10:45 AM - Noon
Track II:
Hollywood and the Digital Consumer: How Technology, Content and Services Establish the Next Level of Consumer Entertainment Experience
The next generation of technology within the digital home will bring with it not only more content to the consumer, it will bring with it greater choice and more individual personalization into the process. While the actual definition of the digital home is still emerging, the idea of a fully connected consumer, living in a high speed DTV, PVR, HD, broadband and wireless environment is a good jumping off place. Hollywood, the provider of the content will not only flourish in this environment, it will probably enter a new golden age of production as it discovers how best to relate to it consumer base. How Hollywood will respond to a fully realized OnDemand television, film and games universe is the latest challenge to be faced. The technologies now finding their way into the home are disruptive, not only to the content community, but to the consumer electronics community as well. The brave new world of the digital home is not only an exciting new market opportunity for Hollywood, it is also brings with it a complex labyrinth of difficult options.
Erik Flannigan, Vice President, Programming, AOL
Ty Ahmad-Taylor, Senior Director, Interactive Products, Comcast Cable
Josh Brooks, Director of Marketing and Content Development, MySpace.com
Rob Bennett, General Manager, MSN Entertainment and Video, Microsoft Corp.
John Penney, Vice President, Business Development, HBO, Inc.
John Zelenka, Senior Manager, Business Development, Tribune Media Services
Ira Rubenstein, Senior Vice President, Digital Sales and Marketing, Sony Pictures, Moderator
Rob Bennett is General Manager of Entertainment and Video Servi
ces for MSN charged to ramp up strategic growth in entertainment-related content for the MSN network and its customers. MSN.com is a world leader in delivering compelling programmed content experiences to consumers. Responsible for the development and programming of MSN's digital media and entertainment-related properties, Rob joined Microsoft in 1991 and has helped lead marketing, PR and business strategy for several Microsoft businesses, including Windows and Internet Explorer. Most recently, he was project unit manager at MSN Video, Movies and TV. Prior to Microsoft, Bennett founded three successful technology startups in the Seattle area.Ty Ahmad-Taylor, Senior Director, Interactive Products, Comcast Cable: Ty Ahmad-Taylor began his career at the New York Times in their graphics department, working in National and International news. While there, he covered the Waco, TX standoff, the Los Angeles riots, the Gulf War, the Oklahoma City bombing and other large news events from a visual perspective, using schematics, databases and cartography. In 1995, his last year at the paper, he wrote articles on the emerging Internet, special effects in cinema, and the video game industry. From the Times he moved West to join the @Home Network. Ty became the Creative Director of @Home in 1997, and led their efforts to create next-generation portals for broadband and interactive television. After a year sabbatical in 2000, where he took cooking and French lessons, he returned to technology, working as the Chief Creative Architect for MetaTV, an iTV concern based in Mill Valley, CA, just north of San Francisco. While there, Ty generated user interface patents, and led the design of interactive television portals for Comcast, Cox, Echostar and other MSO and satellite operators. After working at Comcast Cable Corporation as the Director of Strategic Planning in their broadband group, where his mandate included devising and executing Comcast’s wireless (GPRS, UMTS and WiFi) strategy, and interactive content and applications. He is currently the Senior Director for Cross-platform applications at the company. His job duties encompass applications that straddle distribution channels, such as search, games and music. Ty has over nine years of experience in designing for broadband, eight years in interactive television, and 15 years in information design. He has lectured at Digital Hollywood, CES, Milia, AIGA conferences, HOW Design Conferences, Seybold Seminars, as well as the Poynter Institute for Journalism in St. Petersberg, Fla. Ty lives in New York City, though he is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area.
John Zelenka is Senior Manager, Business Development, for Tribune
Media Services (TMS). He is responsible for identifying and pursuing strategies to grow revenue and profit within TMS’ Entertainment Products Division. His duties include industry research and analysis, business planning, strategic planning, product development, and transaction and partnership evaluations. TMS’ Entertainment Products help consumers navigate the explosion of choices to make smart entertainment decisions. TMS aggregates and manages large content databases to create industry-leading TV and movie guidance products for major media companies and consumers. Across print, online and on-screen media, TMS content is seen daily in nearly every U.S. household, as well as throughout much of Europe and Latin America. Previously, Zelenka was in business development and consultative sales with the Orbis Broadcast Group, a Chicago-based multimedia marketing-services provider. He spent several years as a senior account manager at Interpublic Group agency Weber Shandwick Worldwide (formerly BSMG Worldwide), where he specialized in pharmaceutical & healthcare marketing and communications strategies. He has also worked in journalism as a producer with ABC News One, which provides national newsgathering capabilities to ABC News’ network affiliates and owned & operated stations. Zelenka holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Ohio University, a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business. He is TMS’ primary representative on several international broadcast, technology and data standards-development bodies including: ATSC, CEA, TV-Anytime Forum and ISAN.Erik Flannigan, Vice President, Programming, AOL: As Vice Preside
nt of Programming, Erik Flannigan oversees four distinct but interrelated entertainment sites on AOL and AOL.com including Moviefone.com, AOL Music, AOL Radio, and AOL Television. Mr. Flannigan is responsible for the overall development of innovative and original programming within each of these categories. Mr. Flannigan was most recently vice president of programming for Buena Vista Datacasting, part of the Walt Disney Company. While there, he was responsible for programming and production on the MovieBeam VOD service, as well as day-to-day relationships and licensing deals with studio partners. Before that, he was Senior Vice President in charge of entertainment web sites for the Walt Disney Internet Group, including MrShowbiz.com, ABC.com and Movies.com. He also served as Vice President at RealNetworks, overseeing the company’s on-demand music and entertainment subscription businesses. Flannigan, who hails from Seattle, WA, is the author of Led Zeppelin: Heaven and Hell – An Illustrated History (Harmony/Crown 1991). He is currently based in Los Angeles.Josh Brooks is Director of Marketing and Content Development for MySpace.com, the 2nd largest web domain in the US and the (world’s/countries) leader in online, youth-oriented content and social networking. Crutial to the site’s growth are the media partnerships, content acquisitions, original content development and strategic planning that Brooks executes and oversees. Entertainment vehicles, stunts and events in music, television, film, comedy, gaming and other emerging lifestyle fields are just some of the growth areas for the company. Most recently, Brooks spearheaded the launch of MYSpace Film with an extremely successful Beastie Boys partnership and is currently planning the launch of the much anticipated MySpace Comedy Channel later this spring. Prior to joining MySpace.com, Brooks was a personal manager at both The Firm and Spivak Entertainment, for gold and platinum music clients that including Queens of the Stone Age, The Distillers and A Perfect Circle. Additionally, Brooks developed innovative marketing tools to extend the artists profile in the marketplace thru ticketing, licensing, merchandise concepts. Building the foundation for his strength in new media technologies, Brooks was one of the founding partners in Fanscape (1998-2001), an online/offline marketing company who pioneered grassroots online marketing.
John Penney, Vice President, Business Development, HBO: John Penney is vice president, Business Development, for Home Box Office, responsible for strategic planning and development of HBO’s new business opportunities. He joined HBO in this position in August 2003. Before joining HBO, Penney worked as executive vice president, Licensing & Business Development, for ACTV, Inc., overseeing the development and licensing of technologies and intellectual property for interactive television, personal computer, wireless data, and mobile computing environments. From 1999 to 2000, he worked at Scient, Inc. as managing director, Media & Entertainment, responsible for creating and marketing strategy blueprints for the digital migration of major entertainment content and distribution companies. Penney worked at Viacom, Inc. from 1997 to 1999 as vice president, Planning and Development, managing the formation and implementation of domestic and international corporate business strategies. Prior to his tenure at Viacom, Penney was a securities analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Inc. and a financial analyst in the Media & Telecommunications Corporate Finance group of The Chase Manhattan Bank, N.A. Penney has also consulted for major media and telecommunications companies, most recently with AT&T, providing strategic guidance to senior management around the company’s roll-out of its IPTV service. He holds a B.A. in Social Psychology from Wesleyan University and a Master’s Degree in Public Policy & Administration, concentrating in Science & Technology, from Columbia University.
Ira Rubenstein, Senior Vice President, Sony Pictures Digital Sales a
nd Marketing: Ira Rubenstein has built a career on identifying and implementing new marketing tactics for entertainment properties through interactive, online and mobile initiatives. As senior vice president of Sony Pictures Digital Sales and Marketing, a division of Sony Pictures Digital, he is responsible for overseeing the division’s efforts to extend Sony Pictures properties into the digital marketplace through SonyPictures.com, mobile entertainment and personalization products and innovative strategic partnerships. Under Rubenstein’s leadership, SonyPictures.com has generated online awareness for the studio’s film, television, and home entertainment properties by driving traffic with partnership marketing, media buys, community building, e-commerce, auctions, games and original content. Rubenstein is also responsible for extending Sony Pictures properties into the burgeoning mobile marketplace. The group has developed an array of successful mobile entertainment offerings including games, ringtones, wallpaper and other phone candy for such diverse properties as Spider-Man 2, "Wheel of Fortune," "Jeopardy!," Q*Bert and Snoop Dogg Boxing. Previously, Rubenstein directed Sony Pictures Integrated Network’s brand integration and sponsorship strategies and was also responsible for overseeing the production and creative direction for SonyPictures.com. Beginning in 2000, Rubenstein oversaw the establishment of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment’s on-demand movie initiative to offer theatrically released motion pictures via digital delivery for broadband Internet users. From concept to working technical trials, Rubenstein directed the project (developed under the name Moviefly), which ultimately became Movielink, a groundbreaking partnership among five studios. Prior to the establishment of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, Rubenstein was vice president, marketing, Columbia TriStar Interactive, charged with the strategic implementation of media planning, promotional and creative advertising campaigns for more than 100 film sites including Stuart Little, Men in Black, Air Force One, As Good As It Gets and The Mask of Zorro. Recognition for his work includes honors such as Webby awards, a Gold Clio and The Hollywood Reporter Key Art award. Before joining Columbia TriStar Interactive, Rubenstein served as manager of media research and interactive marketing for Twentieth Century Fox. Rubenstein holds a B.A. in Management Science from the University of California at San Diego and an M.F.A. from the Peter Stark Motion Picture Producing Program at the University of Southern California.