Over 50 Media and Tech Industry Leaders to Speak at Progress Partners? second annual summit, Progress Connect
BOSTON, MA – October 16, 2017 ? Progress Partners, the Boston and New York-based M&A advisory firm, held their second annual Progress Connect, a leadership and industry summit held in Boston, and welcomed over 300 industry leaders to The State Room on Wednesday, October 11.
Progress Connect 2017 took the media industry’s leading thinkers on a journey to learn what lies ahead, how to navigate the rapidly changing environment, and how to best leverage all the available tools to stay ahead with conversations around ?Data, Transparency, and the Future of Media.?
For the 2017 event, over 50 key speakers joined the partners at Progress, including Bing Chen, Creator & Entrepreneur; Eric Gertler, Co-Chairman, US News World Report; Wyc Grousbeck, Governor & Managing Partner, Boston Celtics; Rana el Kaliouby, CEO & Co-Founder, Affectiva; Randall Lane, Editor, Forbes Magazine; Lindsay Nelson, CMO, Vox Media; Craig Newmark, Founder, craigslist; Founder, Craig Newmark Foundation; Eli Pariser, President, Upworthy and GOOD Worldwide; Anne Schelle, Managing Director, Pearl TV; and Samantha Skey, CRO, SheKnows. The day?s program included a series of fireside chats, interviews, breakout sessions, and CEO presentations.
Key session topics included: a fireside chat about the Future of Media; a data-centric panel about Uncovering the Signal; a panel on the media?s battle in fighting fake news; how influencers are monetizing a new generation of consumers through The Influencer Factor; and multiple breakout sessions covering topics from ad tech, next-gen TV, and content media disruptors, to pub tech, retail tech, and digital audio.
?We are thrilled to have hosted our second annual summit after an incredible inaugural at the Liberty Hotel last year,? commented Nick MacShane, founder of and senior managing director at Progress Partners. ?Sam, Chris, Rick, and I brought this event to life so we could gather the best and brightest in Digital Media, Marketing, Advertising, and tech under one roof, creating a forum to discuss technology?s and media?s biggest hurdles.?
?Once a year, we can bring together leading thinkers from the media and technology industries, dedicated to tackling the biggest challenges that remain unsolved for the entrepreneurs, executives, and investors that join us in the room,? added Sam Thompson, senior managing director at Progress Partners. ?We make a point to remind attendees that life is too short to pull punches ? making for a spirited affair, and a productive investment of time for everyone involved.?
Last year?s inaugural summit drew over 275+ growth stage company CXOs, strategic company corp dev and biz dev professionals, and investors from Boston, New York City, and cities across the U.S. Progress Connect 2016 featured senior leaders from major software companies including IBM, Oracle, Adobe and Google; media companies such as Time Inc., Comcast, NBC, Cox, and Nexstar Media Group; venture capital and private equity investors; and C-level executives from leading digital media, mar tech, and ad tech companies including MediaMath, 4C Insights, Samba TV, and Tremor Video (now Telaria).
This year?s summit was sponsored by Nutter McLennan & Fish, Rules, Pixability, Simpli.fi, Videa, Intralinks, Cambridge Trust Company, and Loeb & Loeb.
For those unable to attend this year’s event, you can find our recap reel at our YouTube page and more highlights from this year’s summit below:
About Progress Connect
Progress Connect is more than an investor conference or industry event. It is a leadership summit – a forum through which industry heads can discuss shared challenges and strategies to reach new levels of growth and innovation. This event was created with the intent of bringing together C-level innovators and disruptors from top Internet, digital media, traditional TV and broadcasting, and marketing and advertising technology companies, highlighting topics, themes, and thought leaders at the forefront of technological and strategic innovation in these sectors. Through fireside debates, sector-focused breakout sessions, and market-driven presentations, participants will leave the event with valuable insights on internal and external innovations, acquisition planning, strategic investing, and more.
For more information, please visit: www.progressconnect.com
About Progress Partners
Progress Partners is a Boston and New York-based M&A advisory firm working with emerging technology companies within media, marketing, advertising sectors, serving SMB through Enterprise. Progress Partners works high growth companies to complete buy-side and sell-side M&A transactions, raise debt or equity capital, as well as, develop and implement strategic growth plans. The firm’s high standards of excellence, in-depth industry experience, extensive network, and entrepreneurial background give Progress Partners the ability to build and realize superior value for its clients. Securities offered by Applied Capital, LLC, member of FINRA and SIPC.
For more information, please visit: www.progresspartners.com