State of Play V: Speakers' Bios

Profile

Chris Executive Director and Founder of Show Initiative, LLC and Virtual Worlds Management, the leading trade media company serving virtual worlds professionals. Chris has been at the intersection of media and technology since the early 1990s, having founded numerous companies during that time. Since it's founding in 2003, Show Initiative's conferences and tradeshows have attracted thousands of industry professionals from around the world. In October 2006 the company sold its portfolio of 10 game industry events (including the industry leading Austin Game Conference) and The Game Initiative tradename to CMP Technology and founded its Virtual Worlds Management division.

 

Chris has been involved in a variety of startups including three media companies, a web services company managing investment portfolios for angel investors, an online music company, a grid computing company and an ecommerce firm dedicated to horror and Halloween related merchandise.

 

Prior to all this Chris launched UGO (UnderGroundOnline) which went on to become one of the leading online media networks catering to men aged 18 to 34.  He sold UGO to a NYC-based investment group in 1999. Prior to founding UGO, Chris was the founding publisher of Multimedia Wire (MMWIRE), a daily subscription based fax newsletter for the video game industry. He participated in the launch of the famed and now defunct E3 Expo with the production of the E3.net web site and contributing to the E3 Show Daily.