Wednesday, May 22nd, 2019

11:15 AM – 12:15 PM – Immersive Hollywood: VR – AR - MR

Session I: Herscher Hall, Guerin C, Live Webcast

AR/VR/MR as a Branding/Advertising Strategy: The Immersive Experience as Image Maker - Movies/TV/Brand/Experiential/LBE

Juliana Patel, co-creator, The Wild Optimists

Dan Rutstein, President, Laduma

Natascha French, Chief Marketing Officer, VNTANA

Barry Sandrew, Ph.D., COO/Executive Producer, Southbay Feature Film Technologies

Grant Ogburn, Head Of Client Services, Tiltshift Agency, Publicis Groupe

Ted Cohen, Managing Partner, TAG Strategic llc, Moderator

Natascha French, Chief Marketing Officer, VNTANA: Natascha French is the Chief Marketing Officer of VNTANA, an industry leading augmented reality platform that allows brands to easily create interactive hologram experiences to engage consumers and generate leads. It has been used by major brands including Microsoft, Intel, Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, Pepsi and Nike to name a few. Natascha oversees the company’s marketing, sales and communications strategy. Prior to working at VNTANA, Natascha began her career has a journalist for CNN, and worked for various marketing and communications

agencies globally, including Allison+Partners, where she focused on building the startup technology division. She has a successful track record of identifying and sourcing strategic partnerships, and scaling startups through a variety of tools that embraced the latest technology. Natascha has a bachelor’s degree from Emory University in Political Science and Journalism, having prior studied at the University of California, Berkeley. She serves on the leadership council for Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship, and CHLA’s Digital Marketing Committee.

Juliana Patel is one half of The Wild Optimists, alongside co-creator Ariel Rubin.  Together, they design games and puzzles for a wide variety of experiences that increase audience engagement and let the player become the hero.  They create and consult for activations, immersive theater, themed entertainment, tabletop games, escape rooms, and other live events.  Best known for designing Escape Room In A Box: The Werewolf Experiment, (winner of Game of the Year at the Mattel Inventor Awards), Juliana combines a theater and writing background with a lifelong obsession with games in order to dream up new ways to play.

Grant Ogburn, Director of Client Services and Solutions, TiltShift: Grant Ogburn thrives at the intersection between brand, engineering, and production teams – bridging the gap between engineering-speak and brand, while driving excitement around the adoption of new technologies. In his current position as Head of Client Services at TiltShift, Publicis Groupe's full-service AR/AV agency, he leads global digital strategy development and implementation initiatives, with partnership brands such as Lexus, BMW, and Mazda. Throughout his career, Ogburn has worked at top agencies including Wunderman and Team One, as well as brand side in various roles at Amazon, Microsoft, AOL and Xbox among others. Ogburn graduated from Washington State University with a Bachelors of Communications in Marketing & Advertising.

Dan Rutstein is the President of Laduma, an immersive tech consultancy and content creator with offices in the UK, US and South Africa. They have worked with clients including HSBC, the NBA, Boston Scientific and Samsung. They help clients understand and maximize the opportunities in VR and AR, working on everything from content production to the latest innovations in VR including 360 dome viewing and projection mapping. Before Laduma, Dan was a Diplomat with the British Government, serving in Germany and the US with the Department of International Trade as well as for the Departments for Transport and Business and Innovation in the UK. He's also host of whisky podcast United States of Dramerica and the President of the Los Angeles chapter of the British American Business Council. In his first career he was a sports journalist, working in the north of England and Bermuda.

Ted Cohen, Managing Partner, TAG Strategic: industry luminary and former, Vice President, Digital Development & Distribution, EMI Music: As Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music, Ted Cohen oversaw worldwide digital business development for this "big five" record company, which includes labels such as Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. Under Cohen's guidance, EMI has led the industry with its initiatives in new technologies and business models such as digital downloads, online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio. In addition to seeking out, evaluating and executing business opportunities for the company, Cohen serves as both a strategist and key decision-maker for EMI's global new media and anti-piracy efforts. He has worked to establish company-wide policies, which have allowed EMI's artists and labels a substantial advantage in the digital music arena. Cohen served previously as the Executive Vice President of Digital Music Network Inc., where he co-founded and served as Chairman of the Webnoize '98 & '99 conferences. He currently chairs MidemNet, an international music/technology conference convened in Cannes each year. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media. Additionally, Cohen lead two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Universal Studios New Media, DreamWorks Records, Liquid Audio, Wherehouse Records/Checkout.com and several other entertainment, computer and new media organizations. A 25-year industry veteran, Cohen serves on the NARAS (Grammy) Los Angeles chapter Board of Governors, the Board of Directors for the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund, Co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation, and lends his time and talents to the Grammy In The Schools Program.