Tuesday, April 28th, 2015

Sports Media and Technology Track:  Marina Vista Room

12:30 PM - 1:45 PM Live Webcast from this Room

Sports Media Expansion - Networks - Teams - Leagues - Brands - as Programming Powers: The Evolution of New Platforms and New Brand Opportunities

Adam Ware, SVP / Head of Digital Media, Tennis Channel

Richard Gillam, CEO, DeskSite (Official NFL Team Content Partner)

Tyler Slocum, Director of Mobile Product, NFL

Gotham Chopra, Director/Producer, Kobe Bryant's Muse, ESPN, 30 for 30, "The Little Master"

Don Daglow, CEO Daglow Ent. (La Russa Baseball, Madden NFL, NASCAR Racing)

David Bloom, Digital content production and partnerships, Deadline.com, Moderator

 

 

acting CEO of Mnet America, a U.S.-based television network dedicated to Asian Americans and Asian pop culture. While there, he oversaw the channel’s launch and growth to reach 20 million homes. With a sizeable list of other new-network launches on his resume, Ware has held senior leadership positions within numerous television organizations, including FOX, UPN and USA Broadcasting. Additional Aware Media Consulting clients included AOL, Comcast Cable, Liberty Media, Boston Ventures Investment Partners and the United Talent Agency.

 

Gotham Chopra, the director and EP of the recent Kobe Bryant documentary, "Muse," which aired early this month on Showtime.  As the son of Deepak Chopra, Gotham's religion is sports, and his works study the greatness in the greatest. He also directed and Executive Produced ESPN's latest "30 for 30" documentary,  "The Little Master," about the Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and his quest for his first world championship, which debuted Feb. 15 on ESPN to rave reviews.  Previously, Gotham directed and produced the documentary 'Decoding Deepak,' traversing the globe with his father to uncover the man behind the myth, and find out why millions are drawn to his motivational message and teachings; and hosted the OWN Network series, Help Desk, bringing the wisdom of today's top spiritual leaders to the streets in different cities across the country, offering life-changing answers to hard-hitting questions. As an award-winning journalist, Gotham has reported from warzones and has interviewed a wide range of Global leaders – from President Clinton to the Dalai Lama.  With back-to-back heavy weight sports documentaries, and a number of high-profile sports projects in the pipeline, I thought now would be perfect timing for something with Gotham, who recently joined forces with production house Dirty Robber, 2013 Academy Award nominee for Best Live Action Short film for "Buzkashi Boys," to bring compelling sports content to TV and the big screen.

 

Richard Gillam, Founder/CEO of DeskSite: A lifelong entrepreneur, Richard dropped out of high school to launch his first tech company.  His most recent venture is an app-based, video entertainment network specializing in “Big Screen” platforms, which is currently revolutionizing the way fans connect with their favorite sports teams.  DeskSite has partnered with many of the world’s most valuable sports brands to deliver highly-produced, team-specific HD video content across a broad demographic spectrum.  With an average of 17 hours per day (during the regular season), his network delivered more hours of NFL programming last year than any other network in America, online or off.  During the upcoming 2015 regular season, his NFL team programming will exceed 20 hours per day of original HD content. Richard is a former US Marine (Infantry), and a former nationally-ranked athlete (Pairs Figure Skating).

 

David Bloom advises on communications strategy, media relations and social media for prominent companies, institutions and individuals in politics, technology, entertainment and business. Bloom previously was associate dean and chief communications officer for the USC Marshall School of Business, and vice president of corporate communications at movie studio MGM Inc. He previously worked 20 years as an award-winning journalist for such publications as Variety, Red Herring, the Los Angeles Daily News and the Dallas Times Herald.  Bloom writes regularly on technology, media, politics and art at the blogs Bloom’s Day and Post Mad Bills; guest lectures at USC, Pepperdine and Chapman University, and is a frequent moderator and panelist at conferences such as Digital Hollywood, Ad:Tech, Produced By, NATPE and OMMA. He is vice president of the Board of Directors of Outpost for Contemporary Art.

 

TYLER SLOCUM, Director of Mobile Product for the National Football League: Tyler Slocum is a three-time Emmy® Award-winning digital media and entertainment executive and current Director of Mobile Product for the National Football League.  Slocum’s responsibilities include ongoing design and development oversight for a range of domestic and internationally available smartphone and tablet applications including the current NFL Mobile app. Prior to joining the NFL, Slocum spent over eleven years at DIRECTV where he lead the general iTV, interactive sports, advertising, mobile, and VOD verticals as VP of Product Management within the Advanced Services group.  While at DIRECTV, Slocum launched the DIRECTV iPad app with live in-home channel streaming, DIRECTV Nomad (DVR-to-mobile device video downloader) and pre-launch development for DIRECTV Everywhere.  Slocum is credited with launching interactive advertising at DIRECTV with the introduction of a 24/7 client-sponsored linear interactive channel and securing long-term financial commitments by developing a partner program with major advertisers including DaimlerChrysler, P&G and Bank of America.  Slocum developed the first series of on-screen data enhancements for DIRECTV’s exclusive NFL SUNDAY TICKET package and pioneered some of the industry’s first T-Commerce and DVR-based services.  Prior to DIRECTV, Slocum held both project and product management roles at Hughes Space and Communications and Northrop Grumman.  Slocum earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from California State University-Long Beach.

 

Richard Gillam, Founder and CEO of DeskSite, Richard has been a lifelong entrepreneur, dropping out of high school to launch his first technology company. In his most notable business success, he helped revolutionized the way electronic stock exchanges operated, and brought “day trading” to the masses. Richard’s current company, DeskSite, has developed content distribution licenses with more than 20 NFL teams, and is in the process of developing similar licenses with several NBA and NHL teams. Richard is a former US Marine (Infantry) and a nationally-ranked athlete.

 

Don Daglow, CEO Daglow Ent. (La Russa Baseball, Madden NFL, NASCAR Racing): Don Daglow is a three-time Inc. 500 CEO and 2008 Technical Emmy® Award recipient who advises game developers and publishers around the world, as well as teaching entrepreneurs at the Founders Space accelerator in San Francisco. His clients range from small mobile game startups to large international publishers.  Don is the only games industry executive who has led development teams on every generation of the first three decades of video game consoles, working on each cycle from the Intellivision in 1980 to the PS4 today. He produced two of EA’s first three sports titles and led development teams on the award-winning sports games La Russa Baseball , Madden NFL for PC, and NASCAR Racing.  He speaks extensively in North America, Europe and Asia at conferences focused on interactivity and entertainment.  He also serves as President of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Foundation, the charitable arm of the AIAS.  Don's career in game design began in 1971 (before Pong), and he has been designing online titles since 1987 (before the Internet). In addition to an Emmy® Award for Technology and Engineering in 2008 for his creation of Neverwinter Nights, the first graphical MMORPG, he also received the CGE Award in 2003 for "groundbreaking achievements that shaped the Video Game Industry," and his game Utopia is featured in the touring Smithsonian Museum "Art of Video Games" exhibit.

Adam Ware is Tennis Channel’s senior vice president, head of digital media, joining the network in spring 2014. He has extensive television experience as a media consultant across a variety of concentrations, including sports, entertainment and multicultural media. He most recently acted as founder and principal of Aware Media Consulting, a boutique firm that offered strategic counseling to media companies with a particular emphasis on digital media and emerging audiences. In that capacity, Ware was intimately involved in the development of select mobile and digital platforms for Tennis Channel, including the launch of the network’s app in 2013.  Based in Los Angeles, Ware oversees the continuation of the network’s extensive digital growth of late, including its Tennis Channel Everywhere app, the new OTT-TV subscription channel Tennis Channel Plus, the ongoing rollout of TV Everywhere and the network’s overall website and social media efforts.  Previously, he served as