Summits

In the lead-up to tomorrow's (or today's depending upon when you read this!) RAIN Summit Europe in Berlin, we've been introducing companies and professionals that are leading the Internet radio industry across the Atlantic. Probably not surprisingly, our host nation will well-represented at the Summit, with more industry professionals there than any other country. We've already featured companies like Aupeo (here), NRJ International (here), RTL Radio Center Berlin (here), cjlea.com & Dig This Media, and RMS (here).

While most of our guests will be moderating or participating in panel discussions, we'll take time for a research presentation from Goldmedia Strategy Consulting (Goldmedia Holding GmbH) Managing Director Dr. Klaus Goldhammer (left). Goldmedia Group provides national and international clients with high-quality consulting and research services in the fields of media, entertainment, and telecommunications. Dr. Goldhammer will present his firm's new study, "Web Radio Monitor 2012," a look at online radio listenership in Germany.

Andreas Hamdorf is Director of Ad Operations for pilot, an independent, owner-run agency group for modern brand communication in Germany. Hamdorf will take part in the "Agency Roundtable - Internet Radio Advertising" panel, which will examine the benefits and challenges of streaming audio as an ad medium.

You're likely familiar with on-demand services like Spotify and Rhapsody. Have you had the opportunity to try simfy? It's a German-based on-demand music service which bills itself as "a fast and easy way to listen to music - no limits, no hassle, everywhere and at any time." Simfy CEO Gerrit Schumann will join us for the panel "Personalized Radio," to focus on individualized listening options available in streaming platforms.

Like Americans, Germans love their cars! Technologists are quickly moving to integrate automobile dashboards with Internet and mobile functionality, including audio entertainment options. Our panel "The Connected Dashboard" will focus on the progress and potential impact of in-car connectivity. The panel will be moderated by Stefaan Sonck Thiebaut (left), Co-Founder & General Manager of OpenSynergy, a Berlin-based software company working in the automotive software space.

Peter Burgner is Project Manager for Music Services & Web Radio at BMW Group, Germany's home of world-famous automobile brands like BMW, MINI, and (yes) Rolls-Royce. Wolfgang Zehrt (left) is Director and a Board Member for DAPD Media Holding (DDP Direct), a Berlin-based news agency based in Berlin, which serves a customer base of 700 media outlets like newspapers, magazines, online media, TV and radio. Both will also speak on "The Connected Dashboard" panel.

Our keynote speaker is Spotify's European GM and VP of Ad Sales Jonathan Forster. Spotify now has 15 million active users worldwide, 4 million of whom pay for the service every month. Besides its on-demand streaming product, Spotify Radio is a personalized radio stream listeners create based on artists, songs, or genres, which can be further influenced through "thumbs up/thumbs down" song ratings. While Spotify is based in Sweden, since March it's been available in Germany. And this week, Spotify announced a special mobile tariff deal to make the service available to Deutsche Telekom customers.

We hope you're able to join us for our very first RAIN Summit Europe, Friday at Berlin's nHow Hotel. All the details are here.

Herzlich willkommen in Berlin!

This year's RAIN Summit West will include a brand-new feature: RAIN Summit POVs, or Points of View. We've invited several industry thought leaders to weigh in on a certain topic. This year's topic: Redefining Radio.

As part of the Summit -- which takes place Sunday, April 15 -- the industry experts will share their perspectives in brief 10 minute talks. 

This year, the following industry experts will present RAIN Summit POVs:

• Triton Media Group President/CEO Neal Schore
• Borrell Associates CEO Gordon Borrell
• Liquid Compass Founder and CEO Zackary Lewis

We hope their ideas on "Redefining Radio" will spark new thoughts and provoke some interesting cocktail party conversations! The POVs are sure to be one of RAIN Summit West 2012's highlights.

Now that we're a few weeks away from the Summit, tickets are going fast. Several of our Summits in the past have sold out, so we encourage you to register sooner rather than later.

You can find out more about the Summit and register to attend right here. We hope to see you there!

RAIN Summit West 2012's roster is now made up of more than 35 industry experts and today we're delighted to announce four more, including executives from Pandora, Cox Media Group, Stitcher and Triton Digital.

Pandora VP of Audio Sales Doug Sterne (pictured right) will speak as part of our "How Many, How Much?" panel. In addition to driving audio sales at Pandora, Sterne is in charge of the Pandora Audio Lab, a testing ground for optimizing audio creative and determining best practices for optimizing advertiser results. Before joining Pandora, Sterne was VP of Sales at Clear Channel Online Music and Radio and VP of Infinity Radio (CBS).

Joining the "Connected Dashboard" discussion is Sandhi Kozsuch (pictured left), Director of Strategic Industry Initiatives for Cox Media Group. He leads the company’s development of Mobile DTV, IPTV/OTT, and Digital Radio Datacasting. Kozsuch also serves on the Board and Executive Committee of Pearl LLC, and is the Chairman of the Pearl Technology Committee.

RAIN Summit West 2012 will also feature Noah Shanok (pictured right), CEO and co-founder of Stitcher (a service that's like Pandora for news and talk radio). Shanok will speak as part of the "Innovating the News/Talk Format Online" panel. He was also the founding VP of Sales for StubHub, an online ticket marketplace that sold to eBay in January 2007.

Mike Becker (pictured left), Triton Digital's COO of Applications & Services Division, will join the panel "It's Who You Know." Becker has over 17 years of experience in technology and marketing. Prior to joining Triton, he was a founder and COO of Enticent, a leading SaaS provider of loyalty marketing and audience relationship management tools for media companies.

Other speakers set to appear at RAIN Summit West 2012 include DAR.fm's Michael Roberston, Spotify's Jon Mitchell, TAG Strategic's Ted Cohen and many others. ESPN SVP of Production/Business Divisions Traug Keller will keynote the conference.

RAIN Summit West will take place on Sunday, April 15 at the former Las Vegas Hilton, now called the LVH -- Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. It will conclude with the always-anticipated tradition of the poolside RAIN Reader Cocktail Party.

The Summit is an official “Co-Located Education Program” of the NAB Show. Registration includes access to the NAB Show Exhibit Hall and a catered box lunch. RAIN registrants can save $100 on NAB/RAB Radio Show registration.

For registration and sponsorship information, visit kurthanson.com/rainsummitwest.

Other RAIN Summits are planned for later this year in Dallas (at the RAB/NAB Radio Show) on September 18th, in Minneapolis (at the Conclave) on July 20, and in Berlin, Germany on October 5th.

RAIN Summit West 2012 will feature not only the biggest names in Internet radio, but also top experts from broadcast radio, device manufacturers and other web services. To highlight this, today we're pleased to announce the addition of Liz Aiello, Jake Sigal and Darryl Ballantyne to the conference's agenda!

Liz Aiello (pictured right) most recently was VP of Programming for Merlin Media LLC, building New York’s first all-news radio station on FM. She's also served as SVP of Broadcast at Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, has worked with Howard Stern and spent 17 years with ABC. Aiello will speak as part of the "Innovating the News/Talk Format Online" panel at RAIN Summit West 2012.

RAIN Summits veteran Jake Sigal (pictured left) is Founder and CEO of Livio Radio. Sigal founded Livio Radio in 2008 -- the company offers several devices for tuning in to Internet radio around the house and especially in cars. Sigal will participate in RAIN Summit West's discussion on "The Connected Dashboard."

Darryl Ballantyne (pictured right) is CEO of LyricFind Inc. -- the largest legal, licensed lyrics database in the world, with millions of licensed tracks available and thousands of lyrics sublicensing clients. LyricFind provides lyrics to services like The Echo Nest (more here). Ballantyne will be a panelist for our "It's Who You Know" discussion.

You can find RAIN Summit West's full agenda and list of speakers right here. The Summit takes place Sunday, April 15 in Las Vegas. More details can be found here.

Be sure to register soon! Seats are going fast.

RAIN Summit West will include a special highlight this year: an interview with U.S. Copyright Office General Counsel David Carson.

Carson (pictured right) was appointed Copyright Office General Counsel in 1997 after practicing law for 16 years (where his work centered on copyright law, with an emphasis on the publishing, entertainment and computer software industries). He has also served as chair of the Copyright Committee of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

He'll be interviewed on stage at RAIN Summit West 2012 by Davis Wright Tremaine partner and industry attorney David Oxenford (pictured left). He has represented broadcasters before the Federal Communications Commission, the courts and other government agencies for almost 30 years. Oxenford is a RAIN Summit veteran and a frequent source in RAIN. He also edits DWT's Broadcast Law Blog (here).

RAIN Summit West 2012 takes place on Sunday, April 15 in Las Vegas just before the NAB/RAB Radio Show gets under way. You can find the Summit's full schedule and line-up of speakers here.

Be sure to register soon! Seats are going fast.