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Industry leaders will try to tap into wisdom of Internet innovators at five-day conference
By Michael Liedtke
Associated Press
Published on Tuesday, Jul 07, 2009
It's a different time now for the media industry than it was in 1983, when investment bank Allen & Co. held its first summer summit in the Idaho mountains. The conference, which returns to Sun Valley today, now revolves around the technology trailblazers who have turned computers and mobile phones into multimedia hubs that are tormenting newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, music labels and movie studios.
The disruption has the ''geeks'' playing the dual role of the media's sages and scourges.
This week, Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Evan Williams will probably be in high demand as people try to figure out whether the online messaging service is a fad or a revolutionary breakthrough in communications.
''Ev is going to be the belle of the ball,'' predicted Mark Pincus, chief executive of Zynga Inc., a developer of games widely played at online hangouts such as Facebook. Pincus is going to the Allen conference for the first time.
With roots dating to the 1920s, Allen & Co. is run by Herb Allen, grandson of one of the founders. Although relatively small, Allen & Co. has become a prominent media investment bank by emphasizing a personal touch — such as the Sun Valley summit. The firm invites current and prospective clients to spend five days with their families at a posh lodge made famous by Er
nest Hemingway.
The Allen & Co. guest list isn't officially disclosed, but familiar media faces at the conference typically include News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch; Donald Graham, head of the Washington Post Co.; and Robert Iger, chief executive of Walt Disney Co.
Allen & Co. began sharpening its focus on technology in 2001. The firm has tried to enmesh more media leaders in the Web by regularly inviting Internet innovators such as browser pioneer Marc Andreessen,Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bezos and Google Inc. founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. All are expected back this year.
A few years ago, YouTube Chief Executive Chad Hurley met with TV, movie and music executives eager to learn — and sometimes gripe — about the Internet's most popular video channel. Like YouTube before it, Twitter still hasn't come up with a way to make money. That is likely to stir speculation that Williams might be fishing for business partners or even an acquirer.
Hurley agreed to sell YouTube to Google just three months after dominating the discussions at Allen's summit in 2006. The deal, worth $1.76 billion when it closed, was hammered out at a Denny's in Silicon Valley. YouTube remains unprofitable, though its audience is larger than ever.
Williams and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone have consistently said they aren't interested in selling their company, preferring to subsist on $55 million in venture capital until they unveil their plans for bringing in revenue.
It's a different time now for the media industry than it was in 1983, when investment bank Allen & Co. held its first summer summit in the Idaho mountains. The conference, which returns to Sun Valley today, now revolves around the technology trailblazers who have turned computers and mobile phones into multimedia hubs that are tormenting newspapers, magazines, broadcasters, music labels and movie studios.
Get the full article here.
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