Digital Hollywood Spring, 2016

Wednesday, October 21st, 2015

3:50 PM - 5:00 PM

Track I: Salon II, Live Webcast

Video Everywhere - Technologies & Platforms - Enabling the Next Generation of Over-the-Top TV

Alex Drosin, President - North America, Massive Interactive

Campbell Foster, Director of Product Marketing, Video Solutions, Adobe

Xavier Kochhar, President and CEO, The Video Genome Project, Structured Data Intelligence (SDI)

Dan Sweeney, Western Division Vice President, The Allant Group

Josette Bonte, Chief Strategy Officer, CTM: Institute for Communication Technology Management, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California

Andy Shenkler, EVP, Chief Solutions and Technology Officer, Sony DADC New Media Solutions

Jonathan Hurd, Director, Altman Vilandrie & Company, Moderator

business strategy for New Media Solutions covering all aspects of the content lifecycle from content creation through direct-to-consumer offerings.  He has over eighteen years’ experience leading global operations and technology organizations and architecting solutions focused on the Media & Entertainment Industry including: content creation, physical & digital supply chains, direct-to-consumer experiences, and content monetization.  Prior to joining Sony, Shenkler was the Global Vice President of Digital Operations for Ascent Media Group, SVP Global Content Management & Distribution for the Loudeye Corporation and has consulted for a variety of entertainment companies, including Reliance Media Works and The Walt Disney Company, where he helped to shape digital asset management and distribution strategies.  Previously, as the head of Digital Operations & Asset Management for EMI Music Group, PLC, he oversaw the company’s first digital distribution deals and set forth its digital archiving standards worldwide.  In addition he led product and search for the local search division of IAC driving the platform to profitability while competing directly with Google’s and Yahoo’s emerging offerings in the space. He has held information technology management positions at Yahoo/Geocities and P&O Nedlloyd. Shenkler is highly regarded for his inventive approach to solutions and has led the build-out of numerous advanced enterprise and consumer applications that support the evolving requirements of allMedia & Entertainment organizations.  Shenkler continues to work closely with content creators, global brands and distribution companies in shaping cost-effective and differentiated solutions for their respective markets.  Shenkler holds a B.S. degree in Management from Pepperdine University.

Alexander Drosin is President of Massive Interactive, a company with over 19 years of experience in delivering and building industry-leading tools to manage, productize and sell media assets on next-generation connected devices. The company delivers cost efficient, fully customizable and scalable media playback and commerce systems. Many of the world’s largest telcos, broadcasters and cable TV operators rely on Massive to architect, develop and design their next generation IP Video entertainment platforms. Clients include Sony Pictures Television, Rogers, BBC, ViaSat, Bell Media, Viacom and many more. Prior to joining Massive, Alex spent several years successfully establishing The Filter, a bespoke B2B recommendation solution, in the North American marketplace. The Filter is backed by Peter Gabriel and Eden Ventures.  Alex has held several senior corporate positions in the entertainment and digital space in the past 25+ years and  has served as a strategic advisor to a multitude of companies. Alex became enamored with the digital arena after spending 10+ years working for Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video where he helped establish Saturday Night Live’s presence around the world. Alex left Broadway Video to launch his own company, Glowcast Ventures, with Ken Seiff, the founder of Bluefly.com. Alex began his career as a journalist/copy editor at The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels.

Campbell Foster, Director of Product Marketing for Video Solutions, Adobe:  Campbell Foster is director of product marketing for Video Solutions at Adobe, leading global efforts to drive adoption of video engagement, data, optimization, and monetization technologies with Adobe Primetime. He is a published author and researcher, and frequently speaks at industry events on TV Everywhere, video monetization, and IPTV trends and topics.  Prior to Adobe, Campbell led global product marketing for Google DoubleClick, managing ad serving, video, RTB, programmatic, and rich media products. He also served as a founding member of the DoubleClick Ad Exchange management team.  Campbell earned an MBA from NYU Stern School of Business and received a BA in English from Cornell University.

Dan Sweeney, Western Division Vice President, the Allant Group, an advertising and marketing data integration analytics company focused in media and other verticals.  Dan is responsible for business development reaching into the Cable MSO, studio, network, OTT, consumer electronics, and broadcast industries.  Allant customers include Comcast, NBCU, Charter, and Suddenlink among others.  Previously Dan was Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Solekai Systems, working for customers including Ultraviolet, Time Warner, DirecTV and TiVo.  Dan was also sales and marketing chief at meta data and entitlement software company Cauldron Solutions (now Grab Media), and ITV multiplayer gaming company Buzztime.   A telecommunications veteran, Dan also held senior level positions at Gemstar-TV Guide International (now Rovi), Cooke Cablevision and Showtime Networks, Inc.  Dan is currently the Co-Chair, Digital Media Group for CommNexus in San Diego. During his career in the digital video industry he has held several committee and chair positions within CTAM, NATPE and the ITA.

Josette Bonte, the Chief Strategy Officer, USC CTM: where she is in charge of industry relations and overseeing the Institute's research programs. Bonte, an industry veteran and expert in digital media and filmed entertainment, spent the first 11 years of her career as a film and television industry executive in Hollywood, and the past 17 years in the fields of telecom, interactive television, broadband content, and online games. Bonte joins the CTM from Cisco where she served as Executive Digital Media Strategist for the Internet Business Solutions Group's Global Media & Entertainment Practice. Prior to Cisco, Bonte was the Vice President of Digital Media at Cookie Jar Entertainment-producers of acclaimed children's TV series, including Arthur, Caillou, Zaboomafoo, The Doodlebops and Johnny Test. She also served as Vice President of Content and IPTV for Ovum, working on IPTV content deployment strategies with service provider clients including AT&T, Verizon, France Telecom, and BT. A telco TV pioneer, in 1994 Bonte joined then US West (now CenturyLink) as Head of Strategic Marketing, Entertainment, and Interactive services, where she participated in the company's early interactive media and video-on-demand trials, soon becoming the company's liaison to the Hollywood entertainment industry for content strategy. In the late 1980s, Josette served as Executive Director of Unifrance Film, where she represented the French motion picture and television industries in Hollywood. She subsequently founded EuroScreen Partners, a film production and distribution company where she served as CEO. Bonte has an M.F.A from the UCLA School of Film and Television, and a Ph.D. in telecommunications and new media from the Sorbonne. She is the author of the best-seller book La Television a la Carte aux Etat-Unis.

Xavier Kochhar is the CEO of Structured Data Intelligence (SDI), a company whose mission is deeply rooted in the belief that the world's data should be accessible for all to use. The company is behind the Video Genome Project (VGP), which has successfully mapped (catalogued, categorized, analyzed) the hundreds and hundreds of elements (metadata) within 7.5 million+ records of professionally produced video content-film, television shows, and series, and online video. The VGP is the largest, broadest and most granular structured database of video content in the industry. The VGP and the underlying SDI structuring technology have had massive implications not only for video content curation tools (such as search, recommendation, and personalization), but also for developers, publishers, content providers, marketers, and users all over the world who utilize any form of video content. Additionally, SDI's Insights division provides analytical lens tools which it layers on top of its structured databases so that its customers can glean actionable insights relating to video content that are used to drive business decisions. Prior to SDI, Mr. Kochhar was Managing Partner of MediaLink, a strategic advisory firm operating at the intersection of the media, advertising, and technology communities. In this role, he managed and executed upon the strategic planning and business science advisory services for the company and guided clients across of number of practice areas including digital strategy, strategic partnerships, marketing communications, media reviews, organizational management and restructuring, and revenue development. As one of the early executives and part of the original leadership team at MediaLink, Mr. Kochhar helped to build the firm into the media and advertising industry's preeminent strategy and implementation firm. His clients included many top Fortune 100 advertisers, digital media and entertainment companies and publishers, as well as dozens of the fastest growing VC-backed start-ups in both Silicon Valley and Silicon Beach, including many of today's top online video studios and distribution platforms. Mr. Kochhar also worked closely with premium venture capital and private equity firms as they sourced and analyzed deals in the media, ad-tech, and content sectors. Mr. Kochhar joined MediaLink from The Walt Disney Company, where he served as one of three corporate executives within Disney©'s Corporate Alliances group dedicated solely to the procuring and developing of new, mutually value-creating strategic relationships between outside corporations and the myriad assets across all the divisions of The Walt Disney Company. By sitting in Corporate atop Disney, his role had an ability to and necessitated the pulling of resources from the respective divisions within the company Studios, Theme Parks, Consumer Products, and Media Networks (ABC, ESPN, and the various Disney cable assets) in order to work with third-party B-to-B and consumer brand companies in various aspects of strategic and/or tactical relationships. These relationships included marketing, media buys, sponsorships, promotional activity, purchasing, corporate development, joint or integrated content opportunities, or co-branded JVs. Before Disney, Mr. Kochhar was a corporate packaging agent at the William Morris Agency in Beverly Hills, the largest and most prestigious talent agency representing the entertainment industry's top creatives and content producers; and a partner for an entertainment marketing company, which extends the brands of top consumer and retail companies into the world of media by identifying and/or generating integrated marketing opportunities based on or around top entertainment properties and franchises. Mr. Kochhar was also a strategy consultant in the Media and Entertainment group for London-based L.E.K. Consulting. He began his professional career in corporate finance, after graduating from U.C. Berkeley's Haas School of Business, working as investment banker for Tucker Anthony Sutro, where his focus was mergers, acquisitions, and private placements of emerging growth and middle market companies.

Jonathan Hurd, Director, Altman Vilandrie & Company: Jonathan Hurd joined Altman Vilandrie & Company in 2006. He has more than 20 years of consulting and industry experience in communications, media and related technology sectors. Jonathan's primary areas of expertise include business and marketing strategy, new business creation and launch, integrated consumer and business services, and customer and sales channel segmentation and targeting. Jonathan's experience in the IPTV realm includes customer targeting, partner evaluation, demand modeling, and business case development. With unique insight into competitive trends and consumer perceptions about content and communications services, Jonathan works with clients to develop differentiated video strategies. Jonathan's extensive marketing background enables him to recommend product and marketing strategies that resonate with target audiences as IP-delivered video moves towards broad adoption. Prior to joining Altman Vilandrie & Company, Jonathan was a Vice President with ADVENTIS. Before that, he was a Partner in the Communication, Information and Entertainment practice of Mercer Management Consulting. Jonathan has also served as Vice President of Marketing for a computer peripherals manufacturer, and has held marketing and strategic planning positions at Lotus Development Corporation. In addition, he has served as a software development product manager in industries including financial services, computer peripherals, video game development and management consulting. Jonathan earned a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from M.I.T., and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.