifestyles.

 Comment: We believe that improving the consumer experience will be decisive. Creative apps and social games will tap behavioral segmentation, coupled with real-time and background streaming of personalized video content to engage consumers in more constant and gratifying ways.

3. Pervasive Data: Social media and crowd-sourcing will reaffirm the role of mobile devices for personal participation and control. Data management will straddle corporate, cloud, and mobile platforms.

 Comment: We see a multifaceted explosion of granular and time-sensitive mobile data. Advanced apps will tap dynamic mining and pattern recognition of billions of customer events to deliver more sophisticated functions that capitalize on both centralized and distributed information.

4. An Apple a Day: Building on the iTunes model, the success of iPhone apps has given Apple a temporary edge. Innovative features should help competitors attain an “apples to apples” comparison.

 Comment: We think that in the long run, apps will need to suit multiple platforms. Meanwhile, Apple competitors must invest in a vibrant ecosystem of apps developers to “keep the doctor away” and jump ahead by delivering creative value in media consumption and lifestyle usage.

5. Pirates From Beyond the Caribbean: Digitalization will erode traditional media and advertising revenue. Commercial content will face public access to the Web and rampant piracy of digital media.

 Comment: We acknowledge Apple’s control of the apps and digital content through iTunes. The proliferation of published and public digital media will increase the burden of control, so companies should derive new revenues from the immediacy and personalization of supplementary content.

April’s PluggedIn Roundtable is focsuing on “Mobile Apps” and the new ecosystem that has been created with smartphones. Ranging from the most popular iPhone to Android and Blackberry mobile apps are more popular and essential to big companies. How are they created, how do they make money, how do they market themselves.

There are so many questions it’s time to speak to the founders, media execs, and VC’s who are investing in these apps.

Participating Companies Include:

Startups: WorldLive Mobile, rmbrMe, Rhino Mobile, Medialets, Buzzd, GuerillaApps, eyeDip, Snac Inc, & Thumbplay.
Industry Execs: BravoTV, Sonia Barlow, Manager Emerging Media; MRM Worldwide, David Shane, Director Mobile Technology; Atrinsic- Rosalie Sutherland, VP Mobile APPS & Compliance; Sony Music- Sean Rosenberg, VP Global Accounts.
VC’s & Angels: BHV- Brad Harrison- Managing Director
Sponsors: Loeb&Loeb-Tom Guida, Partner; TrylonSMR- Lloyd Trufelman, CEO.

The roundtable will be moderated by: Tom Guida, Partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP

This event is kept intimate in order to foster networking and meaningful discussion. In fact, roundtables have been referred to as “cage matches” for CEOs, as they allow for honest conversation with insightful back-and-forth dialogue.

The goal of the roundtable is to bring startups along with VC’s, angels, and industry experts to network, discuss, and help startups grow and succeed.

Registration

Register

March’s Roundtable focuses on the $64,000 question:

How are companies making money via social media?

The conversation will revolve around topics such as social media campaigns, social media marketing, revenue models, ROI, partnerships, etc., and will include opinions from startups, founders, investors and industry executives.

Participants Include:

Ripple6: Rich Ullman, SVP Marketing
Amplify: Eric Goldstein, CEO & Founder
rmbrME: Gabe Zichermann, CEO
SixApart: Andrew Boer, VP Revenue
Postling: David Lifson, CEO & Founder
Readers Digest: Kate Gutman, VP Global Digital Revenue
WPP: Thom Kennon, VP Strategy Emerging Media
Hearst Digital: Matthew Milner, VP Social Media
Hearst Interactive: Scott Wolfgang, Director Strategic Investments
Zelkova Ventures: Jay Levy, Principal
Bessemer Venture Partners: Sarah Tavel, Associate

Moderator: Tom Guida, Partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP

Registration

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As the “Who” sang during this year’s Super Bowl half-time show, “Who are you?”  While as an industry, marketers and advertisers may know what their objectives are, with a new decade ahead of us, the question of how we execute our goals is proving to be a complex one.  The yin and yang that used to exist between media adverting partners and marketing programs have changed have quickly changed over the past few years.  Traditional approaches need to be tweaked in response to new market realities.

Print circulation continues to decline across both consumer and trade titles as more readers turn to their laptops, netbooks and mobile phones for the latest information.   The 24-hour news cycle that cable news channels ushered in during the 1980s is evolving with the expanding adaptation rate toward the fast and frequent sharing of news and information on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter.  In fact, the marketing power of social media led one of world’s leading beverage companies, Pepsi, to pass on their tradition Super Bowl ad and instead invest those funds toward a user-generated campaign for bright ideas to create a better world with the Pepsi Refresh Project.

In an earlier television era, there were only three networks for advertisers to choose from and consumers had no choice but to sit though commercials or flip the channel.  Today, with DVR technology and on-demand subscription options, fewer viewers watch programming during the broadcast time slot, choosing to either record it or watch it online later on sites such as Hulu.com.

While the traditional print and TV mediums mature, tremendous opportunities are available in online advertising.   The four largest Internet advertising firms (Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL) saw double digit growth in their online ad revenue in Q4 of 2009 led by resurgence in search advertising and display advertising.  As consumers spend more time at their computers, the potential to reach them with relevant banner and media rich ads continues to make gains within the marketing mix.

As John Lennon would say, “There are no problems, only solutions.”  This month’s Roundtable will feature conversation discussing what this changing landscape means for the marketers and advertisers of today.

Some of these topics include:

• The role of social media channels in the marketing mix
• The proliferation of online advertising opportunities across news and entertainment mediums
• The new opportunities to engage consumers in fun campaigns that drive positive brand experiences
• The use of social media for listening to consumers to understand opinions towards brands and products
• The growing potential to engage with consumers via their mobile devices via ads and branded apps

Written By: Ezra Rich / @EzraRich

It seems that there are conferences every other day and week focusing on all topics in high tech, and low and behold – I feel that there aren’t enough. Yep, I don’t think there are enough conferences going on that actually help companies and individuals succeed or network for that matter.

The majority of conferences I have attended were overcrowded and lacked intimacy. They were high on content but short on practicality and results. What I mean by that is that you have speakers upon speakers or companies presenting and the audience just takes it in, it’s one big information dump. To make things more complicated, for one to network effectively they need to know other people attending, be an extravert and, frankly, count on luck to guide them to the people they should be talking with. And, if going through the crowds and reading random name tags isn’t challenging enough, you  rarely get to speak to someone for more that 5-10 minutes. It’s actually even rarer to have a specific and substantive conversation.

So given all these problems I have decided to produce a conference that is informative and productive for all participants. Productivity is essential to a successful event as participants want practical results for their time and money. This will be achieved by offering real dialogue, candor and networking opportunities that are are required for in-depth discussion and true relationship building. Participants, whether they are startups, executives or investors shouldn’t find themselves listening to rehashed panel discussions, working the wrong people in the room and generally putting invaluable time to insignificant use. My goal is to change this by creating a different structure in which there will be speakers and presentations coupled with roundtable discussions and one on one meetings, all foster a more sincere and refreshing dialogue.

This is why I have decided to produce PluggedIn, an exclusive deal making gathering for digital media executives. PluggedIn is bringing together handpicked founders, gatekeepers and investors to candidly interact in a laid back setting and unlock the full value of doing business together.

PluggedIn is a full day event scheduled to take place on January 12th at Sy Syms School of Business in midtown Manhattan. More information will be coming as I am still lining up startups to present and sponsors. If you would like to learn more about it you can go to PluggedinNYC.