I'm not a gambling man. But if I was I'd push all my chips into the center of the table and bet that fewer than 5% of the people who attend Ad:Tech or MediaPost or IAB or iMedia events have never attended a Digital Media Wire event. No, I'd bet that they've never even heard of Digital Media Wire.
Your loss. Ned Sherman, CEO of Digital Media Wire is a Speaker Recruitment Machine. No, that's not exactly true - it doesn't do justice to his productivity. He's a Speaker Recruitment Factory jammed full of Speaker Recruitment Machines.
Every time I see one of his shows marketed, I'm astounded at both the quality and quantity of speakers he has lined up. To wit - look at who he's got lined up for the upcoming Future of Television Conference in November. 30 Speakers in just under 6 1/2 hours of content. That's about 13 minutes per speaker, a metric I just worked out and have no idea if it holds any significance. Maybe I'll run it for other shows and we'll see if correlates to conference quality.
Les Moonves and Mark Cuban have keynoted this event in the past. This year it's Larry Kramer (who, incidentally, also keynoted the OMMA EAST show that I produced for MediaPost in September), but also on stage are a bunch of execs from vendors. Ned has figured out something a lot of other event producers haven't yet - It's OK to put vendors on stage. BUT - they have to be vendors who are editorially selected, not vendors who are fiscally appointed. Here's why: a CEO or CMO or COO of a Rich Media company spends far more time thinking about the impact of good creative on the interactive medium than a Creative Director ever will. Why? The Rich Media exec's company depends on it. His or her shareholders or VCs depend on it. More importantly, his income, childrens' tuition, share in the Hamptons (notice I didn't say 'summer home in the Hamptons - it's a good time for interactive, but it's no 1999) all depend on it. He is personally invested and strategically oriented (ideally, and usually). Ned has always understood this, and creates conferences that are provocative and educational, not a marketplace.
AND he is able to charge for his content. Ned doesn't comp everyone from the buy-side like so many events in the interactive industry do. In fact, I don't think he comps anyone. That means he can focus on quality instead of quantity, and doesn't end up devaluing his content by giving it away. He doesn't do 1000+ person trade shows, but his model doesn't require them.
