Monday, March 31, 2014
6:15 PM to 8:15 PM
There is a radical transformation taking place in the entertainment and media industries. Music, film, TV, newspapers and magazines have all been intensely affected by the explosion of new devices that enable the consumption of digital media. We will explore the ways the creative industries are remaking themselves and what can be expected in the future.
Investors are betting on the next generation of innovative companies: Angel and VC funds are behind the companies pushing this transformation. In 2010, angel investments in the U.S. exceeded $20 billion and VC investments exceeded $22 billion.
The Panelists
- Ben Boissevain, VC, Bois Capital, Managing Director: Digital Media Ben attended U.C. Berkeley majoring in English and Economics after which he moved to New York to attend law school at New York University. After three years at White & Case working on the legal side of transactions as a corporate finance attorney, he moved to Vienna, Austria, where he landed a position at an Austrian bank. Ben worked as an investment banker on the first IPO in the former Soviet Union.
After four years of IPO and M&A transactions in Budapest, Prague, and Moscow, Russia, he moved back to New York to join Barclays Capital. Here Ben worked on cross-border M&A transactions. Seeing an opportunity to bring Wall Street quality advisory services and international expertise to technology companies he co-founded ‘Agile Equity’ in New York. ‘Agile Equity’ has advised public companies in Japan, India, and France on acquisitions of private companies in the United States.
In 2013, Ben founded Bois Capital, a leading independent investment bank focused on providing financial advice on significant mergers, acquisitions, spinoffs, as well as financings for public and private companies. The team has extensive international corporate finance experience and international, senior-level connections in the technology sector, including cloud, software, IT services, digital media, wireless, wireline, big data, analytics, and healthcare. The team has held senior positions at White & Case, Barclays Bank, Bank of America, Qualcomm, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs, and Radvision. The firm provides technology sector specialization, international senior-level connections, and a Managing Partner leading each transaction on a day-to-day basis. Bois Capital acts for its clients located throughout the world from its offices in New York City and Newport Beach.
- Andrew Boer, Founder and President, Moveable Media: Publishing Andrew Boer is a seasoned executive with over twelve years of managerial and entrepreneurial experience in the fields of new media and content. He helped found two successful companies in Silicon Valley in the mid-’90s and was the first employee and product manager of TRUSTe, the highly successful non-profit (for-profit, now).
Andrew was Founder and CEO of Accept.com, the first online person-to-person payments company which was sold to Amazon.com in 1999. Later Andrew worked for Reed Elsevier, one of the largest business publishers in the world, in a general manager role, and has a strong background in the creation, licensing, and monetization of content. Currently, he is President at Movable Media, a content marketing amplification and author incentive platform that delivers “Content with an Audience”. He earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, a J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, and an A.B. in English from Princeton University.
- James Cox, Director of Technology XO Group Inc., a media company that publishes multi-media content for couples planning weddings, moving in together, and having their child.
A project manager and beyond with experience in several sectors, including publishing, software development specifically with web-based applications. Experience also includes marketing and customer support, both in the US and UK. Understands a broad range of computer languages, applications and services and can adapt quickly to new tools and environments.
- Bill Sobel, CMSWire, SobelMedia: Digital Media ConnectionsBill Sobel is above all a connector. He has successfully brought together some of the most powerful and innovative media executives, dealmakers, and entrepreneurs, facilitated multi-million dollar ventures, and consulted top media clients. Bill played a key role in the digital media conversion of A&E, handled all post-production for the NBC Olympics broadcast in 2004, launched Kewazinga – multi-dimensional slow-motion imagery to sports TV — helped launch HBO’s first interactive program, supervised post-production for Billy Joel’s “Made in the USSR” tour and for Steven Wright’s Emmy-award winning short feature “The Appointments of Dennis Jennings.”
As principal of SobelMedia, Bill helps startup-up companies in the media and entertainment industries find digital media solutions. His client list includes Post Perfect/New York, Crawford/Atlanta and he is an active member of the NY Chapter of the National Television Academy, a consultant to the Convergent Media Program at the NYIT, and a consultant to the Science Cable Network imitative.
He is also the Founder of the New York: Media Information Exchange Group and teaches emerging technologies in media and entertainment, communications management, broadcasting, and new media at Polytech University, the University of Albany’s school of management, and at NYU. In 1981, he became MTV’s first Supervisor of Videotape Operations.
- Steve Rosenbaum, Founder & CEO, Magnify.net; Chief Curator, WayWire.com Steve Rosenbaum has always been intrigued by media. After working as an Executive Producer for MTV he went on to create ‘Camera Planet’, one of the largest producers and distributors of film, TV, and documentary projects in NYC. He is currently a co-organizer from the NY Video Media Lab and Founder & CEO of Magnify.net.
Magnify.net is the leader in creating video-centric communities. With over 100,000 + sites and 30 million+ video views per month, Magnify.net allows users to upload videos to their personal channels.
Moderator: David Carlos, CTO of Myhomepage.com, Tech Geek and Entrepreneur
Agenda
6:15 to 6:45: Networking, Pizza, Beer
6:45 to 8:15: Discussion with the five panelists
8:15 to 8:30: Q&A
8:30 to 10:30 Special Attendee Happy Hour at the Three Monkeys Pub including $6 well drinks and $5 select craft beers.
