Startup Adds Nine New Employees, Launches NewComm Collaborative

Colorado Springs, Colo. – February 3, 2010 – Defying today’s economic trends, Redwood Collaborative Media (http://www.redwoodcollaborative.com) continues to be a successful and fast-growing start-up. The company today announced that it has expanded its team, adding nine new members across a variety of functions, and launched another new professional community, NewComm Collaborative (http://www.newcommcollaborative.com).

New team members include Rick Baucom, director of interactive communications; Abbie Caracostas, director of training and professional development; Rich Hand, director of membership; Fiona Henderson, director of events; Katie Lutze, director of finance; and Janette Rovansek, director of IT. The company has also added a new in-house creative department led by Scott Hanson and web development team of Patrick McDavid and Charles Gibson to create and manage the company’s online offerings and publications.

In addition, the company announced the launch of NewComm Collaborative (http://www.newcommcollaborative.com), an online membership community and media portal focused on exploring how to leverage social media and new communications tools and technologies. The new community is the result of an exclusive licensing agreement with the Society for New Communications Research (http://sncr.org), a world-renowned nonprofit research and education foundation and think tank focused on the latest advances in new media and communications. NewComm Collaborative serves professionals from a variety of professions with valuable resources focused on learning how to leverage social media for business.

NewComm Collaborative offers its members news and information, best practices, whitepapers, case studies, online discussion forums, webinars, online training, conferences and tradeshows. NewComm Collaborative will host the popular NewComm Forum (http://www.newcommforum.com) April 20-23, 2010 in San Mateo, CA, and will revive the online publication “NewComm Review.”

“NewComm has been a leader in tracking the impact of developments in new media and communications over the past six years through its events and publication. Given today’s widespread adoption of social technologies, I’m delighted that the NewComm brand now has additional resources that will enable it to reach its potential, commented Jen McClure, founder of the NewComm brand, and director of marketing and brand development, Redwood Collaborative Media.

Redwood Collaborative Media president, Peggy Libbey stated, “We recognize great potential in the NewComm brand, and we’re very pleased that NewComm Collaborative will extend the benefits of the highly respected annual NewComm Forum event and “NewComm Review” to a professional community that can be engaged and share ideas and knowledge on a continuous basis.”

NewComm Collaborative is Redwood’s second professional community. In July 2009, the company launched STP Collaborative (http://www.stpcollaborative.com), the result of the acquisition of the Software Test & Performance division of BZ Media. Since that time, Redwood has transformed the traditional media property of Software Test & Performance magazine and STPCon event into a highly interactive online community and media portal serving more than 50,000 software testers and QA professionals around the globe.

“We’re very excited about our continued growth, the launch of our newest community and the new additions to our team. Each of these individuals has an impressive background and great track record of successfully building and managing offerings for professional associations and communities. I am confident that the addition of their expertise to our business will enable us to continue to grow and improve our offerings to our existing communities, and that we will develop and launch additional new communities focused on a variety of professional disciplines,” said Libbey.

About Redwood Collaborative Media
Redwood Collaborative Media creates highly interactive, integrated, and dynamic platforms for sharing knowledge, insights, and resources, and is dedicated to building deep relationships through its professional communities. The company’s mission is to empower these communities through high quality news and information, education and training, knowledge-sharing and targeted online and face-to-face networking opportunities. For more information, visit http://www.redwoodcollaborative.com.

Colorado Springs, Colo. – October 16, 2009 – Redwood Collaborative Media today announced that Peggy Libbey has joined the company’s executive management team as president and chief operating officer.

Libbey is a seasoned executive with nearly 30 years of experience in finance and executive management. In 1999 she joined HDI, the world’s largest membership association for the IT service and support industry, where she served as chief financial officer and executive director, and ultimately as president and chief operating officer from 2005 until early 2008. Prior to joining HDI, she was a director at a Colorado Springs accounting firm, and was an accountant for Price Waterhouse.

Libbey will oversee Redwood’s financial management, business operations, and the development of Redwood’s offerings, which include professional memberships and online communities, print and online media, training and education, industry research, and conferences.

Redwood Collaborative Media founder and CEO, Andrew Muns stated, “We’re excited to have someone with Peggy’s proven management track record joining Redwood. In her previous role at HDI, Peggy took the business from close to our current size and helped it to grow tenfold. Her experience operating in the professional membership and B2B media space is marked by her ability to build a corporate infrastructure that is highly focused on customer service. These values fit well with Redwood’s dedication to being a listening, member-centric organization. We’re all looking forward to working with her.”

About the new role, Libbey commented, “I am delighted to have the opportunity to bring my skills and experience that are unique to working with professional communities to Redwood Collaborative Media. This new company shows great potential, and I look forward to working with the team to develop the vision for creating communities and new media entities that provide valuable professional development resources to our members.”

Redwood Collaborative Media launched in December 2008 with the acquisition of the Software Test & Performance division of BZ Media. Since that time, the company has transformed the traditional media property of Software Test & Performance magazine into STP Collaborative (www.stpcollaborative.com), a highly interactive online media and community site serving more than 50,000 software testers and QA professionals around the globe. The company is currently preparing to launch other new communities focused on a variety of professional disciplines.

Redwood Collaborative Media is a privately held company with offices in New York, Colorado Springs, and the Silicon Valley region of California.

About Redwood Collaborative Media
Redwood Collaborative Media creates highly interactive, integrated, and dynamic platforms for sharing knowledge, insights, and resources, and is dedicated to building deep relationships for professional communities. The company’s mission is to empower these communities through high quality information, education and training, and targeted online and face-to-face networking opportunities. For more information, visit www.redwoodcollaborative.com.

New Company to Provide Knowledge, Insights, and Resources for the Professional Software Test and Quality Assurance Community

Melville, N.Y., and Huntington, N.Y. – December 16, 2008 – Redwood Collaborative Media, a new integrated B2B media company dedicated to creating highly interactive and dynamic platforms for sharing knowledge, insights, and resources for professional communities, announced today that it has acquired the Software Test & Performance (ST&P) business unit from BZ Media LLC. The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc., the New York-based independent investment bank, represented BZ Media in this transaction, the terms of which were not disclosed.

ST&P serves the global software testing and performance community, reaching more than 55,000 IT professionals through a suite of products that provide information, education, training, and professional networking opportunities. The acquisition includes two leading industry events: Software Test & Performance Conference, the twice-annual premier technical conference for software testers and quality assurance managers, and the FutureTest Conference, an annual forum for top software test and QA executives from large companies. The Software Test & Performance Conference was founded in 2005, and will next be held March 31-April 2, 2009 in San Mateo, Calif. FutureTest debuted in February 2008; the next event is February 24-25, 2009 in New York.

In addition, the acquisition includes Software Test & Performance, the industry’s leading magazine for software test and quality assurance professionals, and a complementary enewsletter and online publication, “Test & QA Report.” Software Test & Performance magazine was launched in 2004 by BZ Media and reaches more than 25,000 software test and quality assurance managers, project leaders, and team leaders. The ST&P website features white papers, webinars, and other online products. The site receives more than 75,000 page views monthly, and is a leading source of news and information for the software testing and QA profession.

“We are very happy to have the opportunity to serve this important group of IT professionals through this acquisition,” said Andrew Muns, president, Redwood Collaborative Media. “Software Test & Performance’s events, publications, and online offerings provide a valuable foundation of news and informative content. We are eager to build upon that foundation with new and enhanced offerings that will further enable community-building and the peer-to-peer knowledge sharing that is so vital to this profession.”

Ted Bahr, president and co-founder of BZ Media LLC, said, “We’re delighted to be working with Redwood Collaborative Media on this transaction. We’re impressed with Redwood’s enthusiasm for the Software Test & Performance publications and events that we launched, and know that the software testing industry will be well served by its efforts, while BZ Media focuses on its core businesses serving the software development market.”

“I’m excited to be working with Redwood Collaborative Media,” said Edward J. Correia, editor of Software Test & Performance magazine and ST&P Conference chairman. “We will continue to provide the same high-quality content that the software testing and QA profession has come to expect from an industry leader. And we’re working hard to find new and exciting ways to enhance our business to better serve our audience and grow our community.”

About BZ Media LLC
BZ Media LLC is a high-tech business-to-business media company combining the best of print and Web-based publishing, offering industry-leading magazines, newspapers, Web sites and conferences. The Huntington, N.Y.-based company’s flagship is SD Times (www.sdtimes.com), the twice-monthly newspaper of record for the software development industry.

About Redwood Collaborative Media
Redwood Collaborative Media creates highly interactive, integrated, and dynamic platforms for sharing knowledge, insights, and resources, and is dedicated to building deep relationships for professional communities. The company’s mission is to empower these communities through high quality information, education and training, and targeted online and face-to-face networking opportunities. Visit www.stpcollaborative.com for more information.