The Digital Hollywood Experience

Watch Videos From Digital Hollywood

Monday, January 5th, 2015

11:30 – 12:30 PM

Track II- DH3 - Digital Hollywood

Location: LVCC, North Hall, Room N262

Hollywood and Media: The Multi-Platform Brand

Content is now imagined and created for an always-on always-connected media universe. In this cross-platform world, the entertainment brand must resonate equally on mobile platforms as well as on Cable or Internet TV. It’s a massive challenge and a creativity opportunity.

Jennifer Romolini, Editor-in-Chief, Hello Giggles

Sam Landman, Principal, Comcast Ventures

Robert (Leo) Rodgers, MBA, Sr. VP & Label Liaison, Bungalo Records, Universal Music Group

Fernando Szew, Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer, MarVista Entertainment

Jeffrey Thompson, Partner, Four Screen Partners

Brendan Gaul, SVP, Global Creative Director & Head, UM/J3 Studios

Shawn Gold, Advisor, Wattpad.com, Moderator

Sam Landman, Principal, Comcast Ventures:  Sam sources and identifies new investment opportunities, conducts due diligence on pending investments, and advises Comcast Ventures portfolio companies.  Prior to joining Comcast Ventures in 2009, Sam worked as the Director of Business Development for The Electric Sheep Company, an Emmy award-winning creator of virtual worlds and social games for major brands and media companies. Prior to that, Sam worked as a Senior Associate for Gladwyne Partners where he helped originate investment opportunities, analyze investment prospects and advise portfolio companies.  Sam

holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Political Science from Bucknell University and received his M.B.A. from Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

Robert (Leo) Rodgers, Sr. VP & Label Liaison, Bungalo Records: - Mr. Rodgers has been in the music and entertainment business for 27 years, he executively produced his first album in 1985, and has either produced, or executively produced 7 more records/CD's from 1985-2004. In the mid 90's Mr. Rodgers was solely responsible for the licensing of one of his artist records to the U.K. that went to # 1 on the charts. He later licensed several other records that were subsequently place on the charts as well in Europe. He also attended film school in the mid eighties in order to produce his own music videos for his roster of artist. During his first year of film school he won an International Film award in the music video category from the Black Filmmakers Hall Of Fame Foundation in Oakland, Ca. In just one year later he was bestowed with “Local Video Producer of the Year” in 1989 by a local music video TV station in the SF Bay Area. He has worked in a film with Whoopie Goldberg in the mid-eighties and wrote, produced and directed his own short music montage short film that received raved reviews from a local PBS affiliate. He also directed a short film starring former 49ers Dwight Clark that aired during the S.F. 49ers vs. Denver Bronco's halftime game. In addition he directed a music video that featured several S.F. 49ers, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, Mike Wilson and Ronnie Lott. Mr. Rodgers has worked with, toured with and worked in the studio with artist such as; Spaceship Earth (members of Parliament Funkadelics) MC Hammer, (formerly Hammer's road Mgr), Club Nouveau, Howard Hewlett, Bar-Kays, Rosie Gaines, Radio Personality Kevin Nash, 2Bigg MC and was credited as Tony Toni Tone's first Promotions Director, and assisted them in the early days with some co-management duties. Alone the way, Mr. Rodgers worked in the High Tech Telecommunications and Internet industry for over 17 years and founded an Internet Licensing Company entitled “Licensedeals.com, which specialized in the licensing of apparel brands and music licensing. In the early 90's Mr. Rodgers produced a syndicated music variety show entitled “Sounds by the Bay” which was a cross between “In Living Color” and “Star Search”, focused on highlighting un-discovered talent, alone with skits. The show was syndicated on the west coast by a PBS affiliate. In 1994 Mr. Rodgers became a little bored and collaborated with one of MC Hammer's costume designers, James Head and Mr. Thurston Bilal, a close friend and businessman/producer. They formed StreetSmartz LTD. A street wear/denim clothing line. They setup worldwide licensing for the “Sagwear denim line. They shipped nearly 2 million in sales during the 1995-1996 first production years, and had product placed in over 500 stores worldwide. Currently, Mr. Rodgers co-owns a new upcoming high-end sportswear clothing line (Debonair) with Designer Eric Fermon and MC Hammer. Currently Mr. Rodgers is the President, Co-Founder and Executive Producer of Catalog License, LLC/Bringem Back Records, which is a music catalog licensing and record company that is distributed by Universal Music Group. Catalog License, LLC, has released over 13 CD's through Universal Music Group. Alone the way Mr. Rodgers managed to work his way into the boxing arena working as a manager and boxing promoter with “Richard Steele Promotions”. His current post is SVP & Label Liaison of Bungalo/Universal Music Grp.

Jennifer Romolini is the editor-in-chief and VP of content at HelloGiggles, Inc. Hello Giggles is a contributor-powered multimedia entertainment brand for young women, reaching over 12M users a month.  Jennifer was previously the editor-in-chief of Yahoo Shine and oversaw all editorial operations for Yahoo Lifestyles, including Yahoo Health and Yahoo Food. A founding Shine editor under Brandon Holley, she took over the helm of the women's lifestyle, healthy living and fashion website in November 2010. Before this, she was the deputy editor of Lucky Magazine under then editor-in-chief Kim France.  Jennifer Romolini has written and edited for various publications, including The New York Times, Glamour, Better Homes & Gardens, The New York Post, Time Out New York and more. She began her career with editorial positions at Inside.com and Talk Magazine.

Fernando Szew is Founding Partner and Chief Executive Officer of MarVista Entertainment. Under Szew’s leadership, MarVista has achieved remarkable growth through a strategy that complements its distribution slate with acquisitions across all media platforms as well as third party distribution agreements. MarVista has produced more than 60 television movies and continues its expansion in production and distribution. MarVista currently has a catalog of more than 200 movies and 2000 hours of serial television and animated specials.  Prior to the formation of MarVista Entertainment, Szew served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing at his father’s distribution company, Whamo Entertainment, joining him in 1999 at the young age of 23. It was Szew’s vision to transform the company from a distributor of third-party produced programming to a production and distribution company with a worldwide presence.  Szew is a member of the Zimmer Children’s Museum Board of Directors, a member of The International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, a member of Young President’s Organization (YPO), and recently served a three year stint as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE). He is an alumnus of the Huntsman International Studies and Business Program’s first graduating class at the University of Pennsylvania where he graduated Cum Laude with a dual-degree in International Studies and Business and a double concentration in Management and Marketing at the prestigious Wharton School of Business.

Jeffrey Thompson, Partner, Four Screens Partner: Jeffrey is a veteran of the media industry, previously serving as Vice President, Global Business Development at The Walt Disney Company and Vice President, Digital Strategy & Business Development at Conde Nast prior to joining RNN. Jeffrey currently serves on the Board of Advisors of Digital Hollywood, the Board of the Congressional Awards Foundation and previously served on NYC’s Latin Media Commission, having been appointed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.  Jeffrey is an active triathlete, having competed in the 2012 US Ironman Championship in New York City.

Brendan Gaul, SVP, Global Creative Director & Head, UM/J3 Studios:  Brendan has been the Global Creative Director for UM for the past year, leading creative concepting and production for large scale content assignments for UM.  He is an award-winning Executive Creative Director whose work has been recognized many times over.  Brendan’s  latest project for J&J, the “See The Real Me” content series for Clean & Clear, has been heralded as the first example of global branded content developed in J&J’s new global IMC process.

Shawn Gold, Advisor, Wattpad.com; Shawn Gold has over 20 years of experience in branding, communications planning, digital marketing and content strategy. He currently advises Wattpad.com, a social storytelling platform and one of the fastest growing mobile content sites in the world. Previously he oversaw sales, marketing and content development as CMO of Inside Studios, a video and mobile app company creating shows with over 1 billion views on YouTube and MSN. Until 2007, he was CMO, head of marketing & content for MySpace. At MySpace Gold spearheaded the development and implementation of marketing initiatives and campaigns for MySpace during its growth from 25 to 110 million users worldwide. Prior to MySpace he was a partner and the founding publisher of Weblogs, Inc., a network of popular blogs that included Engadget, Joystiq and Autoblog, now part of AOL. As head of communications planning for Rare Medium, Shawn helped launch digital communications strategies for brands at P&G, General Mills, Nestle, Mattel and other international brand marketing companies.