Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from a previous Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Digital Hollywood Thursday, May 8th 2:15 PM - 3:30 PM Track IV: Contextual Media, Search, Ad Serving Networks & Advertising Applications in Broadband and Mobile The world is becoming an ever growing contextual media and information experience. Consumers get to watch TV news shows that lean to the left or to the right depending on how they like it. And on the web, the degrees to the left and to the right can be calibrated down to the millimeter. Radio is broken down so that stations can reach and satisfy a distinct and unique group of listeners and the web can drill down even further than that. The web is able to distill the users experience to actual needs, to the actual and definable likes and dislikes of each and every consumer. While the system has yet to be perfected, the learning curve of contextual media content to the consumer along with its advertising and commerce-based partnering activities is moving right along. The personalized relationship between media and advertising has always been with us. Families watch TV shows that advertise soap and teenagers watch shows that advertise cola. But the degree of personalization and how fast it arrives is presenting an interesting set of musical chairs for the media, advertising and content industries. It is an interesting time. Ariel Maislos, founder & CEO, Pudding Media Yosi Glick, CEO and Co-founder, Jinni Dr. David Saad, founder, Chairman, and CEO, Clupedia David Wolf, President and Founder, Syntryx Executive Solutions Lauren Bigelow, General Manager, North America Weeworld.com, WeeWorld Vivek Veeraraghavan, founder & CEO, AdBidCentral Gregory E. Wester, VP, Product and Strategy, Voodoovox Matt Booth, Senior Vice President and Program Director, Interactive Local Media, The Kelsey Group, Moderator For Further Speaker Infomation - Click on highlighed Names to see their LinkedIn Profile Ariel Maislos, Founder & CEO, Pudding Media: Before founding Pudding Media, Ariel was the co-founder and President of Passave – the technology and market leader in Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) access solutions, founded in 2001 and acquired by PMC-Sierra in 2006. Ariel is also a founder and member of the board of directors of Anobit Technologies, an Israeli startup developing flash memory technology, and serves on the board of directors of Kovio and of Nanoconduction. Ariel has filed several patents, and was an editor of the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard. Ariel is a graduate of the prestigious Talpiot program and holds a B.Sc., cum laude, from the Hebrew University in Physics, Mathematics and Computer Science, and an MBA from Tel-Aviv University. Ariel recently spoke at Digital Hollywood CES, Fall VON, DEMOFall and Dow Jones VentureOne Summit. Yosi Glick, CEO and co-founder of Jinni: Online and in VOD interfaces, Jinni’s semantic catalog for professional content uniquely uses video meta-data and reviews to capture the intricacies of character and plot with content genetics – as well as the emotional experiences of viewing media. Jinni is partnering with TV operators and Internet content providers, while also developing a destination site, to provide intuitive search and precise personal recommendations. The focus on user psychographics also offers new possibilities in targeted advertising. At Jinni, Yosi works with a talented team of industry veterans and specialists in Internet, entertainment, consumer behavior, algorithms and systems implementation. Previously, Yosi was VP Marketing and Business Development for Orca Interactive, responsible for the company’s product vision and roadmap, marketing strategy, and business development with global companies such as Lucent, Nortel, HP, IBM, Accenture, NDS and SeaChange. Prior, he worked at Oracle as an analyst, in project management and in pre-sales; and as director of technical services, where he worked with software vendors including Amdocs and Comverse. Yosi began his career as an application developer for ERP systems at Accenture. Dr. David Saad, founder, Chairman, and CEO,Clupedia: Dr. Saad is responsible for the overall direction and management of the company. He has invested over $2 million to date in Clupedia. He is a seasoned veteran in the software industry with over 25 years of experience in marketing, sales, and R&D making him uniquely positioned to lead Clupedia. After 5 years of extensive study and research, he became one of the leading authorities in referral automation and viral marketing. One of the products that he developed was nominated for the Innovative Product of the Year Award by the American Electronics Association (AeA). Also, Dr. Saad won the Most Promising Investment Award during the 2006 Fast Pitch competition sponsored by Tech Coast Angels. Dr. Saad started his career as a system programmer, became a data base consultant, and did some public speaking covering topics such as relational databases, data modeling, methodologies for logical data base design, software engineering disciplines, etc. Prior to founding Clupedia, Dr. Saad founded Braintec in 1986. He developed ProofReader - a suite of utilities such as spelling checker, grammar checker, style checker, dictionary, and a thesaurus. ProofReader included a very sophisticated technology based on computational linguistics, heuristics, and artificial intelligence. Subsequently, Braintec focused on the fast growing and lucrative IT consulting industry and became the largest Unix engineering firm in Southern California with customers such as AT&T, IBM, Sun, NCR, and Teradata. Braintec was sold to Technisource – an IT firm listed on NASDAQ which was taken private by IntelliMark Holdings. Prior to Braintec, Dr. Saad worked for Mathematica Products Group – a software division of Martin Marietta where he was instrumental in establishing the Canadian division. Dr. Saad won several awards for his software sales achievements including the ICP award. Prior to Mathematica, Dr. Saad worked as a programmer and data base consultant for IST - a consulting and service Bureau based in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Saad earned a PhD in Computer Science with high honors from University of Paris, an M.Sc.A. Cum Laude in Computer Science from McGill University, a B.Sc. in Computer Science from Concordia University, and a D.E.U.G. in Mathematics & Economics from University of Paris. Dr. Saad speaks four languages. He had a very successful athletic career in Judo. He participated in the European Championships, World Championships, Pan American Games, and the Olympic games. Dr. Saad was also the executive producer of a Rhythm & Blues (R&B) album by a female group called Foxx Empire. David Wolf, President and Founder, Syntryx Executive Solutions: David Wolf is a veteran of the affiliate recruiting, media buying, SEO and PPC online advertising sectors advising established hotel marketers and Fortune 50 companies in this arena. His specialties have included: Internet asset valuation, White hat SEO, Search engine marketing and media buying campaigns, CRM and campaign module compatibility, and Affiliate program recruiting. David holds a B.A in Business Information Systems, CU. Lauren Bigelow, General Manager & SVP Marketing of WeeWorld Inc.: Lauren Bigelow has more than 20 years of experience leading pioneering interactive media companies that push online content, self-expression and marketing to the next level. From mobile and Web-based models, to virtual worlds and social networking communities, Lauren has a proven track record in emerging technology and currently leads WeeWorld’s North American growth strategy as well as product and marketing worldwide. Her extensive experience in interactive media – ranging from search to gaming – includes spearheading Mobot’s (now part of NeoMedia) groundbreaking launch of mobile visual search technology through partnerships with clients such as Starbucks and Warner Brothers Music Group as Vice President of Marketing and Product. Prior to Mobot, she led the development of online community at Lycos, including Tripod and Angelfire, and a piloted social media site, as Vice President of Product Management. In addition, Lauren led the development of one of the first mobile advertising platforms for corporations and consumers, and pioneered wireless marketing in the United States, Japan and Hong Kong in collaboration with powerhouse brands including ESPN, MTV and Procter & Gamble as VP of Marketing at SkyGo (now part of Enpocket). She also led content development and drove search revenue for AltaVista after pioneering a gaming and virtual reality environment through a cyber café chain for Cybersmith. Lauren launched her career at Houghton Mifflin Company, where she founded the award-winning Education Place. Lauren earned a B.S. from Tufts University. Honored as one of the “Top 25 Most Wired Women in Boston,” Lauren regularly provides industry insight Vivek Veeraraghavan, Founder & CEO, AdBidCentral Inc.: AdBidCentral Inc. is a company pioneering a futures marketplace platform for the buying and selling of premium display advertising. Founded in late 2006 and officially launched in October 2007, AdBidCentral has over 1 billion monthly premium display impressions across brand name properties, many ranked in the top 100 of comScore ratings. Vivek has lived, worked and schooled on 3 continents and pursued his interest in the media and communications sector from a variety of operational, strategic and financial vantage points. His career experiences span strategic sales roles focused on media and communications enterprise clients at Siebel Systems and Oracle, where his account coverage included Yahoo!, EchoStar and Directv, as well as investment banking where, as the regional media sector analyst for the global equities desk at ABN-Amro, he led trading and research coverage for South African media and telecommunications equities listed on the London and Johannesburg exchanges. Vivek graduated in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, (Summa Cum Laude) and has an MBA from The Wharton School. Gregory E. Wester, VP, Product and Strategy, Voodoovox: Greg is a 20 year veteran of interactive advertising strategy, product design, optimization and research. Most recently Greg was founder and President of Soapbox Marketing, a word of mouth marketing agency. Prior to Soapbox Marketing, Greg held positions at the web developer, Organic Online as VP of Analytical and Consumer Methods, the Yankee Group as the founder and Vice President of its Internet Market Strategies practice, and at GTE as Principal Interactive Researcher. Lauren Bigelow, General Manger & SVP Marketing of WeeWorld Inc., has more than 20 years of experience leading pioneering interactive media companies that push online content, self-expression and marketing to the next level. From mobile and Web-based models, to virtual worlds and social networking communities, Lauren has a proven track record in emerging technology and currently leads WeeWorld’s North American growth strategy, as well as product management and marketing worldwide. Lauren has held executive positions at emerging technology companies such as Lycos, AltaVista, Mobot (mobile picture recognition), and SkyGo (mobile advertising, now part of Enpocket). Honored as one of the “Top 25 Most Wired Women in Boston,” Lauren regularly provides insight at industry events. Matt Booth, Senior Vice President and Program Director, Interactive Local Media, The Kelsey Group: Matt Booth directs The Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media practice, performing research and analysis on business models, technology, advertising models and trends in the local search and interactive local media space. Matt came to The Kelsey Group from Perform Local, a local lead generation start-up funded by two prominent venture capital groups. He was a cofounder and chief operating officer. Before that, starting in 1996, he held several senior positions at Citysearch, a subsidiary of IAC/InterActiveCorp, including vice president, strategy and planning; vice president, product; and vice president, media partnerships. Matt participated in numerous activities at Citysearch, including the creation of media partnerships with television and radio stations, the launch of city guides with leading newspapers like the Los Angeles Times, the design and implementation of a national local search product, the creation of the prototype of Citysearch’s performance-based sales model, and acquisitions such as that of Entertainment Publications.