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Variety Panel Gets Royal Treatment
In addition to working on acquisitions and corporate partnerships, occasionally I am asked to participate on panels of experts. Usually these panels are populated by successful CEOs or investors who trade notes on various internet and new media trends. But every once in a while, a panel/speaking opportunity comes along that is simply too good to be true.  Todd Williamson/WireImage Like the one this past Friday at Variety's day-long Venture Capital & New Media Summit. In addition to the obligatory successful CEO’s like Dominic Wheatley, Tim Cadogan, Ankur Shah, we were joined by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who were in town to help focus attention on the UK's commitment to technology. Yes, the most famous people on the planet were going to be sharing the stage with us to discuss innovation in the UK. I'll admit to being more than a little star struck by the whole thing. One blogger compared the panel discussion to a Justin Bieber concert – complete with photo snapping hysteria from 400 or so attendees at the conference. Representatives of the global media were clamoring in the back of the room to cover William and Catherine’s first visit, and first official event, in the US. As the Duke and Duchess took their seats, the moderator Chad Troutwine turned to me and asked me the first question, which was basically to describe Demand Media (and eHow) to our royal guests. What a moment! With great pride I described how far we’ve come in the last 5 years, and how far we have yet to go, particularly with our international expansion plans. Demand Media has offices in Shoreditch, which is right in the heart of the UK's Tech City. We have over a thousand professional writers across the country creating content for us, for sites like ehow.co.uk which is quickly becoming a leading resource for how-to information in the UK. We also provide a very cool set of social publishing tools like our Pluck and CoverItLive products to major media companies and brands in the UK, including Boots, BBC, Selfridges and Sky. The Duke and Duchess seemed impressed by the discussion, and we chatted briefly after the panel about trends in ecommerce and education. As you may have noticed, the media coverage of the Royal Couple’s first visit to the US was astounding. And some of the articles even mentioned the substance and purpose of this visit, not just what the Duchess was wearing! But fashion coverage is ok too, and certainly has a place. We are banking (pardon the pun) on that with TypeF.com.
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