Summit Business Media Becomes Summit Professional Networks

NEW YORK, Aug. 21, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Summit Business Media today announced that the company has changed its name to Summit Professional Networks and will realign assets to better reflect the company's ongoing strategy to develop deeper relationships with its professional audiences while offering a greater variety of services to its marketing partners. 

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100316/SUMMITLOGO)

Summit will organize into three professional networks, each based on the markets it serves: Insurance, Financial, and Legal. Each network will integrate all of Summit's offerings within that market – media, reference publishing, training & continuing education, data products, and events – into a branded ecosystem of content and solutions aligned to each community's needs.  

Summit Professional Networks' new corporate mission is built around four pillars:

1. Deliver all the critical resources professionals require, at every point in their career arc, through an integrated content engine accessible across every available platform.
2. Build community within each market to connect professionals with each other, with network editors, with industry experts (including sponsors), and with mentors in their field.
3. Deploy membership features, starting with the core websites for each network, enabling professionals to engage with their Summit professional network via a single profile identity – making it easier for them to incorporate more Summit resources into their daily workflow.  
4. Provide marketers with access to these member networks and to Summit's advanced data and analytics, for research, talent recruitment and retention, and market/business development through a variety of innovative, measurable and turnkey services tuned to each market.

Steve Weitzner, CEO of Summit Professional Networks, said, "Our networks will operate on three interrelated levels: content, people and solutions. The first – connecting all our content and platforms – helps professionals find what they need quickly and is structured in a way to help them reach the highest level of success. Second, we connect members of the communities to our experts, to our marketing partners, and with each other both digitally and in face-to-face opportunities. Finally, our comprehensive and customizable marketing solutions connect our partners with these networks."

The insurance network will consist of Summit's life/health and property/casualty insurance properties along with their benefits group. The financial network will consist of the ThinkAdvisor Financial Network, plus Summit's properties in the credit union and mining investment areas. The legal network includes InsideCounsel magazine and website, the annual SuperConference, The Transformative Leadership Awards, and the new Women, Influence & Power in Law conference. 

In addition to the company's recently announced hires and products designed to support this strategy, Summit has promoted Josh Heitsenrether to Vice President, Marketing. Heitsenrether, who joined Summit in 2012 to lead its marketing services launch, will lead marketing teams to support the new corporate brand and the integration of offerings within each network. Amy Sievertsen, reporting to Heitsenrether, has been promoted to Director of Marketing. 

"Eighteen months ago, Summit began a transformation that has been leading to the launch of Summit Professional Networks," said Heitsenrether. "Summit's strength has long been the variety of content and resources we can make available to each professional community – news, analysis, soft skills development, CE certification, data tools, a bookstore with deep professional content, and conferences.  Now, we're able to bring together the people, content, and platforms to create a more consistent brand experience across all the ways in which professionals can engage with us. Across any platform, our audience will be able to quickly identify related resources, including new tools they might not have been aware we offered, connect them to a central brand they know and trust, and seamlessly integrate them into their daily workflow and career development activities."

Added Weitzner:  "With the new corporate brand, we have a name that better evokes our renewed mission to support both the personal and professional ambitions of our individual network members as well as the growth and vitality of the industries themselves."   

Summit also announced the official move of its New York and New Jersey offices into a new, state-of-the-art headquarters at 469 7^th Avenue in Manhattan, which will take place on August 26, 2013.

About Summit Professional Networks

Summit Professional Networks supports the growth and vitality of the insurance, financial services and legal communities by arming professionals with the knowledge and education they need to succeed at every stage of their careers. We provide face-to-face and digital events, websites, mobile sites and apps, online information services, and magazines giving professionals multi-platform access to our critical resources, including Professional Development; Education & Certification; Prospecting & Data Tools; Industry News & Analysis; Reference Tools and Services; and Community Networking Opportunities.

Using all of our resources across each community we serve, we deliver measurable ROI for our sponsors through a range of turnkey services, including Research, Content Development, Integrated Media, Creative & Design, and Lead Generation.

For more information, go to http://www.summitprofessionalnetworks.com. 

Media Contacts:

Josh Heitsenrether
Vice President, Marketing
201.526.0540 x1224
[email protected]

Laura Brophy
Marketcom PR
203.331.7618
[email protected]

SOURCE Summit Professional Networks