NY DS investor conference will be interesting

September 26, 2008 by Dave Haynes

I have no current plans to attend the Strategy Institute’s annual digital out of home media investor conference in a couple of weeks in New York, but it would certainly be interesting.

First of all, you have this panel:

10:45 AM

Wall Street Panel:

Performance, Predictions and Analysis of OOH Media, Billboards and Digital Signage Networks

Mark Wienkes, Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Marci Ryvicker, VP, Equity Research, Wachovia Capital Markets

James Farrant, VP, Senior Research Analyst, Morgan Stanley 

Unless you are just emerging, squinting and coughing, from a cave, you may have heard something about investment bankers and big banks being in a bit of of a pickle lately. So their expert opinions, particularly the Goldman and Morgan Stanley guys, may be greeted with a mix of amusement and derision. That’s if these folkds even carry those business cards in a  coupla weeks.

There are also sessions looking at the venture capital appetite for this stuff right now (let’s just say really limited, at the moment) and the challenges and prospects of raising money.

In simple terms, fundraising is gonna be REALLY hard unless you are already making money and more cash in the door will just open that tap some more. Companies built solely on revenues from ad dollars might want to save the airfare and hotel costs. You won’t need a conference to tell you investors aren’t taking those sorts of leaps of faith, at least not for the next little bit.