Press Release: New Media, Web 2.0 and Blog Tastemakers Gather for SUMMIT

Press Release: New Media, Web 2.0 and Blog Tastemakers Gather for SUMMIT

(PRWEB) April 24, 2008 — For the first time ever, key New Media players, execs, moguls, editors, producers, bloggers, designers and tastemakers gather for an exclusive summit in San Francisco on May 2. Their goal is to discuss the lucrative and highly influential Lifestyle-verticals of food and wine, fashion and design, and metro-regional guides.

The timing for the Summit is that these New Media Tastemakers have now attained unprecedented reach and influence over what global and local consumers buy, eat, drink, watch, wear, and do in leisure and in life. The New Media Tastemakers Summit was created to allow them to share ideas, network, and prepare their businesses for economic and technological opportunities specific to this category. It also allows hopeful marketers, partners, and investors to reach them face-to-face.

Summit attendees come from Digital Media, Traditional Print and TV firms, Online Video, and Web 2.0 enterprises. Summit panelists and moderators come from well-known New Media pioneers such as YouTube, Yelp, Yahoo, Chow.com, Turnhere, Bhootan, BooRah, Burst Media/CD Kitchen, Danoo, Fanpop, Fashiontribes, Federated Media, Foodbuzz.com, Gayot.com, Intercasting Corp, Kickapps, LA.com, Like.com, Metromix / Tribune Interactive – Gannett, MobiTV, Reality Digital, SFStation/Boulevards Networks, Soma Management/Somagirl.tv, Stylehive.com, TasteTV, The Sugar Network (YumSugar, FabSugar), ThisNext.com, Tilzy.TV, Variety and Zinio.

The restrained size of the event and the selected vertical focus makes networking and exposure to new ideas, partners, products and opportunities ideal, and meets the immediate competitive needs of these businesses, content providers, entrepreneurs, marketers and advertisers in the current economic climate.

Topics to be discussed at the Summit range from panels titled “Influencing and Following Consumer Tastes in a Digital World: The New Players, The New Paradigms, The New Moguls,” and “Traditional Media: Embracing Digital Strategies to Viably Evolve” to “The Rise of TasteMaker Content and Distribution,” “Social Networks and Broadband Platforms,” and “Profitable Branding and Marketing: – Leveraging Influencer Buzz at the Local Level.”

Attendees will also have the opportunity to taste new products provided and services provided by various sponsoring organizations. More information about the New Media Tastemakers Summit can be found at http://www.NewMediaTastemakers.com.

Moderator Bio: Brian Solis, FutureWorks


Brian Solis, CEO, FutureWorks and Blogger, PR 2.0

Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. Solis blogs at PR2.0, bub.blicio.us, and regularly contributes PR & tech insight to industry publications. Solis is among the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media. He’s a co-founder of the Social Media Club, is an original member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup, and also contributes to BrandWeek and the Social Media Collective.

Speaker Bio: Harlow Newton, Boulevards Networks and SFStation.com


Harlow Newton, Boulevards Networks
/ SFStation.com

A true socially responsible entrepreneur at heart, Harlow has more than 20 years of experience as a business owner, from being one of the founding partners at SF Station, to starting a successful travel
services company and environmental non-profit organization.

After selling SF Station to the Boulevards City Guide Network in 2006, Harlow has been working as the Director of Digital Marketing & Strategy for the Boulevards City Guide Network. During his 10 years with SF Station, Harlow built and established long-term business relationships and strategic partnerships with local businesses, media companies, and community and public organizations. With a rolodex of over 8,000 contacts, Harlow continues to develop unique and innovative business partnerships, brand awareness campaigns and digital marketing programs for his clients and partners.

Harlow studied business, public relations and psychology at San Francisco State University through an interdisciplinary studies program. Harlow is currently building Buenaventura, an eco-adventure lodge and rainforest retreat on his 170 acre property in Costa Rica, scheduled to open to the public in the summer of 2010.

Tim O’Reilly on WSJ and the New Tastemakers

Great summary of a WSJ article by new media guru Tim O’Reilly:

Peter Brantley wrote: “[The]WSJ has an article on curation of online media sites … reported by if:book”:

“The Wall Street Journal has an interesting (and free) piece on the new class of individuals — filters, recommenders, editors, curators, call them what you will — that is becoming increasingly influential in directing attention traffic across the Web. …

“It all adds up to a pretty astonishing redefinition of what
“the media” is. The front page, the lead story, the primetime
lineup — all in constant renegotiation, constantly rearranged.
Yet still in so many ways dependent on the established sources
for the materials to be filtered (and probably in the future
for personal income, as is already beginning). Feeders and
filterers. The new media ecology doesn’t destroy the old one,
it absorbs it into a new relationship.”

Both the WSJ piece and the if:book commentary are worth a read. It’s interesting to see how each new layer of internet media grows its own group of tastemakers. When we first started doing internet marketing back in the early 90s, we mainly reached out to influential posters on newsgroups and mailing lists. Then it was various lists of lists featuring cool web sites. Then blogging (including sites like slashdot that the blogging community is only now (finally) acknowledging as one of its own.) Now it’s people who act as tastemakers on sites like digg, reddit and del.icio.us.

AMERICAN EXPRESS TASTEMAKERS INDEX

American Express has created a forum it calls the AMERICAN EXPRESS TASTEMAKERS INDEX. It’s like a city site for food and other picks. Here’s a recent post:

EATING HEALTHY IN THE NEW YEAR? AMERICAN EXPRESS TASTEMAKERS DISH ON THE TOP NEW YORK RESTAURANTS FOR GRABBING A HEALTHY BITE

Tastemakers share tips on eating healthy while eating out in the New Year

NEW YORK, January 25, 2008 — For many Americans, better health tops the New Year’s resolution list. But for the millions of foodies in New York City, eating healthy while eating out is not always easy. Today, American Express issued its Tastemaker Index and in it, Tastemakers dish on some of the best New York restaurants where diners can get a fresh, healthy meal to help them keep that New Year’s resolution. The Tastemaker Index is a monthly alert which provides an insider’s look at the hottest restaurants recently dined at and talked about on American Express Dish®. Dish is a community web site dedicated to connecting people who love to dine out.

The Tastemaker Index reveals the Top Restaurants for Healthy Dining. These rankings are based on the number of charges made by Tastemakers at restaurants. While they don’t account for a restaurant’s size or hours of operation, they do reflect the dining trends of an exclusive group of food-loving Cardmembers.

NEW YORK CITY: Top 5 Healthy NYC Restaurants
RESTAURANT
1. Mizu Sushi
2. Café Metro
3. Estiatorio Milos
4. Spice
5. Republic

Source: American Express Dish Tastemakers

More on Dish
What Dish provides that is unlike any other dining resource is the web’s most robust combination of dining offers, information and insights, including peer restaurant ratings, expert picks and instant reservations among other features. Available in New York and San Francisco, Dish is an ongoing platform, allowing diners to tap into the insights of a diverse group of passionate Cardmembers and celebrity foodies, better known as the Dish Tastemaker community.

In addition to the existing features and offers on the site, Tastemakers are encouraged to come back often to check out new offers from Dish. New York Dish’s latest promotion called “Table for You” awards gift certificates and reservations at some of the city’s most exclusive restaurants. American Express posts a featured restaurant and asks a thought-provoking question such as “which menu item inspires your imagination?” Tastemakers with the most compelling submission win a $400 gift certificate from the featured restaurant. Check out the Table for You contest by clicking on the banner on Dish’s New York homepage and find new restaurant gift certificates to win in upcoming weeks, including ‘Cesca and Babo among others.

Speaker Bio: Dave Lu, Fanpop

Dave Lu, Fanpop

Dave Lu is the CEO and co-founder of Fanpop, a network of online fan clubs created by and for fans. As the CEO, Dave shapes Fanpop’s strategic direction, leads business development and helps drive product development and marketing.

Prior to starting Fanpop, Dave has held various product management and product marketing roles at some of the world’s leading consumer technology companies. He was a product manager at Yahoo! for Yahoo! Finance, led product strategy for affiliate marketing at eBay, worked on product marketing for laptops at Apple, directed the Yahoo!-Sony marketing alliance for Sony and most recently helped launch single-use video cameras for Sequoia-backed startup Pure Digital Technologies. He started his career as a management consultant at Deloitte Consulting in San Francisco. Dave received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and an MBA from Stanford University.