Jonathan Block-Verk

Former PromaxBDA chief Jonathan Block-Verk is tapped to expand the London-based company’s expansion into television applications.

In an email to its members Monday, PromaxBDA Co-Chairs Joe Earley and Lisa Gregorian said the president of the marketing organization would be leaving at the end of the year and that they would be naming a new head in the coming weeks.” “PromaxBDA is today regarded as a first-rate organization in large part because of Jonathan’s leadership and we are appreciative of his passion, commitment, dedication and development of a terrific team,” Early and Gregorian said. Block-Verk said an announcement on his next job will be made Tuesday morning.

PromaxBDA’s June 26-29 gathering for local TV station GM, marketing and promotion executives will feature five network affiliate meetings, six syndicators and 12 stations groups. Advance registration is pacing 30% ahead of last year’s inaugural event.

Bouyed by the success of its first conference for station creative services pros, the association is ramping up for next year by doing more of what worked, fine-tuning other aspects and developing “new sessions on best practices in technology and in social and earned media,” says PromaxBDA President-CEO Jonathan Block-Verk.

The group’s inaugural Station Summit delivered on its promise to be station-centric, productive and inspiring. It also engendered a sense of community by sharing successes and challenges. “This is about supporting, building, strengthening local broadcasting from the inside out,” says PromaxBDA President Jonathan Block-Verk.

The promotion organization’s first event for promotion and creative services managers and staffers at TV stations, is drawing way more registrants than expected — 450 with two weeks still to go. Six syndicators and ABC and NBC are part of the reason. They’re subsidizing the attendance of stations employees, paying up to $1,000 of their expenses. The Station Summit grew out of talks last fall among marketing executives at the syndicators, who were looking for an efficient way to engage stations in their promotions.

PromaxBDA says its new Station Summit set for June 8-9 in Las Vegas “augments the current conference landscape by specifically focusing on the new needs of station GMs, marketing, promotion and creative service executives, and provides them with a genuine and unique environment to share ideas, insights, research and best practices.”