Craig Leddy has always been in the business of explaining the media. First as a journalist and analyst, translating complex technologies and market shifts into stories that made sense, writing for leading trade publications and advising companies on strategy. In 2023, he added the title of author to his impressive resume, explaining the challenging launch of streaming in his book “Fast Forward: The Birth of Video Streaming, Media’s Wild Child.” But perhaps Leddy’s greatest informative impact has been on the next generation of media and tech leaders, thanks to creating the “Interactive Case Study Competition,” which has been a career launchpad for MBA students and an eye-opener for their mentors.
“I’ve migrated to become an industry educator, primarily focusing on helping people to understand the media and tech space, what the opportunities and challenges are, and how to better advance their own careers,” Leddy says. That ethos of instruction and inspiration is why Leddy is being honored with Cablefax’s Voices of Impact Educator Award, a recognition not of one breakthrough moment, but of the two decades he has spent bridging the gap between industry veterans and rising talent.
Building a Talent Pipeline
Produced and hosted by Leddy via his Interactive TV Works, Inc. company, the Interactive Case Study Competition tasks MBA students with developing innovative plans around industry issues. The virtual event is held twice a year and has seen more than 500 students go through the program, which often attracts international students eager to understand the U.S. media landscape. “We’re very pleased that 60% of our students have been women,” Leddy points out, “and we’ve had over 25 U.S. business schools involved,” and mentors comprised of senior executives.
This competition is not just a classroom exercise; it’s a months-long immersion in real-world media challenges. It tasks graduate student teams with tackling an industry issue. “They get most of their semester to work on it,” Leddy explains, “then they present their plan before a judge’s panel of industry leaders, who award the winning team a $5,000 prize. It’s really designed to educate young students about our industry and to provide recruitment opportunities for them.”
Student Innovation and Industry Collaboration
One recent pressing topic students addressed was broadband adoption, prompting them to analyze state-level data, equity initiatives and infrastructure plans—and then address the human element: How do you get people excited about signing up? Their proposals often combined digital strategies with grassroots outreach, embracing community institutions from churches to neighborhood centers.
The results? Sponsors like Spectrum and Mediacom benefit from fresh, actionable insights and access to a well-prepared pool of future talent, while students gain visibility and practical experience that can jumpstart their careers.
“What I love about Craig Leddy’s Interactive Case Study Competition is how it turns our industry’s toughest challenges into opportunities for fresh thinking. The students’ creativity and insight always amaze me, and it’s inspiring to see the future of our industry on display,” says Advance Senior Executive Nomi Bergman, who has served as a judge for several of the case study competitions.
Closing the Education Gap
For Leddy himself, the perspectives students bring are invaluable: “It’s really inspiring, because they come up with these really fresh ideas about our industry. And you just think, ‘Oh, my, we’ve got to hire this person.’”
Clearly, media companies agree about this synergy between student ingenuity and industry need. Leddy is candid about the broader challenge the industry faces. “The industry has an uneven track record as to educating university and graduate students about our industry and putting them on a path for potential recruitment,” he says. The Interactive Case Competition, bolstered by his role as Senior Education Advisor and Lead Instructor for CTAM Advance, where he’s taught more than 7,000 professionals, is his way of closing that gap. He notes with some pride that more than half of the Competition alumni now work in media and tech fields, underscoring its success.
A Career of Context and Clarity
Leddy’s focus on education, analysis and business journalism was a natural background for authoring a book on streaming’s history. Fast Forward, which topped the Amazon New Release list in its category, is a chronicle of the largely forgotten Full Service Network (FSN) project in Orlando, which foreshadowed the on-demand video era. “The FSN launch was in December 1994 and the Internet hadn’t really grown—it was still in its infancy,” Leddy explains. “Televisions were in 98% of American homes. Personal computers were only in 15%. So, everybody in the cable, computer and telephone industries were focused on turning the dumb boob tube into an interactive TV platform.”
The book combines Leddy’s knack for narrative with his educator’s instinct to extract and apply lessons: that ambition, timing and above all convenience are the forces that ultimately drive adoption. And objective information paves the way to future success.
For Craig Leddy, the Educator Award is not a capstone but another milestone in a career dedicated to connecting past, present and future. “We run lean and mean,” he says of his small but mighty team. By educating students, mentoring professionals and chronicling the industry’s history, he has left an imprint that extends far beyond any single competition or course.