PRODUCT & BRAND DEVELOPMENT
More than anything, I love to create to new product - whether as an entrepreneur or a corporate intrapreneur. I have conceptualized, built, and produced new event and editorial brands and multi-platform products from scratch and helped spin-out new product from established brands. If my gut tells me a new product can work, I have no fear creating it and taking it to market. And as digital business transformation accelerates and confusion, complexity and choice reign supreme across the broader business transformation landscape, there is no shortage of topics, trends, and emerging technologies to justify the development of new, multi-platform products.
ad:tech
In 2005, I was recruited to help reinvigorate the core the North America ad:tech event portfolio and brand and, in 2008, was also thrilled to help lead the introduction of the ad:tech conference and brand across Asia Pacific with new event launches in Sydney, Shanghai and Singapore. As the Conference, Programming, and Advisory Board Chairman, it was my responsibility introduce the ad:tech brand to, and forge relationships with, the respective digital ecosystems in each market, create, select and Chair the Advisory Boards, and lead all content and programming for each event. I also conceptualized and led the launch of ad:tech Miami - a conference and exhibition focused on the emerging US Hispanic and LatAm digital media and advertising markets.
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Author and media veteran Arianna Huffington keynotes ad;tech New York.
APPNATION
In 2010, I ventured out on my own to create and launch a new conference and exhibition brand - APPNATION - to cover the burgeoning consumer app economy. APPNATION ran for seven years with events held in Silicon Valley / San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Las Vegas (in partnership with CES), and Barcelona (co-located at Mobile World Congress). I also conceptualized, launched and managed multiple spin-off event products including the APPNATION IoT Influencers Summit, the APPNATION Enterprise Summit and the APPNATION Media & Entertainment Summit.
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Former Mayor of San Francisco and current Governor of California, The Honorable Gavin Newsom, opens the inaugural APPNATION conference.
CDX
In 2013, I conceptualized and launched a by-invitation-only, salon-style event series called The Chief Digital Officer Global Forum - later renamed CDX. CDX originally focused on strategic digital marketing transformation and evolved to cover the acceleration of digital transformation across the enterprise. CDX has hosted events in Silicon Valley, New York City, Atlanta, Singapore, Dubai, Las Vegas (in partnership with CES and Medialink), and Los Angeles (in partnership with GSMA/Mobile World Congress). I also conceptualized and launched several spin-off events including multiple, vertically-focused CDX Accelerate Summits, the CDX Academy Blockchain Summit (produced in partnership with Columbia Business School) and the CDX Sonic event focused on voice + audio. During the pandemic, CDX pivoted to digital events and I produced over fifty virtual interviews, roundtables, and multi-day conferences.
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Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen sits down with former Nestlé Chief Digital Officer, Pete Blackshaw, at the inaugural CDX Silicon Valley conference.
dxdaily.com
In 2019, I conceptualized and designed a companion editorial publication and weekly newsletter for CDX - dxdaily. As the pandemic took hold in 2020, I launched dxdaily.com - and a companion weekly newsletter. dxdaily.com was updated weekly and I generated 100 weekly companion newsletters and the site also served as a promotional platform for our events and provided custom editorial and advertising for our supporting partners. dxdaily.com featured best-in-class content regarding the acceleration of digital business transformation featuring both proprietary and community-generated editorial.
Event Guides & Collaterals
I have conceptualized, edited and co-produced dozens of event guides that include include session titles and descriptions, content pieces, speaker bios and pictures, advertising units for sponsors, future event promotions and more. I designed these pieces as high-quality editorial products and worked with multiple design partners to conceptualize and produce hundreds of pieces of proprietary and third-party branded marketing collaterals.
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Click on the pdf icon in the image to view the full event guide for the inaugural CDX Summit
