NVPR Creative Director, Elias Bustos, Wins TV 360 Competition at The Banff World Television Festival and nextMEDIA Conference
Firm's ID Division Boasts Expanded Design and Development Team
Los Angeles -- June 23, 2009 -- The Banff World Television Festival (BANFF (http://www.banff2009.com/)) and nextMEDIA (http://www.nextmediaevents.com/banff/tv.360.php) recently presented the first Telefilm "TV 360" competition, in which NVPR's (http://www.nvpr.com) creative director, Elias Bustos, participated. The purpose of the contest was to provide cross-platform development opportunities for producers, writers, designers and creative directors during the prestigious festivals.
Elias Bustos, in conjunction with eight talented teammates, took part in the inaugural program aimed at helping bridge traditional television executives and digital media thought leaders.
"The TV 360 competition is a collaborative and fiercely competitive exercise where three teams pair off to create a new and original program that will foster cross-industry partnership between new media and the future of the television industry," said Elias Bustos. "Thanks to the efforts of everyone on team 1, we were lead to victory under the direction of team lead Evan Jones, Founder of Stitch Media."
The TV 360 program offers the opportunity to create a multi-platform entertainment project while providing participants with the tools to successfully pitch and market projects to both broadcasters and funders.
Three teams of nine competed to create a package for the best digital media pitch for a current TV series, which was the hit CBC show, "Little Mosque on the Prairie." The show has been licensed to Europe and is being re-created for the United States TV market.
"There is a growing enthusiasm from both traditional TV people and digital media executives to develop truly integrated forms of entertainment programming," commented Lisa Osborne, TV 360 Program Manager and Supervising Producer at the American Film Institute's Digital Content Lab.
In addition to being a renowned communications and marketing firm, NVPR also offers a broad range of development and design services to help companies leverage these opportunities demonstrated at the conference.
"Our team can design artful yet accessible websites, develop iPhone applications, and help production companies, or other entities, leverage the power of the Web to take their projects online and fully exploit the many opportunities awaiting them," said company founder Hal Bringman.
Examples of available services include:
• Web applications (Java, PHP, Ruby and .NET)
• Client/server applications
• Mobile applications (WAP, J2ME, iPhone, Android, RIM)
• Flex and Flash Media Expertise
• Web design for any platform
The development team now also leverages the power of the Adobe Flash Platform with the recent addition of Flex and Flash Media Server expertise to its already extensive skill-set. The ubiquity of the Adobe Flash Platform provides a rich viewing experience across virtually all operating systems and screens through integration with the Adobe Flash Player runtime, adopted on 98% of computer screens worldwide.
A partial showcase of past projects can be found at http://www.nvpr.com/id.
###
About NVPR
NVPR is a communications and marketing company with a well-established track record in digital media. The company has launched and built many of the biggest or most talked about brands in mobile entertainment and digital media. Based in Los Angeles and Buenos Aires, the team is actively dedicated to launch global PR/marketing campaigns, accelerate business development, and help companies design and develop their products and services. Follow on Twitter @halbringman or visit www.nvpr.com.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
The Making of a Music Industry in China
Unlike the U.S., where copyright conundrums abound, China has a chance to create a music industry with a completely fresh approach to copyright consumption. I was recently invited to join the American delegation attending the International Creative Industries Summit in Shanghai, China. The intensive two-day summit, which occurred April 21-22, 2009, was poised to be a historic event to witness. For me, it was rife with irony and provided a fascinating contrast to the "established" western music industry.
For perspective, one only needs to study the rise of the Shanghai skyline to understand the marked difference between its humble past and burgeoning future. As recent as the 90's, the Huang Po River, which dissects downtown Shanghai, wasn't much more than the embankment of a shantytown; whereas today, Shanghai boasts skyscrapers that rival anything Manhattan has to offer.
Similarly, the would-be music industry we were there to help shape, could have the same kind of meteoric rise. In fact, it could quickly become the largest music market in the world. After all, it has nowhere to go but up, and China itself is the world's largest start up.
I was among a handful of digital media and traditional music industry experts who came to listen to, and help steer, the first steps of a Chinese music industry where, despite infrastructure and a booming population, no music industry exists to date. Massive piracy, however, is readily rampant.
This point was driven home by Mr. Xiaofeng Xu, Researcher, Peking University, Institute of Culture Industry, who made a forthright presentation entitled "The New Money-making Model within the Culture Industry." Poignantly, as his presentation began, he commented, "I am supposed to come here and speak with you about the new business models in the music industry here - but I am not even aware of an existing, old model."
Having attended more conferences, summits, courtroom show downs, and symposiums on copyright in the digital realm than I could ever recount, it sometimes felt like a déjà vu hearing the same issues addressed repeatedly. I kept thinking, "Whatever you do here, don't replicate the mess created in the western world" where copyright conglomerates have stymied innovation since digital music came onto the scene with the launch of MP3.com in 1998.
In an earlier column this year, I explored how at MIDEM in January there were many examples of how this is finally beginning to change - after a decade lost to mindless litigation and DRM dogma.
Moreover, as Jingming Qu, General Director of the Music Copyright Society of China pontificated, "Innovation is being driven here by a developing economy." He illustrated the primary challenges to their agenda to build a music industry include piracy, a perceived lack of value for music despite mass consumption of it, and the potential for monopolies to be created that would ultimately be unfair to artists.
Mr. Qu argued that -- without music -- everything from discos and radio stations to search engines, wouldn't exist, or would have significantly less value.
Thomas Reemer, CEO of CUGate, explored this point during his presentation where he demonstrated that Google's recent digital music foray in China, in partnership with the major labels, is supposed to include a revenue share from the MP3 search activity at its search engine. One only needs to go experience it to realize his point that the experience is completely absent of any potential revenue sharing and, furthermore, there are no ads to click or albums to buy. Google's partnership with the major labels in China was widely dismissed as a misstep by most attendees, though some argued it was better than nothing.
Mr. Reemer added that studies show P2P users actually possess a high level of respect for copyrights, but not for the business models in place to date.
CUGate's offering, he asserted, affords the "feels free" experience but still monetizes the frenetic energy associated with file sharing. CUGate shares the Chinese government's inclination towards an ISP based solution to monetize the feel free model, which is finally gathering momentum in the Western world, if only philosophically.
At the recent hopping, San Fran Music Tech Summit, this topic was hotly debated on a panel aptly titled "Monetization - Idealism in Practice" where long time advocate Jim Griffin was pimping Choruss, a major label backed approach aimed at the college market initially and - potentially - to ISPs, if successful.
Regardless of the rhetoric, what's clear is that nearly 40% of Asian youth are listening to even more music than they were a year ago, according to Synovate Music Matters Survey, and there are more than 300 million broadband internet users in China - a 42% increase in only two years, as cited by China Internet Network Info Center.
In 2008, China Mobile reported US$2.4 billion in revenue from mobile music downloads and ringtones alone, according to JLM Pacific Epoch.
Hopefully, China will embrace the unique opportunity that it is faced with in a timelier and more progressive manner than the Western world did, especially since our futures seem inextricably tied.
The International Creative Industries Summit will occur again next year and later this week, Music Matters will host a unique Asian forum for uniting the world's creative and technology industries.
Just as the music industry in the West begins to intelligently grapple with digital in a meaningful way, the East is recognizing that the potential for an industry even exists. It's an astounding paradox and an amazing opportunity that I look forward to being actively involved in for years to come.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Lights. Camera. Action! Don’t Goof When the Spotlight Hits
How to take advantage of publicity, even when you’re cast in bad light
The chatter on the Edison Nation forum came fast and mostly furious.
Invention development firm InventBay had announced that The Tonight Show With Jay Leno was featuring products from the company’s inaugural inventors trade show, held last October.
In his “Pitch to America: New Inventions” segment, Leno allows the audience to offer gladiator-style “sold or not-sold” votes on various products his crew filmed at the InventBay show and other venues.
“I actually went outta my way to watch this segment of the show and thought it was an absolute joke!” wrote an inventor who goes by the online handle Sir Edward. “It was no different than Leno’s ‘Stuff We Found on eBay,’ which is nothing more than an audience participation bit, showing some of the most obscure/wacky items being auctioned on eBay. Leno’s ‘Pitch to America’ was, sadly, no different!”
Others quickly weighed in.
“After seeing it was all a mockery I want no part of it,” wrote New Jersey inventor Ron Komorowski. He went on to ask: “When will people cover more inventors more seriously?”
The dustup raised intriguing questions: What does this say about the old saw that any publicity is good publicity? And since when is appearing on Leno bad publicity?
The answer, according to InventBay CEO Keith Hammack, is never. He’s dismayed that inventors would dismiss an opportunity to appear on a major network television show, even if it means the potential for ridicule.
(Full disclosure alert: Edison Nation is a partner with Inventors Digest. Komorowski is a regular on Edison Nation and has volunteered for Inventors Digest. And Hammack is an ID advertiser.)
“Leno’s going out there with a different motivation than what the inventors want,” Hammack says. “But the inventors are getting the exposure. It’s in the best interest of the inventor. Even if you have a rowdy late-night crowd going ‘No, I wouldn’t buy it,’ millions of people saw that invention.
“Go ahead,” Hammack adds, “and roast me all you want.”
If the saga of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich teaches us anything, it’s that you can attempt to spin even negative publicity in your favor.
As the New York Times noted, it’s not easy to upstage one’s own impeachment trial, but Blagojevich appeared to be doing just that. In January he eschewed attending his impeachment trial for alleged influence peddling and opted for spots on The View and Larry King Live. By doing so, he was trying to rewrite his own narrative to potential jurors and the public, observers said.
As for inventors appearing on Leno, the other lesson is that while you should take your product and business seriously, maybe you shouldn’t take yourself so seriously.
“As long as one’s ego isn’t too involved and you can be objective and realize that this is an excellent opportunity to both build brand awareness and gain feedback about the product,” says Hal Bringman, founder of Los Angeles-based consultancy NVPR, “it’s almost like a free focus group on a large scale.”
Well executed publicity is “an engine that drives business development,” Bringman says. “So I believe any publicity is, in fact, good publicity when it is managed well.
“Publicity that turns ‘bad,’” Bringman adds, “occurs mostly when a company or person tries to be disingenuous.”
Continued here.
The chatter on the Edison Nation forum came fast and mostly furious.
Invention development firm InventBay had announced that The Tonight Show With Jay Leno was featuring products from the company’s inaugural inventors trade show, held last October.
In his “Pitch to America: New Inventions” segment, Leno allows the audience to offer gladiator-style “sold or not-sold” votes on various products his crew filmed at the InventBay show and other venues.
“I actually went outta my way to watch this segment of the show and thought it was an absolute joke!” wrote an inventor who goes by the online handle Sir Edward. “It was no different than Leno’s ‘Stuff We Found on eBay,’ which is nothing more than an audience participation bit, showing some of the most obscure/wacky items being auctioned on eBay. Leno’s ‘Pitch to America’ was, sadly, no different!”
Others quickly weighed in.
“After seeing it was all a mockery I want no part of it,” wrote New Jersey inventor Ron Komorowski. He went on to ask: “When will people cover more inventors more seriously?”
The dustup raised intriguing questions: What does this say about the old saw that any publicity is good publicity? And since when is appearing on Leno bad publicity?
The answer, according to InventBay CEO Keith Hammack, is never. He’s dismayed that inventors would dismiss an opportunity to appear on a major network television show, even if it means the potential for ridicule.
(Full disclosure alert: Edison Nation is a partner with Inventors Digest. Komorowski is a regular on Edison Nation and has volunteered for Inventors Digest. And Hammack is an ID advertiser.)
“Leno’s going out there with a different motivation than what the inventors want,” Hammack says. “But the inventors are getting the exposure. It’s in the best interest of the inventor. Even if you have a rowdy late-night crowd going ‘No, I wouldn’t buy it,’ millions of people saw that invention.
“Go ahead,” Hammack adds, “and roast me all you want.”
If the saga of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich teaches us anything, it’s that you can attempt to spin even negative publicity in your favor.
As the New York Times noted, it’s not easy to upstage one’s own impeachment trial, but Blagojevich appeared to be doing just that. In January he eschewed attending his impeachment trial for alleged influence peddling and opted for spots on The View and Larry King Live. By doing so, he was trying to rewrite his own narrative to potential jurors and the public, observers said.
As for inventors appearing on Leno, the other lesson is that while you should take your product and business seriously, maybe you shouldn’t take yourself so seriously.
“As long as one’s ego isn’t too involved and you can be objective and realize that this is an excellent opportunity to both build brand awareness and gain feedback about the product,” says Hal Bringman, founder of Los Angeles-based consultancy NVPR, “it’s almost like a free focus group on a large scale.”
Well executed publicity is “an engine that drives business development,” Bringman says. “So I believe any publicity is, in fact, good publicity when it is managed well.
“Publicity that turns ‘bad,’” Bringman adds, “occurs mostly when a company or person tries to be disingenuous.”
Continued here.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Bottom-Up Development is Steering the Mobile Market
Bottom-Up Development is Steering the Mobile Market
A brisk breeze ushered in the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, amidst the anticipation of a dazzling display of new handsets and gadgets galore as nearly 50,000 members of the global mobile industry descended upon the Gaudi guilded city.
In a climate of fear-driven, doom and gloom economic news, it was refreshing to be at the epicenter of innovation and positive thinking. While there was a slight dip in attendance, there were no talks of bailouts or bankruptcies to be overheard in the hallways connecting the massive exhibit halls housing everything from the Android to the latest iPhone knock off.
According to BrandWeek, analysts agree that the wireless business generally remains in solid shape despite the recession. Indeed, more Americans are expected to become cell phone users this year. The Yankee Group forecast that wireless subscriptions in the U.S. should climb by 4.5 percent in 2009 to 285 million from 273 million.
Moreover, a younger generation is growing up without landlines, and they are certainly not going to cut their mobile services. That's just one compelling reason why wireless firms will shift a higher percentage of their media dollars onto the Web in 2009, increasing to 13 percent in 2013 from 7 percent this year, according to Jupiter Research.
In fact, digital media overall has much to be optimistic about. As discussed in my recent MIDEM coverage “Setting Music Free”, that conference was abuzz about innovation and experimental business models in the digital music sector.
Maarten van Wijck, CEO of La Cúpula and Musicxip, attended both conferences and commented, “The profound transition that our industry is experiencing opens up many new opportunities every day for those that stay focused. This transition is not an isolated process that lasts a year, five years, or even a decade resulting in ‘a new model’. Change is continuous and won’t stop. We believe flexibility; interoperability and maximizing the flow of music to every possible channel will lead to increased audible visibility. The subsequent accessibility and visibility drives both fan bases and revenues alike for independent artists and labels.”
In light of projections that demonstrate worldwide revenues from digital media surpassed revenue generated by movie theaters and home video combined, for the first time in 2008, the stage is clearly set for dynamic growth opportunities and further validates investments made in the online sector going forward.
The report, "Global Media & Entertainment Market Forecast, 2004-2012," predicts that global revenues from media and entertainment will exceed $845 billion this year, with more than 10 percent, or $90 billion, coming from online and mobile channels. In comparison, the world wide filmed entertainment market will generate $83.1 billion in revenues this year.
Mobile World Congress, meanwhile, represents a more physical manifestation of these same ideals as four billion of us are now in constant sync through handsets in our pockets and purses, all set to keep us interconnected and sharing unlike never before. Ultimately, the growth of the mobile industry cannot possibly be underestimated, especially in light of the global market being set to reach six billion connections by 2013.
At Mobile World Congress, Alexander Izosimov, Chief Executive of Russia's number two carrier, Vimpelcom, chose to highlight the positives surrounding the industry. "We are lucky, that unlike many other industries, we are dealing with something which is absolutely guaranteed to expand in the future," he said.
"Human demand for communication, knowledge exchange, information is truly insatiable and we're in the midst of it, so therefore, our growth is absolutely secure,” he told Reuters.
The recording industry and the mobile industry share similarities in that innovation doesn’t come from the top, through carriers, operators or the major labels themselves but, rather, from the Google’s and Apple’s of the world who have inspired a marketplace of application development and innovative offerings that remains unparalleled and leaves behemoths like Microsoft and Nokia gasping for breath as they try to compete and catch up.
Neither Google nor Apple needed to be in attendance on the exhibit floor, however, their presence was felt everywhere. In contrast, Yahoo dished out ice cream at their booth that was as chilly as their stock performance, which remains frozen as the company continually fails to inspire or innovate the marketplace.
Smaller sized technology suppliers like Materna, on the other hand, were sharing news of their new partnership with Sony Music to roll out direct-to-consumer artist download stores all across Europe and a plethora of technology developers, like Company28.com, battled for mind share as they unveiled apps and offerings for taking mobile devices to the next level.
Consumers seem especially drawn to the latest and greatest apps made for Apple as research firm Net Applications recently found that Apple's iPhone represents a staggering 66.61 percent of mobile traffic while its competitors have only just gained a foothold.
Another innovator offering solutions was Omnifone, the provider of music services to mobile operators and device vendors alike, who announced at the Mobile World Congress that it would extend its offerings to provide music services to ISPs in an attempt to address the labels’ failure to deliver a compelling solution to curb piracy. The new DRM-free service, MusicStation Next Generation, will allow users to download music and send it simultaneously to their different devices. The service, which is comprised of unlimited music downloads and streaming, was expected to be bundled into new subscription packages and offered to existing customers as an add on.
After attending GSMA Mobile World Congress, we jetted to New York City to attend the Digital Music Forum East where Ralph Simon dutifully tried to coax industry insiders on the panel entitled “Can Mobile Save the Music Industry?” into convincing the audience that their corporate coated offerings were compelling while the small innovators attending the conference, such as SongBeat, SoundCloud, earBuzz.com, and Omnifone, among others, blazed across the blogosphere driven by consumer demand.
Whether one is an Apple advocate or an Android evangelist, the remnant optimistic spirit was clear in the mobile market where bottom up development is steering the market empowering start ups and developers to create products and services geared to attract the most users.
-- Hal Bringman
About the author: Hal Bringman is a communications consultant and founder
of NVPR. The company has deep experience in the digital media sector. Long
before Steve Jobs ever figured out what an MP3 file was, the firm has been
guiding the digital music revolution since launching MP3.com, Napster, and
many other major players. The company launched and built many of the biggest
or most talked about brands in mobile entertainment and digital media.
With offices in Los Angeles and Buenos Aires, the team is prepared to revamp
websites, launch global PR/marketing campaigns, and accelerate business
development.
A brisk breeze ushered in the 2009 GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, amidst the anticipation of a dazzling display of new handsets and gadgets galore as nearly 50,000 members of the global mobile industry descended upon the Gaudi guilded city.
In a climate of fear-driven, doom and gloom economic news, it was refreshing to be at the epicenter of innovation and positive thinking. While there was a slight dip in attendance, there were no talks of bailouts or bankruptcies to be overheard in the hallways connecting the massive exhibit halls housing everything from the Android to the latest iPhone knock off.
According to BrandWeek, analysts agree that the wireless business generally remains in solid shape despite the recession. Indeed, more Americans are expected to become cell phone users this year. The Yankee Group forecast that wireless subscriptions in the U.S. should climb by 4.5 percent in 2009 to 285 million from 273 million.
Moreover, a younger generation is growing up without landlines, and they are certainly not going to cut their mobile services. That's just one compelling reason why wireless firms will shift a higher percentage of their media dollars onto the Web in 2009, increasing to 13 percent in 2013 from 7 percent this year, according to Jupiter Research.
In fact, digital media overall has much to be optimistic about. As discussed in my recent MIDEM coverage “Setting Music Free”, that conference was abuzz about innovation and experimental business models in the digital music sector.
Maarten van Wijck, CEO of La Cúpula and Musicxip, attended both conferences and commented, “The profound transition that our industry is experiencing opens up many new opportunities every day for those that stay focused. This transition is not an isolated process that lasts a year, five years, or even a decade resulting in ‘a new model’. Change is continuous and won’t stop. We believe flexibility; interoperability and maximizing the flow of music to every possible channel will lead to increased audible visibility. The subsequent accessibility and visibility drives both fan bases and revenues alike for independent artists and labels.”
In light of projections that demonstrate worldwide revenues from digital media surpassed revenue generated by movie theaters and home video combined, for the first time in 2008, the stage is clearly set for dynamic growth opportunities and further validates investments made in the online sector going forward.
The report, "Global Media & Entertainment Market Forecast, 2004-2012," predicts that global revenues from media and entertainment will exceed $845 billion this year, with more than 10 percent, or $90 billion, coming from online and mobile channels. In comparison, the world wide filmed entertainment market will generate $83.1 billion in revenues this year.
Mobile World Congress, meanwhile, represents a more physical manifestation of these same ideals as four billion of us are now in constant sync through handsets in our pockets and purses, all set to keep us interconnected and sharing unlike never before. Ultimately, the growth of the mobile industry cannot possibly be underestimated, especially in light of the global market being set to reach six billion connections by 2013.
At Mobile World Congress, Alexander Izosimov, Chief Executive of Russia's number two carrier, Vimpelcom, chose to highlight the positives surrounding the industry. "We are lucky, that unlike many other industries, we are dealing with something which is absolutely guaranteed to expand in the future," he said.
"Human demand for communication, knowledge exchange, information is truly insatiable and we're in the midst of it, so therefore, our growth is absolutely secure,” he told Reuters.
The recording industry and the mobile industry share similarities in that innovation doesn’t come from the top, through carriers, operators or the major labels themselves but, rather, from the Google’s and Apple’s of the world who have inspired a marketplace of application development and innovative offerings that remains unparalleled and leaves behemoths like Microsoft and Nokia gasping for breath as they try to compete and catch up.
Neither Google nor Apple needed to be in attendance on the exhibit floor, however, their presence was felt everywhere. In contrast, Yahoo dished out ice cream at their booth that was as chilly as their stock performance, which remains frozen as the company continually fails to inspire or innovate the marketplace.
Smaller sized technology suppliers like Materna, on the other hand, were sharing news of their new partnership with Sony Music to roll out direct-to-consumer artist download stores all across Europe and a plethora of technology developers, like Company28.com, battled for mind share as they unveiled apps and offerings for taking mobile devices to the next level.
Consumers seem especially drawn to the latest and greatest apps made for Apple as research firm Net Applications recently found that Apple's iPhone represents a staggering 66.61 percent of mobile traffic while its competitors have only just gained a foothold.
Another innovator offering solutions was Omnifone, the provider of music services to mobile operators and device vendors alike, who announced at the Mobile World Congress that it would extend its offerings to provide music services to ISPs in an attempt to address the labels’ failure to deliver a compelling solution to curb piracy. The new DRM-free service, MusicStation Next Generation, will allow users to download music and send it simultaneously to their different devices. The service, which is comprised of unlimited music downloads and streaming, was expected to be bundled into new subscription packages and offered to existing customers as an add on.
After attending GSMA Mobile World Congress, we jetted to New York City to attend the Digital Music Forum East where Ralph Simon dutifully tried to coax industry insiders on the panel entitled “Can Mobile Save the Music Industry?” into convincing the audience that their corporate coated offerings were compelling while the small innovators attending the conference, such as SongBeat, SoundCloud, earBuzz.com, and Omnifone, among others, blazed across the blogosphere driven by consumer demand.
Whether one is an Apple advocate or an Android evangelist, the remnant optimistic spirit was clear in the mobile market where bottom up development is steering the market empowering start ups and developers to create products and services geared to attract the most users.
-- Hal Bringman
About the author: Hal Bringman is a communications consultant and founder
of NVPR. The company has deep experience in the digital media sector. Long
before Steve Jobs ever figured out what an MP3 file was, the firm has been
guiding the digital music revolution since launching MP3.com, Napster, and
many other major players. The company launched and built many of the biggest
or most talked about brands in mobile entertainment and digital media.
With offices in Los Angeles and Buenos Aires, the team is prepared to revamp
websites, launch global PR/marketing campaigns, and accelerate business
development.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Digital Music Forum in NYC, the place to be
On February 25-26, 2009, in New York City, Digital Media Wire will host the Digital Music Forum. As the music industry morphs into a fully digital domain, the Digital Music Forum is the only event that focuses squarely on developments related to this industry as it grapples with its evolution into a service oriented industry and away from its product based past. NVPR represents this event and is making a special offer for you to register and receive $100.00 off the price of registration. Simply follow this link (http://www.digitalmusicforum.com/east) to register and use the code "NVPR" to receive your discount.
We will be in attendance and look forward to meeting with you to discuss helping to revamp your website or strategize about launching a global PR/marketing campaign.
Los Angeles, CA (February 2, 2009) -- Digital Media Wire today announced the agenda and line-up of speakers for the upcoming Digital Music Forum East (www.digitalmusicforum.com/east) to be held at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York on February 25-26, 2009.
As the music industry morphs into a fully digital domain, Digital Music Forum is the only event that focuses squarely on developments related to this industry as it grapples with its evolution into a service oriented industry and away from its product based past.
Contact:
We will be in attendance and look forward to meeting with you to discuss helping to revamp your website or strategize about launching a global PR/marketing campaign.
Digital Media Wire Announces Agenda & Speakers
for Digital Music Forum East in New York, February 25-26
Music and Technology Leaders to Gather at Top Industry Event
As the music industry morphs into a fully digital domain, Digital Music Forum is the only event that focuses squarely on developments related to this industry as it grapples with its evolution into a service oriented industry and away from its product based past.
“Recent industry developments, such as iTunes and the labels’ abandonment of DRM, have liberated the music industry to begin an era of innovation and experimentation to try new business models that engage consumers and move the industry forward,” said Ned Sherman, CEO and Publisher of Digital Media Wire. “We are proud to host the preeminent event leading the discussion and debate on these timely topics.”
The two-day event is the most comprehensive digital music conference focused on the evolution and future of digital music. The conference agenda, which includes senior participants from all the major labels, as well as leading Indie labels, social networks, online music retailers, mobile companies, artists and association heads, includes top keynotes, discussions and panels on the following topics:
• Top Digital Music Trends
• The State of the Digital Union
• The Future of Internet Radio
• Can Mobile Save The Music Industry?
• The Pros and Cons of 360 Deals
• Debate Club: What Changes Are Needed to Reform The Digital Copyright System?
• Digital Music From an International Perspective
• Licensing 2.0
• Music Blogs: The Ultimate Digital Tastemakers
• Online Video and Music
• Indies in The Digital Age
The event includes a much anticipated keynote interview with Dalton Caldwell, Founder & CEO, imeem, a music-focused online social network that has raised over $50 million in funding from investors including Sequoia Capital and Warner Music Group. The company, which counts 30 million registered users, has licenses from all four major labels and many independents to offer free, ad-supported streaming music. In this rare opportunity to meet imeem's 28-year-old founder, recently featured in BusinessWeek.com's up-and-comers under 30 story, attendees will get a view of the current inner workings of the digital music industry and what role he would like imeem and other social networks and streaming services to play in the music eco-system of the future.
Other keynotes include Jim Griffin, an advisor to Warner Music Group on digital distribution and licensing models, focused on bringing an end to the litigation that has put a wedge between the major labels and their customers and replacing it with a regular flow of income for right holders. Griffin’s project known as Choruss, which is being incubated at Warner and is planned to be rolled out as a non-profit with Griffin at the helm, proposes to build a small music-royalty fee into university tuition payments received from students, and, if successful, could be expanded to make ISPs the collector of the fees.
• The State of the Digital Union
• The Future of Internet Radio
• Can Mobile Save The Music Industry?
• The Pros and Cons of 360 Deals
• Debate Club: What Changes Are Needed to Reform The Digital Copyright System?
• Digital Music From an International Perspective
• Licensing 2.0
• Music Blogs: The Ultimate Digital Tastemakers
• Online Video and Music
• Indies in The Digital Age
The event includes a much anticipated keynote interview with Dalton Caldwell, Founder & CEO, imeem, a music-focused online social network that has raised over $50 million in funding from investors including Sequoia Capital and Warner Music Group. The company, which counts 30 million registered users, has licenses from all four major labels and many independents to offer free, ad-supported streaming music. In this rare opportunity to meet imeem's 28-year-old founder, recently featured in BusinessWeek.com's up-and-comers under 30 story, attendees will get a view of the current inner workings of the digital music industry and what role he would like imeem and other social networks and streaming services to play in the music eco-system of the future.
Other keynotes include Jim Griffin, an advisor to Warner Music Group on digital distribution and licensing models, focused on bringing an end to the litigation that has put a wedge between the major labels and their customers and replacing it with a regular flow of income for right holders. Griffin’s project known as Choruss, which is being incubated at Warner and is planned to be rolled out as a non-profit with Griffin at the helm, proposes to build a small music-royalty fee into university tuition payments received from students, and, if successful, could be expanded to make ISPs the collector of the fees.
Attendees are over 400 senior decision-makers from record labels, music publishers, producers and distributors, technology companies, wireless companies, rights organizations, industry bodies, radio, advertising, attorneys, artists, investors and venture capitalists.
Speakers include:
Jay Baage, VP, Content, Digital Media Wire
Anthony Batt, CEO & Co-Founder, Buzznet
Rich Benglogg, President, A2IM
Aydin Caginalp, Partner, Entertainment & Media Group, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
Dalton Caldwell, Founder/CEO, imeem
David Card, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
Ted Cohen, Managing Partner, TAG Strategic
Jim Cooperman, COO, Wind-Up
Brad Duea, President, Napster
Jeffrey Epstein, VP, Business Development & Artist Acquisition, Elite Artist Services
Adam Farrell, Head of Marketing, The Beggars Group & Matador Records
Mark Fischer, Attorney, Fish & Richardson
Andrew Fisher, CEO, Shazam
John Fleckenstein, SVP, International, BMG Label Group
David Goodman, President, Digital Media & Integrated Marketing, CBS Radio
Jim Griffin, Managing Director, OneHouse, LLC
Dan Hoffman, EVP, Bus. & Legal Affairs, Razor and Tie Direct
Christian Jorg, SVP, New Media & Commerce, Island Def Jam Music Group
Mark Lam, Chairman & CEO, Live365.com
Matt Laszuk, IRIS Distribution
Zahavah Levine, VP, Business Development & General Counsel, YouTube
Rob Lewis, CEO & Co-Founder, Omnifone
Cecily Mak, Senior Counsel, Legal & Business Affairs, RealNetworks
Dinesh Mathew, Senior Director, Consumer Insight, MTV
Jim Merlis, President & CEO, Big Hassle
Adam Mirabella, Director, Global Digital Music Retail, Nokia
Ziv Navoth, SVP, Marketing & Bus. Dev., Bebo / AOL’s People Networks
David Oxenford, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP
Massimiliano Pellegrini, CEO, Dada Entertainment
Matthew Perpetua, Founder, Fluxblog.org
Michael Petricone, SVP, Government Affairs, Consumer Electronics Association
Chris Phenner, EVP, Business Development, Thumbplay
Jonathan Potter, Executive Director, Digital Media Association
Kelli Richards, President & CEO, The All Access Group
Jay Rosenthal, General Counsel, NMPA
Maurice Russell, VP, Business Affairs & Licensing, Harry Fox Agency
Greg Scholl, CEO, The Orchard
Syd Schwartz, SVP, Digital Strategy, EMI North America
Matt Schwartz, Manager, Music Programming & Business Development, Verizon
Ned Sherman, Co-Founder, CEO & Publisher, Digital Media Wire
Michael Spiegelmann, Head of Music, Yahoo! Music
Mike Tunnicliffe, Partner, Tuna Music LLC / The Sheppard LLC
Amaechi Uzoigwe, Co-Founder, Definitive Jux
Eliot Van Buskirk, Editor, Listening Post, Wired.com
Anthony Volodkin, Founder/CEO, The Hype Machine
Pete Watson, Head of Business Development, Research in Motion
Tim Westergren, Chief Strategy Officer & Founder, Pandora
Event sponsors and media partners include Manatt, Loeb & Loeb, Macrovision, Dada Entertainment, Fish & Richardson, Mozes, DCIA, Davis Wright Tremaine, Consulate General of Sweden, Filter Magazine, KCRW, A2IM, NARIP, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Music Connection, NVPR, TAG Strategic, Parks Associates, Midem, Women in Music, Billboard Publicity Wire, SoundExchange, NY:MIEG, and EMF.
For complete agenda, registration and event details please visit: http://www.digitalmusicforum.com/east.
Other prominent Digital Media Wire events include the LA Games Conference; NY Games Conference; Future of Television East; Future of Television West; Digital Music Forum West; and Digital Media Conference.
Anthony Batt, CEO & Co-Founder, Buzznet
Rich Benglogg, President, A2IM
Aydin Caginalp, Partner, Entertainment & Media Group, Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, LLP
Dalton Caldwell, Founder/CEO, imeem
David Card, VP & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research
Ted Cohen, Managing Partner, TAG Strategic
Jim Cooperman, COO, Wind-Up
Brad Duea, President, Napster
Jeffrey Epstein, VP, Business Development & Artist Acquisition, Elite Artist Services
Adam Farrell, Head of Marketing, The Beggars Group & Matador Records
Mark Fischer, Attorney, Fish & Richardson
Andrew Fisher, CEO, Shazam
John Fleckenstein, SVP, International, BMG Label Group
David Goodman, President, Digital Media & Integrated Marketing, CBS Radio
Jim Griffin, Managing Director, OneHouse, LLC
Dan Hoffman, EVP, Bus. & Legal Affairs, Razor and Tie Direct
Christian Jorg, SVP, New Media & Commerce, Island Def Jam Music Group
Mark Lam, Chairman & CEO, Live365.com
Matt Laszuk, IRIS Distribution
Zahavah Levine, VP, Business Development & General Counsel, YouTube
Rob Lewis, CEO & Co-Founder, Omnifone
Cecily Mak, Senior Counsel, Legal & Business Affairs, RealNetworks
Dinesh Mathew, Senior Director, Consumer Insight, MTV
Jim Merlis, President & CEO, Big Hassle
Adam Mirabella, Director, Global Digital Music Retail, Nokia
Ziv Navoth, SVP, Marketing & Bus. Dev., Bebo / AOL’s People Networks
David Oxenford, Partner, Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP
Massimiliano Pellegrini, CEO, Dada Entertainment
Matthew Perpetua, Founder, Fluxblog.org
Michael Petricone, SVP, Government Affairs, Consumer Electronics Association
Chris Phenner, EVP, Business Development, Thumbplay
Jonathan Potter, Executive Director, Digital Media Association
Kelli Richards, President & CEO, The All Access Group
Jay Rosenthal, General Counsel, NMPA
Maurice Russell, VP, Business Affairs & Licensing, Harry Fox Agency
Greg Scholl, CEO, The Orchard
Syd Schwartz, SVP, Digital Strategy, EMI North America
Matt Schwartz, Manager, Music Programming & Business Development, Verizon
Ned Sherman, Co-Founder, CEO & Publisher, Digital Media Wire
Michael Spiegelmann, Head of Music, Yahoo! Music
Mike Tunnicliffe, Partner, Tuna Music LLC / The Sheppard LLC
Amaechi Uzoigwe, Co-Founder, Definitive Jux
Eliot Van Buskirk, Editor, Listening Post, Wired.com
Anthony Volodkin, Founder/CEO, The Hype Machine
Pete Watson, Head of Business Development, Research in Motion
Tim Westergren, Chief Strategy Officer & Founder, Pandora
Event sponsors and media partners include Manatt, Loeb & Loeb, Macrovision, Dada Entertainment, Fish & Richardson, Mozes, DCIA, Davis Wright Tremaine, Consulate General of Sweden, Filter Magazine, KCRW, A2IM, NARIP, UCLA Anderson School of Management, Music Connection, NVPR, TAG Strategic, Parks Associates, Midem, Women in Music, Billboard Publicity Wire, SoundExchange, NY:MIEG, and EMF.
For complete agenda, registration and event details please visit: http://www.digitalmusicforum.com/east.
Other prominent Digital Media Wire events include the LA Games Conference; NY Games Conference; Future of Television East; Future of Television West; Digital Music Forum West; and Digital Media Conference.
###
About Digital Media Wire, Inc:
Digital Media Wire is an events, news, and publishing company serving the digital entertainment & media industry since May 2000. Digital Media Wire produces executive forums featuring the leading executives in digital media and entertainment. Digital Media Wire also publishes an authoritative daily email newsletter and industry directory. For more information, please visit www.dmwmedia.com.
Digital Media Wire is an events, news, and publishing company serving the digital entertainment & media industry since May 2000. Digital Media Wire produces executive forums featuring the leading executives in digital media and entertainment. Digital Media Wire also publishes an authoritative daily email newsletter and industry directory. For more information, please visit www.dmwmedia.com.
Contact:
Hal Bringman
NVPR
323-851-6877
hal (at) nvpr.com
NVPR
323-851-6877
hal (at) nvpr.com
Trade shows: Go or stay home in 2009?
Trade shows: Go or stay home in 2009?
By Christine Kent
With trade show budgets tight, PR pros get selective
When Apple Computer announced that it would no longer attend MacWorld Expo—the event at which Steve Jobs held sway for so many years—it raised the question of how many other companies might forgo large and costly trade shows in a weak economy.
“Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers,” said the company in a press release about its departure from MacWorld Expo. This news was followed in January by word that attendance at the Consumer Electronics show, or CES, was down almost 20 percent.
So will trade shows go the way of the fax machine as a marketing and media relations tool? Depending on the industry, many PR professionals say trade shows still offer plenty of value—but they’ll think hard about which ones deserve precious funds this year.
Ken Newman, president of San Francisco’s Magnet Productions, has been producing trade shows for 25 years, and says that during these periodic downturns, companies typically ask a lot more questions about the value of trade shows.
“It’s true that some shows get bloated,” says Newman of trade shows such as CES. “They lose all value. You’ll see a business technology solution displaying next to a booth for a nose-hair trimmer. But people felt that they would be conspicuous by their absence,” Newman says—so everyone signed up to be on the trade show floor anyway.
Now that marketing money is scarce “companies are getting very selective about the shows that they do,” says Newman. Rather than simply buying a booth because everyone else in their market is doing so, Newman explains, marketers are asking themselves whether shows actually generate qualified leads and whether they can turn those leads into sales.
“I’m seeing companies ditch one show that they’ve been to for years, in favor of trying another show,” Newman says. “They figure why spend money on one big bloated show when they can go to three targeted shows.”
That’s what Michael Varhola, founder of Skirmish Publishing, a games publisher in Springfield, Va., is doing this year. In 2008 his company exhibited at two large games shows.
“Two big shows, during a year in which sales were down on top of everything else, left us carrying the associated debt for several months,” Varhola explains. “Because of that, and despite the value of shows to us, we’ve revised our strategy for 2009. We’ll still be going to our industry's biggest show, Gen Con in Indianapolis. But rather than do another large show, we’ll be doing a number of smaller regional ones instead.”
When PR people and marketers can find shows with a narrow scope—shows that are guaranteed to draw the exact audience for the organization’s products or services and that attract relevant trade media—they see value in attending.
Kelly Robertson, senior account manager at Kidd PR in Tallahassee, works with several clients in the RV industry.
“They plan to maintain or increase their exposure at trade shows this year,” Robertson says. RV sales rely heavily on face-to-face meetings, Robertson explains, so trade show exposure is considered vital.
“It’s direct communication with the target, in a less cluttered environment,” Robertson says. In other words, talking one-to-one with a potential customer beats the heck out of ads or editorial placements in trade or consumer publications, she says.
Since her clients are making a big financial commitment in going to trade shows, Robertson says the need to make sure the money is well spent is even more pressing this year.
“It’s important to consider what to do when you get to a trade show,” Robertson says. “It’s a waste of money if you’re not making a splash on site. We’re recommending more high-visibility initiatives that draw crowds.”
For Los Angeles-based NVPR, trade shows are considered so important that the communications firm is willing to foot the bill.
“We’re offering to reimburse companies if they attend trade shows and hire us to help with marcom and creative services,” says Hal Bringham, founder and CEO of NVPR. “In my experience, trade shows are such a hotbed for business development that I think it's a big mistake to not attend them.
Conversely, if a company does the research and determines that their target markets aren’t showing up at trade shows, then there’s not much reason to be there.
“We have no plans to go to trade shows this year,” says Alicia Browner, the CEO of Austin-based Prelude Dynamics.
“The shows are too large for us to effectively get noticed. We’re more interested in putting money into PR and marketing and getting some recognition that way.” Their customers don’t attend the shows, Browner says, so it’s become hard to justify the expense.
For organizations that are on the fence about whether to attend a show this year, Ken Newman suggests getting a smaller booth, but putting more energy into what happens in the booth. “Create the idea that your booth is the fun place to be,” he says.
By Christine Kent
With trade show budgets tight, PR pros get selective
When Apple Computer announced that it would no longer attend MacWorld Expo—the event at which Steve Jobs held sway for so many years—it raised the question of how many other companies might forgo large and costly trade shows in a weak economy.
“Apple is reaching more people in more ways than ever before, so like many companies, trade shows have become a very minor part of how Apple reaches its customers,” said the company in a press release about its departure from MacWorld Expo. This news was followed in January by word that attendance at the Consumer Electronics show, or CES, was down almost 20 percent.
So will trade shows go the way of the fax machine as a marketing and media relations tool? Depending on the industry, many PR professionals say trade shows still offer plenty of value—but they’ll think hard about which ones deserve precious funds this year.
Ken Newman, president of San Francisco’s Magnet Productions, has been producing trade shows for 25 years, and says that during these periodic downturns, companies typically ask a lot more questions about the value of trade shows.
“It’s true that some shows get bloated,” says Newman of trade shows such as CES. “They lose all value. You’ll see a business technology solution displaying next to a booth for a nose-hair trimmer. But people felt that they would be conspicuous by their absence,” Newman says—so everyone signed up to be on the trade show floor anyway.
Now that marketing money is scarce “companies are getting very selective about the shows that they do,” says Newman. Rather than simply buying a booth because everyone else in their market is doing so, Newman explains, marketers are asking themselves whether shows actually generate qualified leads and whether they can turn those leads into sales.
“I’m seeing companies ditch one show that they’ve been to for years, in favor of trying another show,” Newman says. “They figure why spend money on one big bloated show when they can go to three targeted shows.”
That’s what Michael Varhola, founder of Skirmish Publishing, a games publisher in Springfield, Va., is doing this year. In 2008 his company exhibited at two large games shows.
“Two big shows, during a year in which sales were down on top of everything else, left us carrying the associated debt for several months,” Varhola explains. “Because of that, and despite the value of shows to us, we’ve revised our strategy for 2009. We’ll still be going to our industry's biggest show, Gen Con in Indianapolis. But rather than do another large show, we’ll be doing a number of smaller regional ones instead.”
When PR people and marketers can find shows with a narrow scope—shows that are guaranteed to draw the exact audience for the organization’s products or services and that attract relevant trade media—they see value in attending.
Kelly Robertson, senior account manager at Kidd PR in Tallahassee, works with several clients in the RV industry.
“They plan to maintain or increase their exposure at trade shows this year,” Robertson says. RV sales rely heavily on face-to-face meetings, Robertson explains, so trade show exposure is considered vital.
“It’s direct communication with the target, in a less cluttered environment,” Robertson says. In other words, talking one-to-one with a potential customer beats the heck out of ads or editorial placements in trade or consumer publications, she says.
Since her clients are making a big financial commitment in going to trade shows, Robertson says the need to make sure the money is well spent is even more pressing this year.
“It’s important to consider what to do when you get to a trade show,” Robertson says. “It’s a waste of money if you’re not making a splash on site. We’re recommending more high-visibility initiatives that draw crowds.”
For Los Angeles-based NVPR, trade shows are considered so important that the communications firm is willing to foot the bill.
“We’re offering to reimburse companies if they attend trade shows and hire us to help with marcom and creative services,” says Hal Bringham, founder and CEO of NVPR. “In my experience, trade shows are such a hotbed for business development that I think it's a big mistake to not attend them.
Conversely, if a company does the research and determines that their target markets aren’t showing up at trade shows, then there’s not much reason to be there.
“We have no plans to go to trade shows this year,” says Alicia Browner, the CEO of Austin-based Prelude Dynamics.
“The shows are too large for us to effectively get noticed. We’re more interested in putting money into PR and marketing and getting some recognition that way.” Their customers don’t attend the shows, Browner says, so it’s become hard to justify the expense.
For organizations that are on the fence about whether to attend a show this year, Ken Newman suggests getting a smaller booth, but putting more energy into what happens in the booth. “Create the idea that your booth is the fun place to be,” he says.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
NVPR in the news again: A new sort of offshoring
A new sort of offshoring
Argentina becomes an attractive destination for those who want to earn in one currency and pay living expenses in another.
By Anil Mundra - Special to GlobalPost
Published: January 26, 2009 09:31 ET
BUENOS AIRES — Hal Bringman, founder and CEO of a corporate communications firm, came to Buenos Aires for a July 4th vacation in 2007. He never left.
But Bringman didn't bother to tell his dozen clients that he wasn't where they thought he was — namely, in the U.S. He didn't need to: He did much of his business over the internet anyway, had calls forwarded from his Los Angeles office and flew to meet his far-flung clients as necessary.
Setups such as Bringman's — earning money in hard currencies like the U.S. dollar or euro while paying operating and living expenses in a weaker economy — make increasing economic sense.
On the face of it, the business model resembles the old-style offshoring of labor to cheap markets in the developing world. But there's a major difference: Rather than outsourcing jobs to locals who charge less, white-collar workers and senior managers are relocating to a handful of developing countries where their own costs of living and working are lower.
Argentina — and especially Buenos Aires — is one of the most attractive places for this proposition, with its high level of development and low cost of living. Buenos Aires was one of the world's most expensive cities a decade ago, before the
Argentine economy crashed and the peso was left badly devalued at the end of 2001. Today, you can eat filet mignon or catch a taxicab across town for about $10.
Statistics on the phenomenon are hard to come by. But Expat-Connection.com's Martin Frankel (also the founder of the Buenos Aires Expat Entrepreneurs group) guesses that between 15,000 and 30,000 foreigners are working in Buenos Aires.
And Thursday Bram, author of a forthcoming book about moving abroad in order to stretch salaries, says that the top five expat destinations that have emerged in her research are China, India, the Philippines, Singapore, and — the only one not in Asia — Argentina.
Business and life coach Gayle Scroggs — author of the blog "The Positive Expat" — is evidence of the Argentine appeal. For $500, she rents a 1,700-square-foot home (complete with pool) in an exclusive neighborhood in the city of San Nicolas. She also hires a part-time housekeeper and gardener, things she said she never could have afforded in her native California.
Originally, said Scroggs, "I counted on getting a U.S. telephone forwarding number so that I would not have to advertise that I live in Argentina." This is another plus to offshoring: In places like Argentina where the communications infrastructure is well-developed — public WiFi internet is ubiquitous in Buenos Aires and there's approximately one mobile phone for every man, woman, and child in the country — expatriates can live and work without detection.
It wasn't until three months after Bringman — whose PR firm launched MP3.com and Napster, among others — arrived in
Buenos Aires that a client from Madrid figured out his setup. The giveaway: Bringman's Facebook profile. His client was positively tickled.
"It hasn't really been any different from working in LA," Bringman says. "When you have a solid track record and you deliver results, your client doesn't care where you are working from, they just care that you succeed."
Continued...
Argentina becomes an attractive destination for those who want to earn in one currency and pay living expenses in another.
By Anil Mundra - Special to GlobalPost
Published: January 26, 2009 09:31 ET
BUENOS AIRES — Hal Bringman, founder and CEO of a corporate communications firm, came to Buenos Aires for a July 4th vacation in 2007. He never left.
But Bringman didn't bother to tell his dozen clients that he wasn't where they thought he was — namely, in the U.S. He didn't need to: He did much of his business over the internet anyway, had calls forwarded from his Los Angeles office and flew to meet his far-flung clients as necessary.
Setups such as Bringman's — earning money in hard currencies like the U.S. dollar or euro while paying operating and living expenses in a weaker economy — make increasing economic sense.
On the face of it, the business model resembles the old-style offshoring of labor to cheap markets in the developing world. But there's a major difference: Rather than outsourcing jobs to locals who charge less, white-collar workers and senior managers are relocating to a handful of developing countries where their own costs of living and working are lower.
Argentina — and especially Buenos Aires — is one of the most attractive places for this proposition, with its high level of development and low cost of living. Buenos Aires was one of the world's most expensive cities a decade ago, before the
Argentine economy crashed and the peso was left badly devalued at the end of 2001. Today, you can eat filet mignon or catch a taxicab across town for about $10.
Statistics on the phenomenon are hard to come by. But Expat-Connection.com's Martin Frankel (also the founder of the Buenos Aires Expat Entrepreneurs group) guesses that between 15,000 and 30,000 foreigners are working in Buenos Aires.
And Thursday Bram, author of a forthcoming book about moving abroad in order to stretch salaries, says that the top five expat destinations that have emerged in her research are China, India, the Philippines, Singapore, and — the only one not in Asia — Argentina.
Business and life coach Gayle Scroggs — author of the blog "The Positive Expat" — is evidence of the Argentine appeal. For $500, she rents a 1,700-square-foot home (complete with pool) in an exclusive neighborhood in the city of San Nicolas. She also hires a part-time housekeeper and gardener, things she said she never could have afforded in her native California.
Originally, said Scroggs, "I counted on getting a U.S. telephone forwarding number so that I would not have to advertise that I live in Argentina." This is another plus to offshoring: In places like Argentina where the communications infrastructure is well-developed — public WiFi internet is ubiquitous in Buenos Aires and there's approximately one mobile phone for every man, woman, and child in the country — expatriates can live and work without detection.
It wasn't until three months after Bringman — whose PR firm launched MP3.com and Napster, among others — arrived in
Buenos Aires that a client from Madrid figured out his setup. The giveaway: Bringman's Facebook profile. His client was positively tickled.
"It hasn't really been any different from working in LA," Bringman says. "When you have a solid track record and you deliver results, your client doesn't care where you are working from, they just care that you succeed."
Continued...
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