Thursday, March 8 9:30 AM - 10:45 AM Session B: Content Syndication - Analyzing Business Models In Part II of our exploration of Syndication, we will take a look how the various business models are evolving among the content owners and providers. There are a number of different industries which take part in the syndication model, from Internet portals and content sites, television and radio stations to the wireless device and application developers as well as to the Interactive TV industry, not to mention the basic creators and distributors of music, movies and news. Each has a need to both aggregate and deliver more information and content to its own community as well as to sell original content to others. Michael Kasprow, Creative Director and Co-Founder, Trapeze Jim Steele, Executive VP, Business Development, ShowBIZ Data Aron Campisano, CEO, Filmspeed Rolfe Swinton, Co-CEO, Article27 Julia O’Sullivan, CEO, Filmsonsale.com David Gajda, CEO, Hollywood Software, Moderator Aron Campisano, CEO and founder, FILMSPEED: FILMSPEED is a centralized distribution service for the wide-area syndication of broadcast-quality MPEG-4 home video on the broadband Internet. FILMSPEED serves thousands of consumer Web sites through its affiliate program and scales to millions of Internet devices, including PCs, DOCSIS-compliant set-top boxes, PDAs, and WAP cell phones. Aron's career in digital video entertainment includes producing credits from companies including Disney Interactive and CNET, where he developed his expertise in digital video development, optimization, compression, and delivery. He is a graduate of New York University's department of Film & Television. Michael Kasprow, Creative Director and Co-Founder, Trapeze: Michael has been involved in film and technology for the past 5 years. As a marketing associate with Bell Canada, Michael was the New Technologies lead for the Ontario Direct Marketing Centre, and led the discussion of improving internal IT technology for the group. Concurrent with his work at Bell, Michael freelanced as a story editor and script consultant, working with Alliance Films, Odeon Films, The Canadian Film Centre and The Movie Network. Most recently, Michael managed the Script Development program of the Harold Greenberg Fund, Canada's largest private development organization. Michael has worked as a film editor, has several feature film scripts under option, and is a graduate of The University of Western Ontario (B.A.), the Ryerson Film Studies Program (with honours) and the h@bitat new media program at the Canadian Film Centre. David Gajda is CEO of Hollywood Software, Inc., which develops and markets entertainment industry software applications used to manage, distribute and administer creative content. Mr. Gajda has over 18 years of experience in the development of entertainment industry systems. He has worked with many of the major entertainment companies in developing their strategic systems plans, including Sony Pictures, BMG Entertainment, EMI Music, New Line Cinema, MGM and Universal Music. He ran a successful entertainment systems consulting company for 10 years under the name of DWG International. Prior to starting DWG, David was vice president of MIS at CBS/Fox Video. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Systems from the University of Michigan. Mr. Gajda is a member of the Digital Coast Roundtable.Arthur D. Allen is the chief scientist at Burst.com, where he has been employed since July 1998. His activities at Burst have included the conception of a novel multi-layer server architecture for streaming video and "live" performances over the Internet. This work encompassed the development of a number of groundbreaking call admission control (CAC) and optimal content flow modulation algorithms (patents pending). These algorithms deliver markedly improved quality of service to the end-user, while optimizing a server’s ability to accept clients and deliver content. Over the years Mr. Allen has been active as a consultant and researcher. While at Cellnet Data Systems he established the system architecture of a large-scale metropolitan-area digital cellular network serving the needs of the Electric Utilities nation-wide and in the UK. He has presented papers at leading international conference (such as OOPSLA and AAAI’s Autonomous Agent conference) bearing on his research into advanced event-driven object and agent architectures. Mr. Allen holds BS and MS degrees in EECS from UC Berkeley. Rolfe Swinton, Co-CEO, Article27: Based in article27’s London headquarters, Rolfe Swinton is responsible, along with co-founder Christian Strain, for setting article27’s strategic direction as well as marketing, recruitment and relationship development within the film industry. Swinton was previously a project manager at Monitor Company, where he held posts in Europe, North America and Africa. While at Monitor, he managed strategy development projects for Fortune-class clients in the software, telecommunications, and consumer products sectors. Earlier, Swinton was a marketing strategist with Ogilvy and Mather in London, where he developed interactive and online advertising strategies for companies such as Guinness Brewing and Ford Motor Company. Before Ogilvy and Mather, Swinton founded and presided over Victoria (Canada) Walking and Pub Tours, which he later sold to tourism professionals in partnership with the City of Victoria. Swinton holds a Masters degree from the University of Cambridge and a BA from Yale University Jim Steele is Executive Vice President, Business Development for ShowBIZ Data, Inc. where he spearheads the company’s strategic relations and partnership efforts with third-party companies who compliment Showbiz Data’s business goals. Steele’s prior background as both an executive and producer in Hollywood’s independent film community is an invaluable asset to ShowBIZData.com whose business-to-business focus is the entertainment industry as well as film enthusiasts. Steele launched his career producing music videos and commercials in New York after graduating from New York University. Relocating to Hollywood, he held tenure for such companies as Hemdale Films where as Manager of Business Affairs & Foreign Sales, he designed a worldwide sales tracking system for their 120-film library; director Paul Bartel’s production company, North Street Films where he served as President; Working Title Films where he was Vice President of Production and Development; Live Entertainment (Artisan) as Sr. Vice President, Production & Acquisitions and finally as President of his own independent production entity, Steelework Films. During the course of his career in the movie industry, Steele produced such films as Gramercy Pictures’ landmark black western, Posse, directed by and starring Mario Van Peebles, which he produced with Preston Holmes; The Arrival written and directed by David Twohy (Waterworld, The Fugitive, Terminal Velocity) starring Charles Sheen, and The Substitute directed by Robert Mandel (School Ties, F/X, Big Shots) starring Tom Berenger and Ernie Hudson. His executive producing credits include Raymond DeFelitta’s Café Society with Frank Whaley and Peter Gallagher; Fall Time starring David Arquette, Stephen Baldwin and Mickey Rourke and the critically acclaimed Little Odessa starring Vanessa Redgrave, Tim Roth, Edward Furlong and Maximilian Schell. As co-producer, Steele’s credits include Largo Entertainment/Twentieth Century Fox’s Back In The USSR, a thriller set in Russia directed by Deran Serafian and Love & A .45 with Darin Scott, directed by C.M. Talkington, starring Renee Zellweger and Rory Cochran. During the period he was a studio executive, Steele worked on such films as Scenes From A Class Struggle In Beverly Hills, Tim Robbins’ Bob Roberts, Peter Medak’s Romeo Is Bleeding, Bryan Singer’s cult hit, The Usual Suspects with WMG and Roman Polanski’s thriller Death And The Maiden with Capitol Films. Steele has been a guest speaker on film producing, film production and the integration of new media at various seminars and panels at UCLA, USC, Pepperdine University, San Francisco School of Art and Design, NYU and most recently at the Cannes Film Festival. Julia O’Sullivan, CEO, Filmsonsale.com: Julie O'Sullivan published her first Internet site in November 1995, magicoftibet.com representing the Office of Tibet, Students for a Free Tibet, and the Tibet Fund. In 1997, Julia traveled throughout Morocco taking photos and collecting material for the official site of the King of Morocco, kingdomofmorocco.com. In August 1999, Julia launched Filmsonsale.com, an Internet site dedicated to providing independent feature filmmakers a pay-per-view channel outlet for their films. Newly launched Filmclix.com is the principal entertainment destination for all content from Filmsonsale,including the show FilmJam, a monthly magazine show about independent film.