Ex-pulvermedia Execs Launch New Company

Two executives who formerly worked for pulvermedia – the company that owned the highly successful Spring and Fall VON shows until it fell on hard times and disappeared earlier this year – have resurfaced and launched their own company, Crossfire Media.

Scott Kargman, who was COO of pulvermedia and managed the VON shows, is now COO of the new company, and Carl Ford, who was vice president of content and community development at pulvermedia, also will keep the same title at Crossfire.

For a number of years, pulvermedia – and its shows – were the darlings of the voice-over-net community, with Spring Von even snagging the overall award for fastest-growing show at the 2006 Tradeshow Week Fastest 50 event in Boston.

During the most recent Spring VON show, held March 17-20 at the San Jose (Calif.) McEnery Convention Center, trouble brewed as rumors swirled around the showfloor that something might be amiss with the company.

A few days earlier, Greenwich, Conn.-based TICC Capital, a private equity firm that had backed pulvermedia, informed the Securities and Exchange Commission in a routine quarterly filing that it was reporting an unrealized loss of $10.6 million on senior secured notes and warrants to purchase common stock issued by pulvermedia.

Kargman said he found out there could be a problem when he was at the show. “We were (there), and they grabbed the money,” he added. “I had no idea there was anything wrong before then. Absolutely none.”

The show ended, and, less than two months later, pulvermedia closed its doors for good, just weeks before VON Europe Amsterdam was supposed to run, leaving exhibitors frustrated and calls unanswered.

Kargman said it was hard for him to swallow because he and his team had put a lot of time and effort into the shows. “Without a doubt, (it was difficult),” he added. “I had relationships I had built with companies for eight years. Fortunately, people don't hold it against me.”

In fact, Kargman said, a number of the big-name companies that exhibited in the VON shows are working with him now at the new company.

According to Kargman, Crossfire Media came about through a joint-venture partnership with Technology Marketing Assn., and the focus of the new company will be on fourth-generation wireless communications.

“Our goal is to bring 4G content in the form of a tradeshow and community portal and to be a leader in providing resources to the 4G community,” Kargman said.

In a press release announcing the new company, 4G is described as “the fourth generation of wireless communications, which is expected to be implemented globally in the next two to five years, and which will offer significantly faster speeds and broader applications than current wireless networks can allow.”

The company's debut event, the 4G Wireless Evolution Conference, will take place Feb. 2-4 at the Miami Beach (Fla.) Convention Center. Kargman said of the conference, “This event is definitely being supported right now by the people we needed. We are looking to do two events in 2009, along with a series of webinars.”