Wednesday, March 7
4:00 PM - 5:15 PM
Session A:

Content Acquisition, Licensing and Syndication on the Net
From the start, as much as TV industry, the Net has been about aggregating viewers, gaining market share, and monetizing the user experience. To that end, the concept of licensing, content acquisition, and syndication have become a growing Net business phenomenon. While the content may not function in quite the same way as TV syndication, the value of “site features” from stock information, news updates, and ASP like add-ons to actual “programming,” which might be a pay-per-view event or a long term “content partnership”, syndication and licensing is very much at the core of E-commerce and Net success.
Bruce M. Polichar, Vice President, Entertainment, IBM Global Media and Entertainment Industry
Jeffrey A. Stern, founder & CEO, Lineup Technologies
Bill Foulkes, Vice President, Business Development, Context Media
Steve Spencer, Sr. VP Wireless Services & Product Management, ScreamingMedia
Sean Ryan, President, Listen.com
Rich Kreisman, Vice President, Business Development, iSyndicate
Neil McGinness, Sr. Vice President Business Development, Burly Bear Network, Moderator

Jeffrey A. Stern: As founder and CEO of Lineup Technologies, Inc., Jeffrey A. Stern oversees all operations, partnerships and strategic alliances of the end-to-end broadband content solutions provider., After graduating from Harvard University in 1980, Stern founded City Limits, a Boston-area entertainment magazine, and spent the next twenty years in the upper management levels of several high-profile publishing companies prior to starting Lineup Technologies, Inc., Following the launch of City Limits, Stern launched Newsweek On Campus in New York before he was appointed business manager of Newsweek magazine. He was then recruited by Ziff Davis to be general manager of their Special Markets Group, where he oversaw all operations of Unique Homes magazine and University Communications., In 1986, Stern was named president and publisher of Details magazine, where he worked closely with venture capitalist Alan Patricof to lead the troubled monthly into the black and establish the brand as a major twenty-something lifestyle publication prior to its successful sale to Conde Nast in 1988. In 1990, Stern moved back to his native Los Angeles and founded the JSA Group. Among the company’s diverse interests, JSA Group published the entertainment guides for Ticketmaster. Eventually, JSA Group expanded its operations into the publishing and direct marketing arenas of the burgeoning Hispanic market, and in 1999 launched InternetMercado, a website that works in tandem with JSA’s other direct marketing ventures., In February 2000, Stern founded Lineup Technologies, as he recognized that his background was a perfect match for the burgeoning broadband market. The company is focused on presenting an end-to-end, turnkey solution for taking online and offline content alike from digitization to monetization. As a one-stop shop, Lineup offers its clients highly competitive rates through the aggregation of broadband content services. Stern continues to reside in Santa Monica with his wife, their two daughters and a chocolate lab named Coco.

Bruce M. Polichar, Vice President, Entertainment, IBM Global Media and Entertainment Industry: As vice president, Entertainment, IBM Global Media and Entertainment Industry, Bruce M. Polichar is responsible for IBM's strategic business development in the entertainment industry worldwide. Prior to joining IBM in 1995, Mr. Polichar worked with a number of companies as a senior business executive, an intellectual property and business attorney, and as a strategic planning consultant and personal manager in the media and entertainment industries. His clients and corporate affiliations have included major worldwide media, entertainment and telecommunications companies; film, television and music talent; production, distribution and financing companies worldwide; and major entertainment and interactive media trade associations. Most recently, Mr. Polichar worked as an independent consultant to multimedia, entertainment, publishing, public television, communications and financial companies on the development and implementation of business and programming strategies and operating plans aimed at merging content from traditional entertainment, print and communications media with new interactive technologies. Clients included GTE Interactive, BBC, public TV in New York and Los Angeles, Harper Collins Publishers, and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Previously, he served as Senior Vice President of Business Affairs for Embassy Home Entertainment and its successor, Nelson Entertainment Inc., an independent home video publisher and motion picture company, where he was responsible for worldwide business and legal affairs, including its acquisition and qualification for trading on AMEX, long-range corporate planning, strategy, budgeting and organization, litigation coordination, and liaison with outside law firms. Mr. Polichar was Senior Vice President of Manson International, an independent international film distribution company, serving on the Executive Committee where he had responsibility for all creative, business and legal affairs and expansion and financing plans. He also served as Vice President of Business Affairs for The Samuel Goldwyn Company, where he was involved in corporate expansion plans, internal management studies, restructurings and executive recruitment. Mr. Polichar previously held positions in the personal management and talent agency field, primarily in the areas of music recording and publishing, stage, television and personal appearances. In addition, he has been a practicing attorney since 1967 with emphasis in all areas of the entertainment industry, intellectual property, business matters and civil litigation. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Berkeley (1964), and a Juris Doctor degree from the UCLA School of Law (1967).

Sean Ryan, President and COO, Listen.com: As President and COO, Sean Ryan develops strategic business partnerships while helping to manage the company's rapid growth. Until April 1999, Sean served as Listen.com's Vice President, Business Development, during which time he helped create Listen.com's overall partnership strategy, led the hugely successful business development effort to syndicate the directory, and worked to optimize product development's efforts. During Sean's tenure as Vice President, Business Development, Listen.com gained investments from all five major music labels; partnered with 14 independent labels; teamed with nearly all major online music sites to create systems for reviewing and linking to their content; and syndicated its music guide to more than a dozen major portals and music sites, including AltaVista, Excite@Home, Lycos, RealNetworks and NBCi.com. Prior to joining Listen.com, Sean held positions at SegaSoft Networks and Gap, Inc.

Bill Foulkes, Vice President, Business Development, Context Media: Bill joined Context Media from Telesis/Towers Perrin, a strategy consulting firm specializing in market entry strategies for broadband and telecommunications technologies. At Telesis, Bill's contributions included managing major customer relationships and contributing to the firm's expansion into several new lines of business. Prior to Telesis, Bill managed several brands for The Gillette Company which represented nearly $200M of that company's business. Bill's background also includes time spent serving as an assistant vice president at Waller Capital Corporation, and as an analyst in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department at Morgan Stanley. Bill graduated from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration with an MBA, and earned his B.A. in History from Harvard University.

Steven Spencer is the Chief Technology Officer of ScreamingMedia Inc., a NASDAQ listed firm (SCRM) and the world’s leading provider of technology and content solutions. Powered by its state-of-the art technology platform, ScreamingMedia offers its clients robust Technology and Content Services to meet all their business needs. He joined the company in April 2000. Steve is responsible for overseeing the continued build out of the company’s infrastructure technology platform and the introduction and management of new products and services, as well as the company’s core content services offering. Prior to assuming his present position, Steve was the Senior Managing Director of Business Management for the Wireless Internet Applications Division of Lucent Technologies. In this role, Steve and his team were responsible for developing and managing a portfolio of Wireless Internet enabling technologies for Lucent’s Global business. Steve’s other past leadership positions at Lucent included Project Director for Internet Appliances, Director Business Development for Internet Technologies, Project Director for Broadband Interactive Television, and Director Business Management for Optical Carrier Systems. He began his career with Bell Laboratories in 1980 as a design engineer in the digital loop carrier laboratory. He has earned a Bachelors of Electrical Engineering from Union College, a MSEE from Cornell University and a MBA from New York University's Stern School of business. He is the author of four communications patents. He is married, has three great children and a wonderful wife!

Neil McGinness is Senior Vice President for Business Development at the Burly Bear Network, the nation's largest college cable television network. In this role he plans and creates strategic relationships which benefit Burly Bear Network's efforts on-air, on-campus, and online at www.burlybear.com. Prior to joining Burly Bear Network, Mr. McGinness was Vice President for Business Development at Burly Bear Network's parent company Broadway Video Entertainment. Owned by "Saturday Night Live" creator Lorne Michaels, Broadway Video Entertainment develops and produces entertainment in television, recorded music, and new media. Mr. McGinness began his career at Broadway Video Entertainment in 1992. He holds a master's degree from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts' Institute of Film and Television and received a bachelor's degree from Georgetown University.