The Digital Hollywood Experience

Watch Videos From Digital Hollywood

"The Conference that Defines the Future of the Industry"

PDF of Summit Program

Wednesday, March 4th, 2015

12:30 PM - 1:45 PM

Session B: Prague Room A, 3rd Floor - Live Webcast from This Room

Hollywood and Media Challenge: Platforms and Convergence - Programming, Monetization and Commerce in a Cross Platform Universe

Jon Housman, CEO, Ora TV

Gil Goldschein, President, Bunim Murray Productions

Pete Spande, CRO, Business Insider

Gene Hoffman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vindicia

Mara Winokur, Senior Vice President, Starz

Amit Ziv, Vice President, Business Operations, Development,

and Strategy, EpixHD

Shawn Gold, Advisor, Wattpad.com, Moderator

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.

Jon Housman is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Ora.TV. Mr. Housman served as the President of Digital Journalism Initiatives at News Corp. since June 2010. He served as the Head of Global Classified/verticals Ventures Group of Dow Jones & Company Inc. since March 2007. He For five years, he has worked with News Corporation, leading and growing media and marketing enterprises across several sectors, including Dow Jones, Fox Entertainment Group, Fox Interactive Media, and NDM. At Fox, he developed a variety of digital-oriented initiatives and investments related to Fox's film and television businesses. At Dow Jones, he was Managing Director of The Wall Street Journal Europe SPRL, leading its European subsidiary which publishes in nine countries and distributes in 35 countries across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He served as a Managing Director of European Edition for The Wall Street Journal since September 2005. Mr. Housman served as Managing Director of Consumer Media Group operations in Europe for Dow Jones & Company Inc. until March 2007. He co-founded Jungle Media Group in 2000 and also served as its Chief Executive Officer from 2000 to 2005. Mr. Housman Co-founded Green Earth Gourmet Specialties in 1990, and co-managed until its sale in 1994. From 1994 to 1996, he worked for Leedan Group, a publicly traded merchant bank/private equity firm, working primarily in Europe and the Middle East on corporate restructurings and mergers and acquisitions. He served as a Consultant with McKinsey & Company, specializing in areas relating to strategy and digital technology for companies in the media and entertainment industries. He serves as a Director of Next Issue Media LLC. At New York University's Stern School of Business, he served as a board member and adjunct professor for several years. Mr. Housman serves as Member of Advisory Board at BrandPort, Inc. He served as a Board Member of The Wall Street Journal Europe SPRL. He has served as a Board Member and/or Consultant to several start-up companies in the media or media technology fields. Mr. Housman holds an M.B.A. in finance and marketing from New York University and a bachelor's degree in history from Cornell University.

Gene Hoffman, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Vindicia:  Recognized by the San Francisco Business Times with the “40 under 40 Emerging Leaders Award” in 2012, Gene has deep experience with building companies that disrupt markets. Prior to Vindicia, Gene co-founded eMusic in January 1998 and served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and a Director. As head of eMusic, Gene was featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine as a member of the July 1999 E-Gang, and named one of the 100 most influential entrepreneurs in technology in Upside Magazine’s November 2000 Elite 100. Gene led the acquisition of eMusic by Vivendi/Universal in June 2001.  Before founding eMusic Gene was Director of Business Development and Director of Interactive Marketing of Pretty Good Privacy. Gene joined Pretty Good Privacy after it acquired PrivNet, Inc., an Internet privacy software company, where he was co-founder, Director and Executive Vice President.

Pete Spande is Chief Revenue Officer of Business Insider. Prior to joining Business Insider, as CMO and SVP of Sales and Marketing at Federated Media Publishing, Inc., Spande built the company's sales team from the ground up, growing revenue in Federated's NYC office from $1 million to $13 million in on year. Prior to Federated, Spande worked in sales at CNET, TechRepublic and PC World.

Gil Goldschein serves as President of Bunim/Murray Productions (BMP), where he is responsible for managing the daily operation of the company. Goldschein also manages the growth of the company as a production studio and international business entity. This includes spearheading corporate initiatives as BMP continues to expand its breadth and scope within the overall media business including launching BMP Latin and BMP Digital.  With numerous projects across all genres in various stages of production at multiple cable networks, and digital outlets, the company is thriving under the leadership of Goldschein. He has strengthened the management team and overall capabilities of the company’s infrastructure in order to vastly increase the number of projects the company develops and produces on an annual basis. These are all tactical moves that play an integral role in the company’s robust programming lineup and its continued growth.  BMP is currently producing projects for cable television channels, including the 30th season of The Real World and the 26th season of The Challenge (MTV), the 14th season of Bad Girls Club, Bad Girls All Star Battle, and Best Ink (Oxygen), the 10th season of Keeping up with the Kardashians, Kourtney and Khloe Take the Hamptons and 3rd season of Total Divas (E!), The Ruckers: Southern Royals (WE tv), TRYathlon (DisneyXD), and Emmy nominated Project Runway and Project Runway All Stars (Lifetime),). Additionally, its film entity, BMP Films, has produced Pedro (MTV), Shadow Billionaire, Autism: The Musical (HBO) which received two Emmy Awards, and most recently the Emmy nominated Valentine Road (HBO).  Since 2001, Goldschein has negotiated unprecedented development and production deals. Under his tenure, BMP has become a full-service studio delivering more reality TV hits for more networks across the board than any other domestic TV production company. In 2010, Goldschein was instrumental in negotiating the acquisition of BMP by Banijay Group, providing BMP with access to Banijay’s international formats and Banijay with distribution of BMP formats to the international marketplace.  Goldschein previously served as BMP’s Chief Operating Officer and has led BMP’s business and legal affairs group since 2001. He holds a J.D. from Brooklyn Law School. Goldschein was included in The Hollywood Reporter’s 15th Annual Next Generation Class of 2008, honoring executives 35 and under.

Mara Winokur, Senior Vice President, Starz Media: Mara Winokur is the lead executive for Starz Digital Media, overseeing the strategy, operation and execution of the digital businesses and initiatives supporting Starz' various film, television and digital-only content properties. Winokur and her team manage digital distribution, licensing, syndication, content and vendor relationships across a wide array of partners and distributors ranging from traditional cable/satellite/telco multichannel video affiliates to internet/mobile distributors to game and social media developers/publishers to consumer electronics companies. The video content Starz Digital Media distributes and markets ranges from theatrical features to short-form animation from each of Starz' various business units including: Starz Entertainment (pay television), Anchor Bay Entertainment (home entertainment), Manga Entertainment (Japanese Anime) and Film Roman (animation). In addition to Winokur's business development responsibilities, she also handles operational activities for the Starz Media digital team, including coordinating release schedules, managing content delivery, adjusting pricing and tracking and reporting financial results Winokur served previously as vice president, digital media and business development. Prior to joining Starz Media, Winokur was the Senior Director of Digital Business Development at EMI Music Entertainment. In this role, Winokur led the team responsible for evaluating business proposals; structuring and negotiating deal terms; and executing agreements in the online and mobile spaces. She also analyzed developing digital trends and advised on new product strategies and business models. Before her position at EMI, Winokur was a Director of New Technology Business Development at Sony BMG Entertainment, coordinating new media deals across territories and guiding regional sales and marketing teams in assessing business development opportunities. In addition, Winokur assisted in analyzing new technology solutions such as anti-piracy, watermarking, and digital formatting. Winokur has also worked in New Media Strategy at The McGraw-Hill Companies, Strategic Alliances at Palm, Inc., and has consulted with several Silicon Valley companies. Winokur received her MBA with honors in Strategy and Finance from the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business and her BA in Communications and Psychology from Stanford University.

Amit Ziv – Vice President, Business Operations, Development and Strategy, EPIX:  Amit serves as the VP of Business Operations, Development and Strategy for EPIX, a joint venture between Viacom, Paramount, Lionsgate and MGM. In his role, Amit is responsible for long-range strategic business planning and special projects for the CEO and GM/EVP of EPIX, as well as structuring content distribution deals for EPIX’s suite of Premium Movie Channels with Traditional MVPDs and Digital Distributors. Launched in October 2009, EPIX is now available in over 45 million multichannel video households, in addition to Amazon Prime Instant Video and Netflix.  In addition, Amit spearheads digital business development efforts for EPIX with key TV Everywhere platforms including PlayStation, XBOX, Android, iOS, Windows 8.1, Roku and more. Prior to EPIX, Amit was a Senior Consultant for Ernst & Young’s Strategy & Operations Consulting Practice working with a broad range of media and entertainment companies in the areas of strategic planning, profitability improvement, organizational and process design, and rights management. Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Amit was the Manager of Business Development for Madwood Media/Flutie Entertainment, a Talent Management and TV Production company specializing in endorsements and unscripted programming. Amit holds an MBA with a concentration in Corporate Finance and Strategy from the Fordham University Graduate School of Business and a B.A. from Michigan State University.