Wednesday, May 17 9:00 AM - 10:20 AM Session A: Enhanced TV Content: Leveraging & Merging the TV and Internet Medias - Entertainment, Sports, News and Finance The definitions are confusing, but whether it’s Interactive TV programming or Internet/TV companion programming, it is all part of the evolution of what is being called Enhanced TV and its day is coming. Within the next year, every TV show will have a significant Internet presence and it may even come in the form of real-time companion programming. In this session we bring together the brand name programming executives and creators who are dealing with what it means to leverage and extend their on-air television programming to the Internet or into the Interactive TV space. What is this process really all about? Can you effectively mix entertainment with marketing? What about building a community with programming that keeps an audience coming back? What does it mean to be a TV/Internet hybrid programmer? We are pleased to welcome a distinguished panel of experts. Jonathan Leess, Senior Vice President, General Manager, Go.com/ABC Enhanced TV Jonathan Boltax, Director, NBC Enhanced Broadcast Group Anna Marie Piersimoni, Director of Enhanced TV, American Film Institute Sarah Cotsen, Vice President Interactive Ventures, HBO MTV Networks, speaker to be announced Todd Tarpley, Vice President, A&E Networks Brian Seth Hurst, Managing Director of Convergent Media Worldwide, Pittard Sullivan Tracy Fullerton, President, Spiderdance, Moderator Jonathan Boltax serves as Director of the NBC Enhanced Broadcast Group (NBC EBG). Boltax has headed and expanded the EBG since its inaugural broadcast, the 1996 Olympic Games from Atlanta. Since then, Boltax has gone on to produce other notable enhanced broadcasts including NBA on NBC, NFL on NBC, Dateline, Homicide Life on the Street, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Saturday Night Live and the 1997 and 1998 U.S Open. Current productions include the first ever enhanced digital productions of TNBC and Notre Dame football. Prior to his work at NBC, Boltax worked for the Apple New Media Labs in Boulder, Colorado and Commonground, an Internet marketing/development firm also located in Colorado. Boltax is actively involved as NBC's representative in the ATSC Specialist Group T3/S17 for DTV Application Software Environment (DASE) as well as the Technical Working Group of the Advanced Television Enhancement Forum (ATEVF). Anna Marie Piersimoni is Director of Enhanced TV for the American Film Institute. Over the past 10 years she has worked as a producer and writer fin On-Air Promotions for network, cable, local television and public television entities including ABC Entertainment, KCET Los Angeles, and E! Entertainment Television. She began her career as an independent producer and video artist and as an administrator for several non-profit organizations supporting independent media arts, including Image Film/Video in Atlanta and MonteVideo in Hartford Connecticut. Todd Tarpley, Vice President, A&E Networks, manages the company's four major websites: A&E Online (www.AandE. com), The History Channel Online (www.HistoryChannel.com), Biography Online (www. Biography.com) and History Channel Traveler Online (www.HistoryTravel.com). In addition, he oversees The History Channel's site on AOL (keyword "History Channel"). Mr. Tarpley is also responsible for the company's new online initiatives. Mr. Tarpley is based in New York. Since October of 1995, he had served as Manager of New Media. Mr. Tarpley joined A&E in 1993 as a consultant for The History Channel, and then became Manager, Research and Planning for The History Channel later that year. Prior to joining A&E, Mr. Tarpley was a production assistant on projects for Lifetime, ABC, NBC and HBO. Tracy Fullerton, is President of Spiderdance, Inc., a start-up firm engaged in the development of multi-user activities and applications. Spiderdance has recently released its first product, the Spiderdance Activity Network, an online suite of social games and activities that was named Best Online Gaming Site at SXSW '99 and Best Online Program at CIE '98. Prior to forming Spiderdance, Tracy served as a Creative Director for R/GA Interactive, NY, designing and producing online games and websites for clients such as Microsoft, Intel, Sony Online Entertainment, Ticketmaster, Advertising Age, Warner Bros., and Compaq. Tracy's most current work includes the designs for the multiplayer versions of the classic game shows Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune. She also worked with Ticketmaster and Intel to design the recently released My.Ticketmaster.com, a customized online ticketing application that offers purchasers VRML seat previews before they buy. Another new project, the Ad Age Edge, delivers breaking ad campaigns and industry news, including full motion video of new spots, to subscribers via DirecPC. While at R/GA, Tracy also created the award-winning multiplayer game show NetWits for the Microsoft Network. This animated show was named one of the top ten websites of 1996 by Time Magazine. Prior to joining R/GA, Tracy served as Creative Director at Interfilm Technologies, NY, where she was part of the team that brought the first interactive "movie games" to motion picture theaters nationwide. She began her career at Synapse Technologies in Los Angeles, where she was an interactive designer on the groundbreaking educational titles Columbus: Discovery, Encounter and Beyond, Evolution/Revolution: The World 1890-1930, and Air Power: WWI. Tracy holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television and has been a faculty member at NYC's School of Visual Arts. Her work has received numerous industry honors and has been included in two ID Magazine Interactive Design Reviews, the Communication Arts Interactive Design Annual, and Time Magazine's Best of the Web. She currently serves on the advisory board for the AFI-Intel Enhanced Television workshop. Brian Seth Hurst, Managing Director of Convergent Media, Worldwide Pittard Sullivan: Brian Seth Hurst is responsible for developing and implementing strategies that enable Pittard Sullivan clients to take advantage of the emerging digital landscape by extending their brands and programming across platforms from broadcast and interactive television to broadband and the internet; and new digital communication devices. As principal author of Pittard Sullivan’s cross platform strategic initiatives, Mr. Hurst has overseen convergent projects for clients such as TiVo, Discovery Health, British Telecom, Deutsche Telekom, TV Guide, Columbia Tri-Star, NTL, NBC and Intertainer. He is also responsible for keeping Pittard Sullivan international clients informed on the latest developments regarding issues of convergence in their respective markets and is a highly sought after speaker on the topics of content, brand and technology for major industry events and conferences. He is also the author of many articles for publications such as Electronic Media, Variety and Digitrends. Previously, Mr. Hurst worked in television as an associate producer for various projects including specials for Variety Clubs International, serving as Talent Executive for ABC TV’s first prime-time AIDS education special, "In A New Light" with Elizabeth Taylor, and even did on air stints with FX and VH-1. Prior to that Mr. Hurst was President of Brian Hurst and Associates a company that helped business professionals define their company vision and mission and facilitated internal consensus building and communications. Intrigued with the Internet and the World Wide Web very early in their existence, Mr. Hurst pursued work with Sagon-Phior Group Advertising and Marketing where he served as their first Internet Services Director. From there, he went on to serve as Vice President, Creative and Marketing for Object One Design, an L.A.- based company specializing in Internet Design Services. In 1997, Mr. Hurst formed Tandem Intermedia, a company dedicated to the then nascent field of convergence. TI introduced new interactive technologies to such companies as The Disney Channel, CBS and Turner Broadcasting as well as advertising agencies from the Interpublic Group. Tandem Intermedia also counted Sony’s Game Show Network as a client. In Spring 1998, Tandem Intermedia was acquired as an in-house division of Pittard Sullivan dedicated to providing Pittard Sullivan’s clients with a full range of convergent strategies, design and communications services in this dynamic and rapidly expanding medium. Mr. Hurst is the co-author with Olivia Newton-John of Simon and Schuster’s best selling children’s book, "A Pig Tale", and serves as a mentor for the AFI-Intel Enhanced Television Workshop. Mr. Hurst holds a BS degree from George Washington University in International Politics.