Sponsored by:
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Track C:
Digital Commerce: Monetizing, Managing, and Maximizing Digital Content: Part I
Content is what the entertainment and media industry produce, and the viability of the industry’s future rests on its ability to manage its content and control its distribution while at the same time making it available to an ever larger customer base. And the Internet is at the crossroads of content distribution - from business to business transactions, to the unique massive challenge of business to consumer information that the entertainment and media industries produce and distribute every day. In this two-part workshop we will try to understand the problems of content management and the needs of the respective sectors of the industry, explore case histories, understanding how some of the larger institutions have faced up to their problems, take a close look at some of the problem solving and management tools at our disposal.
Howard Weitzman, CEO, Massive Media Group
Arnold Brown, Vice President Digital Distribution, ARTISTDirect
David Nunnerley, General Manager, Excalibur Media Services Group
Julius Adams, Principal for Media and Entertainment Practice, IFsec
Kirk Loevner, CEO, PublishOne
Richard Lewis, CEO, Digital Mercury
Michael Downs, US Vice President, Business Development, Magex
Mark McNeely, founder and Advisory Committee Chairman, Qpass, Moderator
Howard Weitzman, CEO, Massive Media Group: Howard L. Weitzman has more than
35 years of experience in both the legal world and entertainment industry. From 1995 to 1998 Mr. Weitzman served as executive vice president, Corporate Operations, at Universal Studios, where he was responsible for restructuring the corporate side of the business. After revamping Universal Studio’s Corporate Operations, Mr. Weitzman oversaw new media, consumer products, corporate marketing and sponsorship area, directed the Legal, Human Resources, Security, Studio Operations and Real Estate departments and rant the Theme Parks division during the year in which a new chairperson search was conducted. Mr. Weitzman’s extensive legal career includes more than 200 jury trials in which he was the lead attorney, and the representation of more than 1000 clients including many high profile individuals and major companies. In 1991, he became the chairman of the executive committee and one of the managing partners in the firm of Katten Muchin Zavis and Weitzman, and had been a managing partner at Wyman Bautzer beginning in 1986. He was a private practice in his own firm from 1966 until 1985. Mr. Weitzman received a Bachelors Degree from USC in 1962 and a Juris Doctorate Degree from USC Law School in 1965. He taught at the USC Law Center for 12 years. Mr. Weitzman is on the Board of several Internet related companies that include ReelPlay.com and Online Media Marketplace. He is also active on the Board of several charitable organizations.David Nunnerley, General Manager & Sr. Vice President, Media Services Group, Exc
alibur Media Services: Since joining the company in 1996, Nunnerley has been instrumental in forging a solid vision for making Excalibur's visual products the standard for indexing and retrieving video-based information. Prior to Excalibur, he was Vice President of Engineering for Videopress Software, a software company providing video delivery products and solutions to cable companies deploying cable modems. He also worked at Digital Equipment Corp. for 15 years in various product management/ marketing roles and management positions. Nunnerley holds a Bachelor of Science degree Computer Science from University of Greenwich, London, England.Julius Adams is Principal for the Media and Entertainment Practice at IFsec. His responsibilities include leading consulting engagements responsible for information, content and Internet security services for media and entertainment businesses. Mr. Adams has over 18 years of experience in the media industry addressing issues such as systems requirements, process change, business cases for new ventures, market assessments for new broadcast business offerings in broadband, and industry trend analyses. Prior to IFsec, Mr. Adams held positions as an Experienced Manager in the Arthur Andersen Media and Entertainment consulting practice, a Senior Consultant in the Telecomm and Media practice at IBM, and a Senior Consultant to the broadcast and cable industries at Price Waterhouse. He has consulted on numerous global projects for media companies such as NBC, CBS, Children’s Television Workshop, Bloomberg, Loral and Televisa. Mr. Adams holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from Western Connecticut State University and a M.B.A. in Financial Management from Long Island University.
Kirk Loevner, Chief Executive Officer, PublishOne, founded the Company in January 1999 in Mountain View, CA. Mr. Loevner was previously President & CEO of Internet Shopping Network (ISN) where he grew the company from $5M in revenues in 1996 to $30M in revenues in 1998. Mr. Loevner conceived and launched First Auction in 1997, which was the Internet’s first real time auction business. Prior to leading ISN, Mr. Loevner held VP and General Manager positions at Silicon Graphics and at Apple Computer. He has a BSE degree in Computer Science from Tufts University and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He is currently on the Board of Directors for Freeshop.com in Seattle. He has served on the Board of Directors for CompareNet Inc. and the Software Publishers Association.
Arnold Brown, Vice President Digital Distribution for ARTSTdirect, was most recently CEO at Mjuice.com, a company he co founded. He was appointed to his current role when ARTISTdirect acquired Mjuice.com early in 2000. Previous to founding Mjuice.com, Mr. Brown was an attorney at Venture Law Group (VLG), providing legal advice to Silicon Valley start-ups, often taking these companies through the IPO process. While at VLG, Mr. Brown conducted extensive research on the music industry and related technology. This research, combined with his life-long passion for music, was the inspiration for Mjuice.com, now DOWNLOADSdirect. Prior to VLG, Mr. Brown practiced law at Pillsbury Madison & Sutro, one of the largest and most prominent law firms in the country. Mr. Brown, who played in several Boston bands in the 1980's, earned a BA in Government from Harvard University, and holds a law degree from University of California's Boalt Law School. He is a member of California Lawyers for the Arts, Black Entertainment Sports Lawyers Association, and the San Francisco Bar Association.
Mark McNeely, Founder & Chairman of Advisory Committee, Qpass: Mark is
the former chairman of Cole & Weber, a subsidiary of Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. An expert in product positioning and new product launches, Mark helped craft the repositioning of AT&T, the launch of the Ford Taurus, the introduction of Seagram's Wine Cooler, and the introduction of Boeing's 777. He was the head of Strategic Planning for Ogilvy & Mather, and a member of Ogilvy's New York Board of Directors. Mark is also a founder of Laptop Lane, Ltd, Mark holds a BA (USC) and MBA (Harvard).Michael Downs, US Vice President of Business Development, Magex: Michael Downs brings over a decade of top-tier consulting and business development experience to the role. His ability to interpret changes occurring in the digital commerce market and to deliver new business solutions will play a key role in defining and growing Magex’s US operation as he opens the company’s first West Coast office in San Francisco. Michael graduated Magna Cum Laude in finance from the University of Colorado in 1988. He joined the financial services practice of Andersen Consulting and worked his way to the role of consulting manager soon after, where he was responsible for selling and managing one of Andersen’s first object-oriented application development projects. Michael earned an MBA from the prestigious Wharton School of Business, where he studied finance and competitive strategy. Following business school, Michael joined Booz-Allen and Hamilton as a consultant in the media and entertainment practice. At Booz-Allen Michael gained direct Internet experience on a variety of studies in one case originating a B2B ad exchange for a consortium of newspaper publishers. Michael stepped into the business development role, building advertiser demand, attracting newspapers and enlisting technology providers. Appointed Vice President of Business Development of Toytime.com in 1999, Michael was part of a five person executive team that launched the toy e-tailer in under one hundred days generating over $6 million in sales in its first quarter. Michael negotiated the company’s major contracts including media and merchandising deals and oversaw the technology teams. Michael joins Magex on the heels of its recent injection of $80 million in funding from Goldman Sachs and Capital Z, Magex‘s contracts and strategic partnerships include Affinity Internet Holdings, KPN Dutch Telecom, Mitsubishi, Universal Music Group, Channelfly and Asiamix.
Richard Lewis brings over twenty years of experience in the entertainment industry to Digital Mercury. For the past 17 years, Lewis has served as a co-founder and partner in Trilogy Entertainment Group, one of Hollywood's most successful independent production companies. To date, Trilogy's movie and television divisions have produced 10 feature films and nearly 300 hours of primetime dramatic television, generating more than $1.3 billion dollars in gross revenue for it's studio partners. Lewis' producing credits include the blockbuster movies ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES, BACKDRAFT (3 Oscar nominations) and BLOWN AWAY, and the landmark multi-award-winning Showtime/MGM series THE OUTER LIMITS (132 episodes and 30 Emmy, Cable Ace and Saturn Award nominations), Lewis also created the Showtime/ MGM series POLTERGEIST: THE LEGACY (88 episodes) now on the USA/Sci-Fi Channel and FAME L.A., MGM's revival of "FAME", winnner of two prime time Emmy Awards for best music and dance. Lewis has recently launched a new entertainment company, Southpaw Media Group, with 20 major film and television projects in development. Lewis is a graduate of UC Berkeley's department of Biological Anthropology, and received his master's degree from UCLA's School of Motion Picture and Television Production.