I'm currently the Executive Director of Show Initiative, LLC, a small media company. Our current focus is our Virtual Worlds Management (VWM) efforts. VWM is the leading provider of trade events and media for the emerging virtual worlds industry.
Professional Background for Christopher V. Sherman
The "more-than-you-really-wanted-to-know" version
published July 24, 2007
What has gone before (this blog)
published July 24, 2007
I've been at the intersection of media and technology since the early 1990s. Graduated Western Michigan University and started masters at American University in DC.
Multimedia
In 1992 started my professional career at Phillips Publishing, which at the time was the largest newsletter publisher in the world. Immediately found my niche in what was termed "Multimedia" at the time. I served as the launch editor of Multimedia Week, a weekly print newsletter. I stayed with Phillips until 1994 when I got the online bug and was asked to leave. I wanted to start exploring the online space (AOL, Compuserve, Prodigy) to see what opportunities lie their for the media business. But as I was paid to write and only write very quickly asked to leave the company. 30 days later - May 1, 2004 I launched Multimedia Wire (MMWIRE), a daily fax newsletter covering all things multimedia.
The content eventually was refined to focus on consumer interactive entertainment (video games) mostly. But we covered CD-ROMs and the emerging Internet as well... the birth of Yahoo, etc. I participated in the launch of the famed and now defunct E3 Expo with the production of the unofficial www.E3.net web site and party list and contributed to the official E3 Show Daily. I sold Multimedia Wire to Phillips Publishing in 1996 and moved from Bethesda, MD to San Francisco to start...
GamePen and UGO
The idea was to jump into the Internet and launch a web-based, advertising supported magazine on video games. With the horried name of GamePen.com we leased an office, hired a small staff of 2 and built up a stable of freelance writers. When GameSpot launched shortly thereafter we knew we were out-gunned.
In a moment of creativity we repositioned the company with the creation of Unified Gamers Online or UGO for short. UGO became an advertising network of game web sites. It allowed us to scale quicker in terms of visitors and page views so we could better compete with Happy Puppy, GameSpot, CNET's GameCenter, IGN and the like. We event partnered briefly with Concentric Network, a hot up and coming Internet Service Provider, to launch the UGO GameGateway online game service. Anyway Concentric spent $150,000 on the plan and then pulled the plug when they realised that to generate the right kind of business necessary to go IPO they needed to re-focus on enterprise customers not consumers. That left us in a bit of a mess. We should have spent more time signing up network affiliates to bulk up our size event further. I ended up selling UGO to a New York startup called ActionWorld (which was spun out of InterWorld). ActionWorld renamed itself UGO Networks after the transaction and closed our San Francisco offices. I stayed for 6 months and then parted ways.
eDedication and United Devices
After attempting to navigate the online music space with a startup called eDedication.com, Inc. and fumbling around with the horror and Holloween business online I ended up in Austin, Texas working for a grid commuting startup called United Devices. eDedication.com raised seed money (about $300k) mostly from executives at eBay and got to the launch phase but then ran out of capital. At that time the Internet Bubble had burst and so I shut the company down. I landed at United Devices in December 2000. That lasted almost 10 months. With 30 days of 9/11/2001 I was part of that company's third (or was it fourth) round of layoffs.
AustinXL, Angel Legacy and Texas Entrepreneur Initiative
Running for cover I returned to my newsletter roots and launched a daily email news service called AustinXL. AustinXL covered technology, startup and business news in the Central Texas area. To beef up subscribership quickly I acquired the Austin assets of recently bankrupt LocalBusiness.com (or dbusiness.com).
Along the way I started working with Joe Milam at Legacy Capital Inc. on a startup he was building called Angel Legacy. Angel Legacy's goal was to help angel investors manage their investment portfolios. I met Joe while raising money for eDedication.com (the one good thing to come out of that process in fact). In the midst of the economic downturn Angel Legacy eventually ran out of capital and operations were suspended.
AustinXL eventually became part of a new brand: Texas Entrepreneur Initiative.
Business Growth, AGC, TBS
In 2003 in an effort to generate additional revenue I struck a partnership with a transplanted Englishman named Steve Farrer who at the time was running a marketing company. We created the Business Growth Conference, a conference and expo for small business owners in Central Texas. That conference was only a modest success (we ran it in 2003 and 2004) but that first year did teach me the events business.
In May of 2003 I applied that event knowledge to the game industry and with the help and support of the local Austin game development community I launched the Austin Game Conference (AGC). Austin Game Initiative, LLC (aka The Game Initiative) went on to produce 10 different game development conferences from February 2003 to October 2006.
Along the way Steve Farrer and I founded Beauty Show Management, LLC to create and operate the Texas Beauty Show (TBS), a conference and expo for salon owners and stylists. I remain an owner in BSM but have not been involved in day-to-day operations since the company's founding and the first TBS.
While growing The Game Initiative I was also attempting to manage AustinXL. I launched the Texas Entrepreneur Initiative (TEI) and for a while there created and ran a number of events for entrepreneurs (see event list below).
Show Initiative and Virtual Worlds Management
At the end of 2005 The Game Initiative had grown to consume 100% of my time and AustinXL was pushed ever further to the back burner. It was published off and on in 2006 and I finally "officially" suspended publication in 2007.
In October of 2006 I sold The Game Initiative's portfolio of 10 game industry events (including the industry leading Austin Game Conference) and The Game Initiative and Austin Game Initiative tradename to CMP Technology.
We made a great go of it for 4 years - with a mistake or two here and there along the way. We were going to have to make some substantial changes to continue to grow as an independent and continue to provide a quality service to AGC attendees and sponsors. Perhaps I chose the easy option in selling but family and personal reasons played into my decision to sell as well. It was a decision that did not come easily and we did explore a variety of options and opportunities. I certainly hope CMP will continue to rely on the excellent input from advisors and maintain a high quality show. I've offered them my services as well should they need them to help maintain the integrity of the event.
After the sale we changed the company name from Austin Game Initiative, LLC to Show Initiative, LLC and before we could take a breath I began to tackle the landscape of the emerging virtual worlds industry.
The adventure continues.....
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