Streaming Media - April/May 2008 - (Page 36)

college courses in my two loves—entrepreneurship and digital media—several months before the implosion. “Late 2000 to early 2002 was a bad time to be out selling the shows,” says Kerry Lange, who was one of the original five First Conferences employees focused on the Streaming Media shows, and who then went on to work for Penton. The vendor drop also came from the drop in venture funds and smaller companies missing key revenue targets. In a scenario that played out again and again, companies that had been leaders in the field began to fade. Take, for example, a company like Digital Lava (AMEX: DGV), founded in 1995, whose Video Visor products brought in revenues that put it in the early success category of a company that should have been able to weather the storm. VideoVisor Web was a “browser-based viewer for deploying published rich mixed media content across the internet and corporate intranets. It includes an easy-to-use interface that can contain video or audio synchronized with searchable text, a hot-linked topic list and graphics, web applications, and other web-based information.” This product’s ease of use and web-based interface made it ideal for training and educational online publishing. As its customer base grew—at one point including customers such as Lotus, Dell, Shell Chemical Co., a decade of streamingmedia.com But nothing could stop the wicked one-two punch of plummeting sales and the economic earthquake immediately following 9/11. On Sept. 17, 2001, DGV’s board of directors adopted a plan of liquidation and dissolution subject to stockholder approval, “providing for the complete liquidation, winding up and dissolution of Digital Lava … We have filed a proxy with the Securities and Exchange Commission relating to a special meeting of our stockholders to obtain such approval, as well as approval of the terms of the Asset Purchase Agreement providing for the sale of substantially all of our assets to Interactive Video Technologies, Inc.” Rebirth But plenty of companies survived the boom and bust. Companies such as Digital Fountain, which had received significant funding just prior to the downturn, hunkered down and weathered the storm by having strong, unique products and services. After several years of stale or limited content on the StreamingMedia.com site, Information Today, Inc. (ITI), the new owner of Streaming Media, Inc. property, began a push in early 2004 to expand the shows and the website. A few articles had been posted over the years of 2002–2003, but the majority of the traffic was around the mailing lists that Dan Rayburn had been spearheading, which proved popular for business and technology discussions. After a few years at the cavernous Javits Center, Streaming Media East moved to the New York Hilton, where it has steadily grown since 2003. Glory days?: If we measure the success of Streaming Media shows by the amount of schwag, we’re still a long way from what we saw at Streaming Media East 2000, as captured at www.calmx.com/articles/bl6120 0.htm. Then again, it’s probably just as well companies are investing in things other than rubber stress balls. Zurich-American Insurance Group, and UCLA—the company won numerous critical and readers’ choice awards at both the DVC/MultimediaCom and Streaming Media shows in the 1997–1999 time frame. The company even brought in a seasoned CEO, with 20 years of other industry experience. Robert Greene succeeded founder Joshua Sharfman, who remained in the role of president. Greene was formerly the senior vice president of The Lightspan Partnership, Inc., a privately held company that provided interactive educational programming for schools and homes using digital video and internet technologies. By late 2003, after several former clients continued to push for new go-to-market projects, I’d considered a return to consulting. I received an email from a former colleague that I’d kept in touch with; she was writing for StreamingMedia.com from time to time and asked if I’d fill in for her on occasion. After contacting Dan Rayburn to discuss the opportunity for additional writing as the magazine began to gear back up, I was put in touch with Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen, who had recently taken over editing the website on a part-time basis, and I began writing for the site. 36 STREAMING MEDIA April/May 2008 http://StreamingMedia.com http://www.calmx.com/articles/bl61200.htm http://www.calmx.com/articles/bl61200.htm http://StreamingMedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Streaming Media - April/May 2008

Streaming Media - April/May 2008 Table of Contents Beyond the Bottom Line Technology and Business Trends by the Numbers (Not So) Instant Karma MSN Autos Revs Up Video Production Dow Finds the Right Streaming Chemistry Why Video Is Changing the World A Decade of StreamingMedia.com What's Your Digital Media Strategy? Blasts From the Past: A Decade (Almost) of StreamingMedia.com Headlines Analyze That A League of Their Own: Streaming Media All-Stars Where Are They Now? Wanted: Sexy HDTV That Connects to the Internet and Services All DVRs Anystream Agility Inlet Technologies Spinnaker S3000

Streaming Media - April/May 2008

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