So Many Events ... So Little Time

The "ExecutiveBiz" weekly business magazine provides Washington DC area executives with a wide selection of area events that come to you each week. Your business doesn't stop at state or District of Columbia borders and neither should you. Many organizations in our area find themselves bound by a tight geographic restriction, not ExecutiveBiz.

Our event section is open to all and carries event listings from local Chambers, Tech Councils, law firms, accounting firms, associations, news wire emails and more. Rather than having to watch all of those emails go by, check on ExecutiveBiz and we'll read the emails for you.

On the other hand, if you are hosting an event, why not reach out to many folks who don't currently get your email? The best part is that, unlike other services, listing an event on ExecutiveBiz is free and you can have your event listing emailed to over 15,000 area professionals.

Speaking of events, in June the Potomac Officers Club will be host to Jonathan Miller, current Chairman and CEO of AOL. This event, made possible by Comerica Bank and April Young, will provide a great insight into one of our region's greatest successes.

Here's what you'll get answered in this edition:

• What are the week's top headlines? Weekly Recap
• The IPO market is improving. Will it continue? Click here
• Your prediction about the impending Brood X Cicada invasion? Take our survey below!
• Dennis Miller chats with Bisnow about Washington Politics. Bisnow on Business
• Who is the ExecutiveBiz Executive Spotlight? Matt Calkins
• When Does the VOD Movie Begin? Gary Arlen

Members, click here to register for the next event.

Question: Too much hype? How bad will the cicada invasion be?

Vote Now! Click here to be heard!

THANK YOU FOR YOUR OPINION!
Right: Most of our readers are optimistic about the IPO market continuing to improve.

Dennis Miller on Congress and Politicians

A couple excerpts from my interview with Dennis Miller. (For you liberals, hang on for my Al Franken interview.)

Bisnow: Your first show featured Arnold. Do you talk to him often?

Miller: I see Arnold up in Sun Valley, we both live there periodically, but talk to him often, no.

Bisnow: How do you think he's doing?

Miller: Great. The state's going to hell in a handbasket. He's at least toughening it up again. The state had gotten entirely soft. We were buying energy at mini-bar prices. Arnold's going to make accountability an issue again and re-introduce shame into the equation. If someone wants to screw the populace of this state, he's going to name names, and I find that endearing.

Bisnow: Is it possible for someone like Arnold to remain the same person you knew before, or does he adopt some political aspects?

Miller: I think one of Arnold's charms is he's unalterable. It's the same Arnold I've known for years...the same Arnold that I've known when he's at a cocktail party.

Bisnow: Do you think that undesirable people tend to gravitate to Congress?

Miller: No, I don't think necessarily. I just think it's a great party circuit. I would be in favor of term limits because I think Washington D.C.'s fun. Congress is rock and roll for guys who couldn't master an instrument or were never good at sports in high school. They go there and all of a sudden they're the cat's meow, and they're invited to parties and people want to hang on their every word and act like they're more important. You can see why it'd be an intoxicant.

When Does the VOD Movie Begin?

Gary Arlen

Gary Arlen (garlen@columnist.com) is a nationally recognized commentator and advisor on communications, media and digital technology. He heads Arlen Communications Inc., a Bethesda, MD, research and consulting firm.

When you're in the new media racket, neighbors, playground pals and party acquaintances often assume you can help them with new gear: sort of a personal "support desk." And we're glad to help (usually). As if we know!

Lately this willingness has generated a remarkable – and frequent – question that puzzles and amuses my cable TV colleagues. As cable companies begin to introduce video-on-demand services, friends are saying that they like this new service but they cannot figure out "What time the VOD movie starts."

At the annual national cable TV industry convention early this month, at least a half dozen colleagues from around the country repeated a version of that query.

Of course, no one ever asked us – when they rented a movie from Blockbuster – what time the movie started.

Yet, VOD is so new – and apparently so perplexing – that customers are confusing it with Pay-Per-View (which DOES run on scheduled timetable) or any other conventional TV programming.

The misunderstanding may not be widespread, but it sure is bizarre, since "on-demand" suggests that viewers can watch shows whenever they want. The confusion is also an indictment of how clumsily cable companies have introduced the VOD services; for now VOD almost entirely consists of "movies on demand," although plenty of other content is in the future pipeline.

In the Washington area, Comcast offers VOD on most of its systems, and Cox is preparing to do so.

Meanwhile, cable operators are trying to figure out how their network-centric VOD can co-exist with set-top VOD. The latter refers to storage in a Digital Video Recorder (such as TiVO devices or the cable box that Cox offers in Fairfax), which allows viewers to store a digital copy of any TV show and play it back at anytime. Satellite companies such as DirecTV and EchoStar, which have limited VOD capabilities, have focused on DVRs. Unlike networked VOD (with dozens of new movies), the set-top version is limited to programs that you remember (or the TiVO chooses) to load into the DVR hard drive.

But at least you don't have to wonder when the playback begins.

It begins whenever you want to watch.

Matt Calkins, President & CEO, Appian

Recently, the ExecutiveBiz and Matt Calkins, President & CEO of Appian, had a chance to catch up. Here is what Matt had to say:

Q. What is your role at Appian?
A. I was one of 4 co-founders when we launched Appian less than 5 years ago (with no VC, no outside capital). I've been running the company from the beginning. We did about $25 million last year, and look to grow 50-100% in '04.

Q. What services/products does your company provide?
A. Appian makes Business Process Management (BPM) solutions with analytics and knowledge functionality baked in. We apply our software to specific problems, like non-catalog procurement, RFID, and extremely-scalable intranets. Our software clients include World Bank, Marine Corps, Homeland Security, Navy, Army, and others locally.

Q. How has the POC helped your business?
A. I've been looking over the past year for venues to introduce our up-and-coming business to the Northern Virginia business community. The POC is an ideal forum. The POC has allowed me to meet key members of that community on a regular basis; I'm glad I joined.

Q. Please describe a recent success story.
A. Appian built the world's largest intranet for the US Army (called AKO) with 1.7 million users.

To read more about Appian, visit www.appiancorp.com.

Here, we recap the week's top stories of POC member companies and other notables in the region. Please include ExecutiveBiz on press releases and we will be sure to keep up with your successes. Email us your company's news at info@executivebiz.com.

• Capital Connection 2003 presenters receive nearly $150m in funding. Click here ...
• Lockheed Martin sells satellite telecom unit to Intelsat. Click here ...
• Moody's analyst concerned about BearingPoint's declining profit. Click here ...
• FTC Chairman Muris to step down. Click here ...
• Cisco creates 1,000 jobs as spending recovers. Click here ...
• Traffic study renews 'Techway' debate. Click here ...
• Washington, DC, fourth on Forbes 10 best for business list. Click here ...
• ASMR Announces winners of 2nd annual early-stage venture competition. Click here ...
• General Dynamics receives $94.8 million contract for advanced crew served weapon system development and demonstration. Click here ...
• Savvis Communications signs a deal with Mills Corporation. Click here ...
• XO Communications losses grow. Click here ...
• TIBCO Software Inc. opens new government solutions practice and executive briefing center. Click here ...
• Northern Virginia developers demonstrate confidence that the office market is improving. Click here ...

From the Editor

The newsletter is designed to serve the needs of the local business community. Please contact us with your ideas and advertisements or submit columns to be published and reach our distribution of over 15,000 area executives.

J.D. Kathuria, ExecutiveBiz Editor

jd.kathuria@executivebiz.com