Convergence Summit “put on hold”

Tech guru Bruce Montgomery, who has taken the helm of the 2,600-member Chicago Convergence (TCC), leads a meeting Wednesday to “edit and repackage ideas” for the second annual Convergence Summit tentatively scheduled for late September.

The meeting of as many as 40 members of the TCC’s Leadership Committee at theWit hotel will set the direction and content for the highly anticipated second annual TCC Summit.

Until then, the Summit date of Sept. 21-24 and the venue of the Spertus Institute have been placed on hold.

Members of the Leadership Committee represent all facets of digital media, and they, along with sponsor representatives, “will make sure that we come up with the most appropriate events to satisfy the community needs,” said Montgomery, who also assumes the duties of Summit director/manager.

Speakers already scheduled will remain on the program. Innovation and business development that “help digital people market and grow their companies and jobs,” will be high on the agenda, he said.

With TCC’s new leadership, “the slate is being wiped clean and we will evaluate, on a month-to-month basis, what activities will help establish Chicago as a center of digital excellence,” Montgomery added.

Montgomery co-founded TCC with John Patterson, Pixel Brothers’ development director, and producer Malachi Leopold. Earlier this year, Patterson moved to Los Angeles to represent Pixel Brothers on the Coast for television and movie production, with Montgomery moving up the leadership role.

For the past 10 years, Montgomery has been executive producer and host of the long-running cable show, “Technology Access Television,” airing Friday nights at 9:30 p.m. on CAN-TV Ch. 21.

He is also CEO of Wi-Fi Technologies, a member of the Mayor’s Council on Technology Advisors and the board of the Illinois Technology Association.

In just two years, the Chicago Convergence, which Montgomery calls “the New Media glue for the city,” has swelled to one of the largest digital media organization in the U.S.

Within the 2,600 membership are 62 groups making ?entrepreneurial collisions,’ as the Chicago Convergence “works to unite, inspire and promote the city’s brightest digital thinkers,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery’s office is located at 200 S. Wacker; phone, 773/410-0608;