We’re building the biggest gathering of B2B Executives, Digital Publishers, Specialty and Niche Operators, M&A Experts, Private-Equity Firms and Association Media as well as their Marketing And Supply-Chain Partners. Please check back for updates to the schedule.
Schedule
Registration opens at 4:00 pm
All attendees, speakers and sponsors are welcome to the registration desk for important conference materials and updates.
Start the day off at breakfast with the most important B2B publishing network.
Welcome remarks and conference kick off from:
Chris Mohr, President, SIIA
Tony Silber, Managing Director, SIIA Media
SIIA Media’s Benchmark Report on B2B Media Revenue and Cost Trends
Tony Silber, Managing Director, SIIA Media
Jill Fick, Senior Project Director, Readex Research
To kick off the BIMS Summit, MediaRadar’s CEO, Todd Krizelman, will share an overview of B2B advertising in 2023. Todd will review recent ad sales trends in B2B Media, as well as, share some highlights that will help you target the right prospects and overcome key challenges within your business.
Don’t miss this opportunity to get the insights you need to succeed in 2024.
As we move into 2024, join five media-company CEOs in a robust conversation about the state of the media landscape, the rise of AI, their priorities and the potential bumps in the road.
You’ll learn:
- How CEOs are developing talent in non-traditional areas.
- How the overall economic climate is affecting media companies’ plans.
- Which technologies are most promising in 2024.
- Events business characteristics for the next decade.
Andy Clurman, CEO, Active Interest Media
Heather Farley, CEO, Access Intelligence
Jennifer Litterick, CEO, EnsembleIQ
Kevin Turpin, President, National Journal
How 270 European Publishers Use AI To Cut Costs and Increase Efficiency
Labrador CMS takes AI into the newsrooms of 270 European publishers. This is a sneak peak into what they are doing and how AI can be implemented in the everyday life of the journalist.
Speakers:
Brage Lie Jor, Head of Partnerships
Jay Lee, Growth Marketing Manager
Media M&A 2024: A Review Of The Trends And Forecasting What’s Next
Some of B2B Media’s largest companies are owned by private equity firms, and many are near the end of their hold period. Are there buyers out there? Is there value in a new round of roll ups? What are sellers looking for? Join a panel of B2B media dealmakers to hear what’s driving buying and selling. You’ll learn:
- Whether there are buyers for large B2B companies nearing the end of their PE hold periods.
- Whether PE perceives value in continuing to scale.
- Whether peak valuation for digital media assets has passed.
- How PE is thinking about valuation of event companies in today’s market.
Speakers:
Wilma Jordan, Founder and CEO, North America JEGI CLARITY
Jeff Mancini, CEO, Arizent
Kevin Fitzgerald, Director, GTCR
Kevin Prokop, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Rockbridge Equity Growth
Jonathan Barnes, Managing Director, Star Mountain Capital
Are We Media Companies or Audience Companies?
Hear from two leading executives about the evolution of media companies into audience companies both from a b2c and b2b perspective. You’ll learn:
- Learn best in class practices on how to win in the new era of niche audiences and the role media companies will play in curating and connecting these audiences.
- Dive deep into technologies and platforms that are critical to your future success.
Speakers:
Jeff Litvack, Golden Peak Media
Dave Saabye, Bridge Tower Media
A Roadmap To Content Creation And Ethics In AI
Generative artificial intelligence has upended journalism, including in B2B. Editorial uses are proliferating as fast as content managers can dream them up, but teams are also struggling to establish guardrails. Join a discussion of what journalists are using AI for; how it shouldn’t be used; and how transparent they need to be with their audiences. You’ll learn:
- The most common ways journalists use AI.
- What they avoid.
- The best approaches to transparency.
- What should be covered under an ethics policy.
Speakers:
Mark Talkington, Founder, Palm Springs Post
Nancy Perry, Editor-in-Chief, Police1, Lexipol
The Fast Pass to Accelerated First-Party Data Capture and Monetization
How Questex accelerated 1st party data capture and monetization growth initiatives via a cookie-less content registration experience
Speakers:
Jake Kimball, Senior Director, Data Performance and Marketing Operations, Questex
Daniel Frignito, Director of Partnership Development, Netline
Enjoy this mid-day break, lunching with old and new friends.
We’ve put together a panel of some of the most successful and innovative B2B media entrepreneurs who share their perspectives on disruption, innovation, new opportunities, competition, and more. Sit in on an illuminating conversation with the people behind some of today’s smartest startups. You’ll learn:
- How these founders came to B2B Media, and the opportunities they saw.
- How their business plans varied from what actually happened.
- How their business models diverge from the traditional B2B approach.
- How they financed their startups.
- Their biggest successes, and the things they’d do differently.
Speakers:
Philip Ideson, Founder, The Art of Procurement
Merry Eisner-Heidorn, Chief Operating Officer & Co-Publisher, RTO Insider LLC
Patrick Trousdale, Founder and CEO, The Daily Upside
Moderator: John McGovern, CEO & Owner, Grimes, McGovern and Associates
Dive in to an interactive discussion during a series of roundtables.
Table 1: Maximizing Ad Yield: Best Practices to Manage Inventory and Optimize Utilization with Aysling (Ad Orbit)
Table 2: Revenue Forecasting: What Metrics Matter for Your Teams and How to Find Leading Indicators of Future Performance with Aysling (Ad Orbit)
Using Content to Drive Commerce
Craig Fuller, the founder of FreightWaves, learned the power of using industry-specific media to create top of funnel for a SaaS/data business serving the global supply chain industry. Now he’s taking the same approach in the $2.5 trillion aviation industry with FLYING Media. Over the past three years, FLYING has acquired 23 aviation brands and uses media to drive top-of-funnel to offer finance, insurance, e-commerce, data, and real estate, all under the FLYING brand. Here’s a model for virtually any B2B business. You’ll learn:
- How the content-to-commerce model works, and how it can be applied to any B2B media property.
- FLYING’s private-equity approach to media acquisitions, with a venture capital approach to commerce.
- How the FLYING team used a single magazine brand to create a platform for additional acquisitions and commerce incubation.
- How FLYING evaluates acquisitions, including underwriting and valuations and thoughts on audience expansion.
Speaker:
Craig Fuller, CEO FreightWaves and Firecrown
The Media Brand and Conference Content Connection: Unifying Content Across Platforms for Maximum Impact
Today’s media brands often operate across multiple platforms, including online publications, social media channels, and live conferences. This session will explore the powerful synergy between media brand content and onsite conference programming, and how content teams can leverage this connection to create a richer experience for users, advertisers, and colleagues.
Speaker:
Sandy Almendarez, Vice President, Content, Informa
Courtney Nagle, Senior Vice President, Engineering, WTWH Media
The Future of Intent Data And ROI: Partnering To Deliver Qualified Leads To Customers
Sophisticated data-aggregation-and-analysis firms help media brands develop vital insights about their audiences, and then team up to produce highly qualified leads for marketers. Hear panelists from both sides describe the dynamics of these game-changing partnerships. You’ll learn:
- Why to emphasize leads developed from your own first-party data.
- How to work with data partners to extend your advertisers’ reach and increase the efficiency of your lead-gen programs.
- Strategies for navigating the array of CRM tools and technologies.
Speakers:
Roberta Muller, SVP Product Development, Northstar Travel Group
James Miller, Sr. Director of Product Management, Northstar Travel Group
Jake Kimball, Senior Director, Data Performance and Marketing Operations
Alexi Khajavi, President Hospitality, Travel & Wellness
Maximizing Revenue and Efficiency: Unveiling the True Cost of Inefficiency in B2B Media Operations
What’s the difference between operating efficiently and not operating efficiently? It’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenues and wasted manpower costs. Kayla Walsh, Director of Consulting at Mirabel Technologies, and media management efficiency expert, will show you the cost of inefficiency, the usual culprits, and how you can work to streamline your B2B media by focusing on the areas where you can re-capture your most valuable asset…your time.
Speaker: Kayla Walsh, Director of Consulting, Mirabel Technologies
All media companies work to diversify their workforce, particularly with women and people of color in senior positions, but it can be a difficult process. Hear the specific initiatives Informa Markets used and the results they produced. You’ll learn:
- The importance of proactive steps to expand the recruiting pool, and what they should include.
- Creating incubation programs to support emerging design talent
- The impact of a suddenly hostile stance political opposition to DEI.
Speaker:
Mike Sealy, Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Informa Markets
Registration opens at 7:00 am. Stop by the registration desk for updates and information.
Coffee, croissants and conversation. Join friends and peers as we kick off the second full day of BIMS.
Welcome to the second full day of BIMS.
Hollywood is buzzing about artificial intelligence. The studios—and creators—that produce movies and TV programs are grappling with the rapid developments in generative AI. At the center of it all is the venerable Motion Picture Association, which represents the world’s largest entertainment companies. In this conversation you’ll learn:
- What does—and should—copyright law have to say about AI?
- How will generative AI affect how movies get made?
- Is AI good for the industry, or will it replace human creativity with soulless bots?
- The emerging rules of the road for future uses of this technology.
Speaker:
Ben Sheffner, Senior Vice President & Associate General Counsel, Law & Policy, Motion Picture Association
B2B media has long been attractive to private-equity firms for its stability, its potential for rapid organic growth through new investment, its opportunities for growth through M&A, and the prospects for achieving organizational efficiencies. PE firms are helping evolve and transform business models to build market-leading companies that achieve maximum returns. Hear from three veteran media operators how to thrive in a PE partnership. You’ll learn:
- How each CEO has engineered their models for growth and margins.
- How private equity firms assess value and establish priorities in a media company.
- The characteristics of PE owners that operators look for.
- The business-model characteristics that PE firms look for.
Speakers:
Scott Peters, Co Founder and Managing Partner, Growth Catalyst Partners
Tim Hartman, CEO, GovExec
Doug Manoni, CEO, CyberRisk Alliance
Doug Llewellyn, CEO, Data Society Group
Busting The 3 Myths of Being Customer Centric
What are the common misconceptions surrounding customer-centricity in media?
Explore why media companies struggle to grasp client needs, why analytics alone don’t drive customer focus, and why customer insight isn’t a silver bullet for change. In this fireside chat, we will give examples of actionable strategies so you can bridge the gap between theory and practice. Redefine your approach and move towards greater customer understanding and impactful transformation.
Speakers:
Andy Baker, Practice Lead, Business Information, Collingwood
David Foster, Founder & Chair, Business Valuation Resources
From Catch-Up to Cutting Edge: How Cookie Deprecation Changes B2B Media
The B2B publishing industry is experiencing a transformation. The decline of third-party cookies demands a more thoughtful approach from advertisers, leaving once fast-growing B2C publishers reeling. Filling the void are publishers with loyal audiences, strong brands, and rich first-party data assets–B2B and special interest publishers. To thrive in 2024 and beyond, publishers must build new products for their advertisers while continuing to deliver great experiences for their communities. Join us to learn how top publishers are creating engaging content strategies that lead to lasting relationships and how they’ve transformed their advertising businesses using first-party data.
Speaker: Will Barker, Manager, Strategic Customer Success, BlueConic
Overcoming Roadblocks To Innovation
Innovation is a challenging concept for media companies. It requires having the vision to reinvent, but also the discipline to establish goals, processes, and metrics for implementation. And it can’t be mere experimentation or innovating for the sake of innovating. Hear 12 ways to succeed in overcoming common roadblocks. You’ll learn:
- Why innovation has to have a specific definition within the enterprise.
- How panelists are turning a sometimes-elusive concept into tangible steps.
- Why it requires a cultural shift that goes well beyond a new technology or tool.
- Why it’s essential to start with an end in mind.
- How being audience-led is vital.
- Principles for an internal innovation framework.
Speakers:
Chris Ferrell, CEO, Endeavor Business Media
Dan Fink, Managing Director, Money-Media, Financial Times
Marshall Cooper, CEO, Chief Executive Group
Jason Young, CEO, Northstar Travel Group
James Capo, CEO, Omeda
WTWH Media Case Study: on acquisitions and integration
WTWH has grown into a rapid-growth private-equity backed enterprise whose three key acquisitions were among the only PE transactions in B2B in 2023. Hear from CEO Scott McCafferty and recently acquired Aging Media’s CEO, George Yedinak, about the deals, the integration, the strategy and the outlook. You’ll learn:
- The genesis of the three acquisitions.
- What’s next for WTWH.
- Progress of the integration of the three formerly independent companies.
- More about WTWH’s partnership with Mountaingate Capital.
Speakers:
Scott McCafferty, CEO, WTWH Media
George Yedinak, EVP, Healthcare, WTWH Media
Best-in-Class Content Marketing Capabilities that Maximize Client ROI
Content marketing is a consistently popular and effective form of marketing that translates into opportunities for media brands. Sit in for the latest techniques, both for content creation and distribution. You’ll learn:
- Actionable takeaways for building out your content-marketing offerings and effectively selling them.
- The right approach: A specialized studio, or using external resources.
- Where the distribution action is—online, social media, events, and more.
Speakers:
Kathleen Conley, VP of Program Management at studioID, Industry Dive’s Global Content Marketing Studio.
Jon Steiert, Head of Content Marketing, NetLine
How (And Why) BNP Media Shifted During The Pandemic To An All-Digital Publishing Model
BNP Media, with more than 40 B2B media brands and 100 individual media properties, decided in 2020 to eliminate print across its portfolio. Print was about 40% of total revenue. It recently completed that transition, and here, Co-CEO Tagg Henderson and COO Nikki Smith will take us through the process and the lessons learned. You’ll learn:
- The impact on overall revenue across the company.
- How BNP expanded digital products in response.
- How the pivot to digital affected audience size and insights.
- BNP’s approach to internal training initiatives for the transition.
Speakers:
Tagg Henderson, C0-CEO, BNP Media
Nikki Smith, Chief Operations Officer, BNP Media
Sparking Human Connections: The Secret to Winning in an AI-Driven World
As media companies explore the possibilities and efficiencies of AI-driven content, it’s important not to lose sight of the real magic and differentiator for B2B media companies: the connection you have with your audience (you know, real people).
CredSpark will showcase how media brands are innovating with interactive content to exponentially improve audience engagement with content, community, events, and sponsored lead gen. Plus, they’ll introduce clever examples of using the data generated from interactive content with AI-powered features to deliver personalized audience experiences that capture attention, deliver value, spur transactions, and increase revenue.
Speaker: Casey Cornelius, Head of Content Services, CredSpark
Two decades of jarring change in media—print to digital, the emergence of mobile, search and social media—was often halting and flawed. Hear a panel of executives discuss avoiding past mistakes when it comes to AI. You’ll learn:
- The most common pitfalls common to each of these disruptions.
- The ways they’re unique.
- Whether AI is an existential threat.
- How to avoid the mistakes of prior disruptions when it comes to AI.
Speakers:
Jim Spanfeller, CEO, G/O Media
John Lerner, CEO, Breaking Media
Bill Carter, CEO, ALM Global
Prescott Shibles, CEO, Farm Journal Media
Heather Holst – Knudsen, Founder and CEO, H2K Labs
Look for our BIMS Surveys in Your Email!
Copyright 2021. The Software & Information Industry Association. All Rights