In the summer of 2011 I found a truism in my life in the form of a quote from Ernest Hemingway, “Never confuse movement with action.”
It was a chance meeting at the Webby Awards in NYC that brought me to the doorstep of Interactive Knowledge. At a cocktail reception I happened to talk to a man from Charlotte, North Carolina. We immediately struck up a string of conversations that ranged from the city of Charlotte to our views on the state of the world. I quickly noticed that this Southern man was a person who knew precisely what he wanted, had a streamlined focus on his business, and was a man of action (a direct contrast to many people in the City these days, all chock full of words, promises and movement- but no action to support it). That man was Tim Songer. And this is the story of my journey.
I graduated from Johns Hopkins University with a degree in Political Science, but rather than attend law school, I thankfully found myself working in the music business at EMI Records Group North America. It was there that I got acquainted with the internet and got hooked into the entertainment business. This led to a four year role as the first Advertising Sales Director for CMJ New Music Monthly, founding producer of CMJ.com, and the Executive Producer of the G-SHOCK CMJ MusicFest. In addition, I executive produced many corporate-sponsored events, promotions, compilation CDs, and websites. In the crazy Internet 1.0 days I started my own company called k2music, a new media and music advertising, marketing, and events consultancy firm. There I founded and produced the first-of-its-kind, on-demand streaming media site CollegeMusic.com.
I spent many years as the Business Development Executive and New Media Producer for Chris Blackwell’s RES Media Group. Duties included overseeing RES Media Group’s sales efforts across platforms (magazine, web, DVD, events) and crafting partnerships and new media opportunities for nontraditional revenue sources as founder of RESlab, a marketing division, including special DVD and Web projects and content licensing for mobile phones and other handheld devices.
In my role as managing partner of my own business at k2media, a partnership focused on delivering clients new media services and solutions, I began working on certain projects with Tim Songer.
By 2011 I had already been looking around the South to relocate with my family for a lifestyle change, a move which relented itself to much internal trepidation, having lived a total of 17 years in NYC. Fortunately my promising conversation at the Webby Awards with Tim about the city of Charlotte provided me with the insights I needed to be able to make a decision regarding my career. In my opinion, NYC is the greatest city in the world but Charlotte is the next step in what a modern US city can be – inviting, friendly, centered, relaxed-- yet full of smart, driven people with their priorities in all the right places. What is fortunately missing is all the negative stress, which sometimes kept me away from successes.
Upon meeting the talented staff at Interactive Knowledge, I was struck by the dedication and intelligence within this office. So when the chance to be a part of the organization presented itself in 2011– I took it! I look forward to years of success working with people of action.
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