Hosts

"Players Club:

New Theatre & TV Financing"

Join new finance leaders and thought leaders in the theatrical entertainment industry.

On Sept. 23, 2013,  the 80-year old Securities Act of 1933 will be replaced: Firms and companies can already advertise to the general public to seek investors for their TV and broadway shows.  

Listen to the experts why this is a monumental change.

Related readings:

Equities.com

On Monday September 23, 2013: Advertising to Investors Becomes Legal in the US! 

Forbes.com 

Finally -- Some real action on the JOBS Act

"Long ago a New Yorker asked the difference between the Lambs, Friars and Players, since the membership was, at the time, predominantly from Broadway. A wit, believed to have been George Kaufman, drew the distinction: The Players are gentlemen trying to be actors, the Lambs are actors trying to be gentlemen, and the Friars are neither trying to be both." -  Earl Wilson 1964

                                        18 out of 50 seats left for sale.  Please consider attending the 11.06 event if we are sold out for this event.

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Agenda:

7:00 -7:30 pm  Keynote:  David Weild, former Vice Chairman of Nasdaq

7:30 - 8:00 pm Panel: Regulation A 

8:00 - 8:15 pm Host:  William Scheckel, TreveriMarket

8:15 - 9:00 pm Panel: TV and Broadway Financing: Alternative Financing Methods and Digital Media Outlets

9:00 -11:00 pm Cash Bar Cocktails at the Players Club pool table

Hosts:

David Drake

Chairman of LDJ Capital and The Soho Loft

David Drake is a leading equity expert based in New York City, USA. He is the founder and chairman of LDJ Capital, a Private Equity advisory firm, and of The Soho Loft, an event-driven global financial media company.

Mr. Drake is a strong advocate of innovative investing in early-stage equity and the US JOBS Act, for which he lobbied both Congress and the EU Commission. Because of his leading work in this space, he was a US Commerce Department delegate to the EU Commission in Brussels and Rome, and was invited in May 2013 to the White House Champions of Change ceremony in Washington, D.C.

His investment, The Soho Loft, produces and sponsors 150+ global events a year. One such was produced April 2013 for the institutional media leader Thomson Reuters, with speakers from Nasdaq, NYSE, KKR and Carlyle Group. He continues to advance innovative investing through his work as an international speaker and regular writer for major publications like Forbes and Thomson Reuters.

His focus today is to take on board advisory positions at companies, angel networks and venture funds, and to guide them on such topics as international regulations, corporate strategy and fund structures, with emphasis on the growing trend of online investment automation for retail and angel investors.

Privately, Mr. Drake has hosted the Harvard Business Club of NY at his home, produced Carnegie Hall concerts and raised funds for the charities Trail Blazers and Best Buddies Carnegie Hall for many years. Today he is a board director of the UBS charity of the year, London-based Archive Global, and is co-chair of the Tree Kangaroo Foundation in New York.

Born in Sweden and fluent in six languages, Mr. Drake has an MBA in Finance and an MA in International Law and Economics from George Washington University where he was awarded the Wallenberg Scholarship for academic merit.

William Scheckel

Director, TreveriMarket SA 

William Scheckel is a Director of TreveriMarket SA, the global private investment platform. His experience as a marketing advisor includes branding, marketing communications, public relations and operational strategy projects for world leaders and global leading brands, as well as start-ups and growing companies. He uses best practices from 100+ Web projects and countless marketing plans in multiple industries to help start-ups and companies like SAP, Shell, IBM and Deutsche Bank use the full marketer's arsenal to increase awareness and drive sales. He’s built brands from scratch and run organizations dedicated to finding fresh ways to engage established audiences while managing budgets from shoestring to 9 figures. He hold a BA from the University of Chicago and an MA from Universität Konstanz, Germany.

Keynote Speaker:

 David Weild 

Founder and Chairman, Weild & Co. Holdings
Former Vice Chairman of NASDAQ 

David Weild IV oversees Capital Markets and Institutional Acceptance at Grant Thornton, the 'Global Six’ Audit, Tax and Advisory firm. He is also Chairman and CEO of Capital Markets Advisory Partners, the firm that specializes in equity capital markets advice to issuers. He is a former Vice Chairman and executive committee member of The NASDAQ Stock Market who had line responsibility for the global listings businesses of NASDAQ.

David and co-author Ed Kim are noted for their work that was first to identify how changes in stock market structure are harming capital formation and job growth in the United States. Their studies (Why are IPOs in the ICU; Market structure is causing the IPO crisis and more; A wake up call for America ) have been cited in over 100 articles including The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and The Financial Times. These studies have also been cited by Congressmen, Senators and the Executive Branch of the U.S. Government, including most recently in the Interim Report of the White House’s Job Council led by Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of General Electric, and the IPO Task Force report to the U.S. Treasury led by Kate Mitchell, former Chairman of the National Venture Capital Association.

David was also a member of the NYSE and NVCA’s (National Venture Capital Association) Blue Ribbon Panel to restore liquidity in the US venture capital industry and his work was cited in the NVCA’s final report. David has testified in Congress and at the CFTC-SEC Joint Panel on Emerging Regulatory Issues.

Prior to NASDAQ, David spent 14 years at Prudential Securities in senior management roles, including President of PrudentialSecurities.com, Head of Corporate Finance, Head of Technology Investment Banking and Head of Global Equity Capital Markets. He oversaw more than 1,000 IPO’s, Follow-on offerings and convertible transactions and was an innovator in new issue systems and transaction structures.

David holds an MBA from the Stern School of Business and a BA from Wesleyan University. He studied on exchange at The Sorbonne, Ecole des Haute Etudes Commerciales and The Stockholm School of Economics. 9/11 blew out 350 plate glass windows at NASDAQ’s headquarters at Ground Zero in New York. With NASDAQ personnel working from home, David organized the authorization and implementation of hundreds of share repurchase programs that were credited by market insiders as providing needed confidence (buy orders at lower levels) to investors once the markets reopened. David is Chairman of the Board of Tuesday’s Children, the pre-eminent charity providing services to 9/11 families and first responders and has served on that board since shortly after 9/11. 

Panel Speakers:

 Glenn Myles 

Founder and CEO, First Wall Street Capital 

Glenn Myles is a leader in the financial community, having built a 30 year track record in which he executed on nearly $24 billion of transactions as an investor, principal, and advisor. His affiliates, partners and clients have included some of the most significant operating companies and investors globally. Mr. Myles previously oversaw capital holdings and investments of Marvin Davis, by leading activities at Davis Entertainment and 20th Century Fox.

He was a member of the Young Presidents Organization and was a director of the Fairchild Corporation. Mr. Myles has a strong commitment to philanthropic activities, serving as a board member for Grameen Foundation, Planet Finance, Project Hope, the Walt Frazier Youth Foundation and the March of Dimes. He recently hosted the Prostate Cancer Foundation event in the Hamptons where he and Michael Milken raised $5 million through their friends like David Koch, Leon Black, Stewart Rahr, Richard Lefrak.

Ariane Smith

Founder and CEO, Enchanted Thyme Entertainment

Ariane Smith is a master interactive storyteller, an award winning writer-producer and a children’s book author. “Enchanted Thyme, Book One In The Delicious Adventure Series” is the first title in her 6-part series. Children are her passion, reaching them through entertainment, her goal.

After the success of her first book, her company started to grow. Enchanted Thyme Entertainment is currently in production with many international broadcast and distribution partners for an animated television series, mobile content, gaming and a feature film based on the property. “ET” characters can also be found on the web and mobile devices in the form of celebrity narrated, storybook poems. In addition to brick and mortar stores, her books are available for all eReading devices through iTunes, Amazon and a myriad of other eBook sites. Ariane also produces Enchanted Thyme live events with the The Food Network and for many fortune 500 companies.

She has appeared on NBC’s TODAY SHOW and MONEY MATTERS and been featured in THE NEW YORK TIMES, THE DAILY NEWS and many other publications and radio shows. She’s been invited all over the world to speak about Enchanted Thyme and her other properties’ adaptability to traditional, new and emerging content delivery platforms. One of her favorite subjects is the merging of tech, finance and entertainment.

Currently at work on her next book, which is due to hit the shelves in 2014, and“Enchanted Thyme,” the musical, scheduled for a New York City premiere in 2015.Ariane also just unveiled a brand new mystery series for ‘tweens called, “ThePeculiar Adventures of Willow B. Star.” Stay tuned...

Ken Davenport

Broadway producer

Ken Davenport is a Broadway producer whose credits include Macbeth, Kinky Boots (Tony Award Winner), Godspell, Chinglish, Oleanna starring Bill Pullman and Julia Stiles, Speed-the-Plow, Will Ferrell’s You’re Welcome America, Blithe Spirit starring Angela Lansbury, and 13, as well as Altar Boyz, My First Time, The Awesome 80s Prom, and Miss Abigail’s Guide to Dating, Mating, & Marriage Off-Broadway. He also produced the award winning These Magnificent Miles: On the Long Road with Red Wanting Blue, a documentary on one of the top unsigned rock bands in the country.

Ken was featured on a national commercial for Apple’s iPhone, was named one of Crain’s “Forty Under 40″, and is one of the Co-Organizers of TEDxBroadway. Combined, Ken’s productions have grossed more than $100 million worldwide and are being produced internationally in over 25 countries including Germany, Mexico, France and Korea.

He created and developed the Broadway board game Be A Broadway Star, recently seen on “The Today Show,” and a smartphone app called AT THE BOOTH™, which gives a listing of available shows at the famed TKTS® booth in Times Square. AT THE BOOTH™ has been featured on Entertainment Weekly’s “Must List” and called “Ingenious! The best thing to happen to New York theater since, well, the introduction of the TKTS® booth!” He also runs a number of theatrical websites including DidHeLikeIt.com, and YourBroadwayGenius.com.

Current projects include his adaptation of the novel and film Somewhere in Time, premiering at Portland Center Stage this spring; Gettin’ the Band Back Together premiering at George Street Playhouse in the fall as well as bringing the first ever revival of A Few Good Men to Broadway.

His blog, TheProducersPerspective.com, has been featured in Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The Gothamist and more. He has written articles for Forbes, Mashable, Imedia and others.

History of the Players Club

"An actors' club combining the convenience and advantages that you speak of has been a dream of mine for many years, and I had the house in question in my mind's eye for the purpose of some far-off future day." — Edwin Booth

"We do not mingle enough with minds that influence the world," Booth said of his fellow actors,"We should measure ourselves through personal contact with outsiders … I want my club to be a place where actors are away from the glamour of the theatre."

Two years after the great actor Edwin Booth wrote these words to his friend, theatre manager Albert Palmer, his dream was realized. In May, 1888, he paid $75,000 to purchase a townhouse at 16 Gramercy Park in New York City that had been built in 1847 for banker Elihu Townsend. Booth's vision now had a home.

The club's name, The Players, was suggested by author Thomas Bailey Aldrich, after one of the lines from Shakespeare's “As You Like It.”  Booth, along with 15 other friends, were the incorporates of the club.  Another close friend, the architect Stanford White, was hired to handle the conversion.

On opening night, December 31, 1888, before a gathering of men from the theatre, fine arts and letters, journalism, and commerce, Edwin Booth deeded the structure and its contents, including all the works of art and theatrical memorabilia he had amassed, along with his extensive personal library, to The Players.

For much of its history, The Players was strictly a men's club. However, on Shakespeare's birthday, April 23, 1989, women were finally permitted to become Players, the first of them being Helen Hayes.

One of The Players' longest traditions has been its Pipe Nights, named for the smoking of churchwarden pipes during the evening. This series of events began in 1905, and by 1936 had evolved into testimonials honoring artists for their contributions to the American stage.

In 1911, French tragedienne Sarah Bernhardt was lionized, after a petition was taken up by several dozen Players who thought it important to celebrate her legendary career.

In 1963, The Players was designated a National Historic Landmark, but ever since 1888, the interior has undergone several renovations, some of them quite extensive. For example, the Dining Room did not always have a stage at one end; the room led onto a garden dining area with a fountain.

In the 1920s, The Players put their rich theatrical resources to work for the direct benefit of the club by producing Broadway plays. Starting in 1922 with Sheridan's The Rivals, the club produced a series of successful commercial revivals starring well-known Players. These productions continued, until 1940.

Today, as always, the Players is an exciting and memorable place to mingle and meet fellow club members, friends and colleagues, in an ambiance of conviviality, culture, history and comfort.  

You can learn more fascinating facts about the club by visiting www.theplayersnyc.org

Some Past and Present Notable Members of the Club:

Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)	Nikola Tesla	Eugene O'Neill	James Cagney	Gregory Peck
Walter Cronkite	Alexander Woollcott	Kevin Spacey	Judy Collins	Angela Lansbury
Sidney Poitier	Tony Bennett	Tony Roberts	Carol Burnett	Liza Minnelli
Dick Cavett	Billy Connolly	Vartan Gregorian	Hal Holbrook	George Innes
Eli Wallach	Ethan Hawke	Jimmy Fallon	Peter O'Toole	Roger Moore

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