James Murdoch-Backed Art Basel Owner Pushes Into Media Events Business (Exclusive)
MCH Group, the company behind Art Basel, is pushing into the media events business, backing a new venture called Jupiter Festival.
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The inaugural Jupiter Festival is currently slated to be held in Miami this October, with speakers that include Tribeca Enterprises CEO Rebecca Glashow, Fox One chief Pete Distad, Inside the NBA host Kenny Smith, YouTube’s Brian Albert, and former 60 Minutes executive producer Bill Owens.
“The industry doesn’t have an event that does what we do,” says William Mellis, CEO and co-founder of Jupiter Festival, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “I start with that as a fundamental premise. We’re all about the future of content. The industry is going through, I would say, a seismic change, not a transformational change. It’s far deeper than that, and in order to understand what the future of video content is, we bring the industry together with the senior people in the industry to explore debate and figure out what they’re going to do to be successful in the new paradigm.”
For MCH Group, Jupiter is a chance to push into a new arena: Media, complementing its Art Basel events around the world and exhibitions.
“There is no doubt that media, even more than ever, represents a fundamental pillar of the cultural development of our societies,” says Andrea Zappia, group CEO of MCH Group, in an interview with THR. “Through our conversations at Art Basel, we try to instigate thought leadership moments, and so what we thought is that media is a very adjacent concept area in a broader cultural territory.
“When William came with the idea, we immediately recognized the potential behind the idea to invest and create a strong brand that can be over time one of the leading events that will connect people around such an important topic,” he continued.
MCH group, it is worth noting, counts James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems as its largest individual shareholder. Murdoch is a prominent player in the media space himself, having recently acquired New York magazine and Vox Media’s podcast business.
Jupiter Festival will be based at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the same venue as Art Basel Miami, with Mellis promising a mix of speakers and attendees that will sometimes “challenge and provoke the industry,” like Evan Shapiro, alongside senior executives.
“We’ve clearly assessed all our competitors and looked at it, and I believe there is a gap in the market for this festival, and that the whole concept is to bring senior people in the industry together in an environment where they can network, discuss, debate,” he says. “Yes, there’s great content, but it’s primarily a delegate-focused event designed to create networking.”
The goal is to forge a place in the annual media calendar that can coexist alongside other must-attends like CES, Cannes Lions, and the Possible conference.
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