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More Clarity On Dealmaker Media L.A.

It's not every day I get accused of "pimping" for a former Hollywood super-agent, but that's what happened (in a good-natured way, mind you) after my story on Dealmaker Media's L.A. venture appeared on Monday.

Apparently I overstated the role of Michael Ovitz, the former head of Creative Artists Agency and president of the Walt Disney Co., in launching the Southern California version of Dealmaker, which has been running conferences and networking events in Silicon Valley for some eight years. Ovitz is hosting the launch party for the new network, at the chi-chi sushi joint Hamasaku, on Jan. 23; he is not, however, a principal or a founder in Dealmaker Media L.A.

(I also wrote that Ovitz's subsequent career "has been marked by fractured friendships and bitter litigation." Note to Mr. Ovitz's law firm: I was just kidding! Everybody loves the guy!)

"There's a lot of entrepreneurs who moved back to L.A. [from Northern California] after their companies got acquired," says Dealmaker founder Debbie Landa, explaining the genesis of Dealmaker south. "There's a ton of startups down there, a ton of investment, and all the big media companies want to understand what's going on better."

"There are a lot of organizations geared toward entrepreneurs," says William Quigley, managing director at Clearstone Venture Partners in Santa Monica (and originator of the jocular "pimping" charge), "but this one will be particularly targeted at Net-based businesses."

There's a larger story here than one networking organization, and it's what caught my interest in the first place: the convergence of the Hollywood entertainment machine, particularly the integrated studios, and the exploding digital media world. (One example: Steve Jobs' announcement of movie rentals via iTunes, this week at Macworld.) Amid clouds of experimentation, no one really knows what form that convergence is going to take yet, but the conversations begun at Hamasaku next week will help shape it.

That's why I wrote about it, and will continue to cover this unfolding, slow-motion mash-up of Hollywood and tech startups. Not because I'm such an Ovitz fan.

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