3:45 PM - 5:00 PM
Session A:
Broadband, Content, Marketing & Commerce, the Internet and Reaching the Digital Consumer
Let’s take a look at Broadband, the Internet and the Digital Home. A year ago, the prospects of broadband were still under question. The consumer was not converting to broadband in significant numbers. The cable and telcos were not pushing the technologies to the consumer. All that has changed. Tech stocks are heating up and the rush to broadband is on. The conversion of our society to a being an all-digital broadband culture is no longer in question. In this session we will explore what this means for various sectors of our industry: To the technology industry. To the content industry. To the advertisers. What will the digital consumer look like in the future. What will the nature of content and commerce be? With the consumer being "always connected" all the time through a host of devices, how will everyday lifestyles – from home to school to the workplace – be changed? We are definitely entering a brave new world.
Thomas Jones, Senior Vice President, Shopping Services and Advice, CNET Networks Inc
Catherine Levene, Vice President, Product, Strategy and Business Development, New York Times Digital
Jeff Kapner, Regional Director, Marketing and Strategy, Adelphia California Region
Jody Stark, Media & Entertainment Industry Leader, Blast Radius
Ron Frankel, CEO, Synacor
Larry Shapiro, EVP Biz Dev and Operations, Walt Disney Internet Group
Donald A. Jasko, Chief Executive Officer, Digital Economics, Moderator
Catherine Levene, Vice President, Product, Strategy and Business De
velopment, New York Times Digital: Catherine Levene was named vice president, product, strategy and business development for New York Times Digital in December 2003. She is responsible for developing the organization through external affiliations and partnerships, and evaluating investment opportunities. She also oversees NYTD's strategic planning initiatives. Catherine served as vice president, strategy and business development since December 1999. Prior to that, she was director of marketing for newyorktoday.com, NYTD's city site, since 1998. Ron Frankel, CEO, Synacor: As CEO, Ron Frankel has leveraged his ex
perience as an executive in media and technology to establish Synacor as the leading provider of technology supporting the delivery of bundled online services. Prior to joining Synacor Frankel formed MGM Interactive as President where he guided the production of interactive games; the development of complementary online services and new business strategies for MGM in the interactive entertainment field. He has also served as Co-Founder and CEO of Perks.com an early leader in the delivery of loyalty and performance enhancement solutions for corporate clients including CitiGroup, Dr. Pepper, Showtime, Infiniti Motors, Handspring and Sony. Earlier Frankel served as Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Softview, a leading creator of productivity software that later merged with Chipsoft and Intuit. Additionally, he had served as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Kenfil Distribution - then the largest distributor of entertainment and productivity software in the U.S. Frankel attended the University of California, Berkley as an undergraduate and received a Juris Doctor from The University of Southern California Law Center with a specialty in corporate finance and technology.Jody Stark, Media & Entertainment Industry Leader, Blast Radius: A
s head of business development, for Blast Radius Los Angeles, Jody Stark leads business strategy and manages the company's Media and Entertainment Practice. Blast Radius (www.blastradius.com), a business solutions provider, leverages technology to automate marketing, sales, and customer service for clients including Nike, Nintendo, Kenwood, Casio, Heineken, MTV, BMW, Universal Studios, and Atlantic Records. Prior to joining Blast Radius, Mr. Stark was a partner and co-founder of Los Angeles-based Initech Consulting, where he built the company's North American operations and developed strategic media technology plans for content companies such as AOL, Turner Networks and DirecTV. He was also the founder of Viziworx, Inc., a provider of core interactive television authoring services to broadband service providers and content service providers. Viziworx was acquired in 2000 by ACTV (IATV), a wholly owned subsidiary of Liberty Media Company. Mr. Stark's previous experience includes working with Mixed Signals Technology as Senior Vice President, Business Development and consulting for clients such as Microsoft, Liberate Technologies, CNN and DirecTV. An influential public speaker, Mr. Stark has developed and produced several cutting-edge broadband service applications that have garnered him industry-wide recognition including Emmy nomination in 2001.Thomas Jones, Senior Vice President, Shopping Services and Advice, CNET Networks Inc: As senior vice president for CNET Networks' Shopping Services and Advice group, Thomas Jones is responsible for driving product innovation and advertising opportunities across CNET Networks’ commerce properties, including CNET.com, Computer Shopper Magazine, shopper.com, MySimon.com. These Web sites offer consumers a comprehensive resource to research and evaluate products, find the best price, and ultimately make the smartest purchasing decision. Prior to his current position, Jones served as senior vice president of commerce sales, where he was responsible for advertising revenue for the ZDNet brand and Computer Shopper Magazine. Jones joined Ziff-Davis in 1989, most recently serving as Vice President of Commerce for ZDNet, where he was responsible for the integration of both ZDNet print and online initiatives to provide marketers with the most compelling and comprehensive direct buying options in competitive space. Prior to that he served as vice president and publisher of Computer Shopper Magazine, where he led the integration swat team for Computer Shopper Magazine as ZDNet explored all the synergistic ways to deliver the best reader and user experiences as well as the best commerce packaging. In addition, he has led the general business realignment and integration of Computer Shopper Magazine into ZDNet, forming computershopper.com. Jones has also been instrumental in reorganizing the ZDNet sales and marketing teams, as well as analyzing and deploying ZDNet’s pay per click commerce initiatives. As a founding member of Computer Shopper Magazine, which Ziff-Davis acquired from Patch Communications, Jones held several key sales and publishing positions. Most recently, he served as national associate publisher of Computer Shopper Magazine and computershopper.com where he played a critical role in charting a new course for brand extension across different media platforms. Jones is based in ZDNet’s offices in Irvine, CA.
Jeff Kapner, Regional Director, Marketing and Strategy, Adelphia Califor
nia Region: With more than 17 years of marketing, sales and operations management experience in the entertainment and telecommunications industries, Jeffrey Kapner has demonstrated expertise in the areas of strategic planning, project management and new business development. As Regional Director of Marketing and Strategy, Kapner oversees is strategic marketing of advanced technology that includes HDTV, VOD and PVRs to 1.2 million customers and 2.4 million serviceable homes in the Southern California area. Kapner began his career in 1993 as a Commercial Business Sales Representative with Paragon Cable of Los Angeles. The following year, he was named Marketing Manager of Sonic Cable of San Luis Obispo. Shortly after his stint with Sonic Cable, Kapner served as Manager of Marketing and Sales for Charter Communications. Within two years, he was promoted to Regional Marketing Manager for the Western Region, where he was responsible for directing all marketing activities to 250,000 current customers and 650,000 serviceable homes in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 1999, he joined Earthlink, Inc.’s Corporate Marketing department as Senior Manager of Broadband Strategic Marketing. While at Earthlink, Kapner managed the sales, technical and operation process design for their DSL deployment and oversaw their broadband consumer and business and marketing efforts. In 2000, he founded Keen Personal Media, Inc., a privately held subsidiary of Western Digital, where he managed business development and collaborated on 18 inventions and 15 patent closures. In 2003, Kapner joined Adelphia Communications where he now holds the position of Regional Director of Marketing and Strategy. Kapner is a national member of the Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM), and is currently on the Board of Directors for the CTAM Southern California chapter, where he served as President in 2002. Additionally, he is a founding member of Los Angeles Pay-Per-View Co-Op and a member of the Southern California Cable & Telecommunications Association (SCCTA). Kapner holds a Master’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Southern California.Donald A. Jasko, Chief Executive Officer of Digital Economics, is a
n attorney by training. But he has, for the past twenty years, focused his energies on the economic, technological and rights management issues involved in the licensing of copyrighted content. From 1981 through 1997 Don served in various management positions at the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), in which he was instrumental in transforming the process by which performance rights in musical compositions are licensed for television broadcast. He was a key participant in the complex music industry negotiations which culminated in the new "per program" license, as well as the development of the process by which music performance and pricing data are exchanged electronically between performing rights organizations and television broadcasters. Don was also instrumental in the development of the infrastructure that supports the direct and source licensing of performance rights in musical compositions. He testified in a number of legal trials, including the "Buffalo Broadcasting" rate proceeding in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York. He also represented ASCAP on panels at numerous national conferences. In 1997 Don resigned from ASCAP to found the content management consultancy that is now Digital Economics. As Chief Executive Officer of Digital Economics, he has consulted with numerous clients that create, produce, distribute and transmit copyrighted content. In 1998 Digital Economics initiated a consulting relationship by which it advised Solana Technology Development on the development of its digital audio watermark technology as a content identification tool for the music and entertainment industries. Don soon became a major catalyst in the merger of Solana with Aris Technologies, thereby creating Verance Corporation. Don joined Verance in 2000, with key product management, marketing, business affairs, and sales responsibilities in the music and entertainment sectors. During his tenure he led the design of Verance's ConfirMedia™ watermark content identification products so that they address the needs of music writers, publishers, recording artists and record labels. In addition, Don strategized the design and introduction of software applications that would leverage the value of ConfirMedia watermark content identification products for advertisers, program producers, and broadcast and cable networks. He also strategized the innovative web portal and data report licenses that form the basis of Verance's relationships with its advertising, music and programming clients, and played a key role in forging international joint ventures. Don also represented Verance in numerous public appearances before representatives of the music and entertainment communities. He returned to the leadership of Digital Economics in October 2001.