This is what the OpenOcean hosted media-ecosystem dinners are all about!

Over the past 14 months, at OpenOcean, we have arranged what we call “media-ecosystem dinners” across the world. First in Helsinki, then in London, and most recently in NYC. Our objective is to bring together senior representatives from the various players in the digital media ecosystem. We invite startups, internet giants, agency folks, media corporates, as well as fellow investors active in the space, to wine, dine, and exchange views on the future of the industry. The best part, in my opinion, is that it is always a fantastic opportunity to meet top-notch industry experts, and better yet learn from some of the best in the business.

In the first week of November this year, OpenOcean hosted a Media ecosystem dinner filled with extensive networking and lively discussion at the fabulous Soho House in New York City. Our 24 guests enjoyed cocktails and a delicious dinner around one long table. Among the guests were senior agency representatives, (larger) tech company executives, angel- and VC investors, and hot media-tech startups (including three of our own portfolio companies; LoopMe, Unacast, and Verto Analytics).

Also in attendance was John Montgomery, whom we were honored to have as our keynote speaker. John has had a stellar career in the (digital) media agency business, with responsibilities ranging from Chief of Digital for Americas at GroupM to running several WPP Group media agencies. Currently, John serves as EVP of Brand Safety at GroupM.

The keynote address had a slight twist to it this time. As a the media-tech focused GP at OpenOcean, we thought it made sense that I asked John a few questions to ignite his keynote. John handled theses brilliantly and comprehensively shared his invaluable insights on a variety of topics.

Some key questions John covered:

• What has changed in the 30 or so years that you (John) have been in the media agency business?
• What does Brand Safety mean and why would WPP and GroupM appoint such a senior person to lead this practice?
• Platforms (the real content distributors) are getting stronger and stronger and, in the process, taking revenue away from news organizations (the real content creators). Where is this going?
• Marketers are under pressure to drive costs down and the media budget is an easy target for Procurement. How sustainable is this and how does it influence, both quality and ultimately brand safety? Does brand safety work at the end of the day?

In addition to discussion around the above areas, there were a number of questions and comments from the participants, a few examples include:

- that it is actually about a much bigger issue, it is about societal safety and not just brand safety
- that the same arguments (John made) about brand safety were made 5–10 years ago when first solutions like DoubleVerify and Moat were launched to the market. So what has really changed now?
- independent marketing solution providers, of which many of the participants were, highlighted that they are the ones respecting advertisers and publishers needs and serving these in a much more brand safe and data safe way than the internet giants

The discussions at our dinners are under Chatham Rules, so we can unfortunately not in a blog post like this make more specific notes on the comments of participants. To hear more details you will need to join one of these dinners in the future!

OpenOcean looks forward to continuing to host Media ecosystem dinners in different cities, and we invite your suggestions for: discussion topics, participants, keynote speakers, venues, and even cities where you feel the media/adtech ecosystem is increasingly vibrant to bring a cross-section of the ecosystem together.