text:
Sandra Adair
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Sandra Adair, A.C.E. is an award winning feature film editor who resides in Austin, Texas. Adair has enjoyed an ongoing artistic collaboration with film director Richard Linklater, having edited 17 films for him over the past 20 years, including the 2012 comedy Bernie and the 2013 critically acclaimed Before Midnight. She was nominated for an Eddie Award for Best Editing of a Musical or Comedy by the American Cinema Editors in 2003 for School of Rock, and won the Best Edited Documentary at the Woodstock Film Festival in 2012 for the feature doc Shepard and Dark. Some of her other credits include Everything Must Go, starring Will Ferrell, and the award winning documentary Sushi: The Global Catch. Sandra not only has experience on studio features, indies and docs, but has also worked on TV series and reality TV. She is a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and American Cinema Editors and continues to support and mentor new filmmakers in the Austin area.
Megan Adams
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Outside of traditional media, analyst and investor relations, I've launched startups, developed branding and messaging and positioning across multiple verticals, including green tech, consumer tech, healthcare, HR and entertainment, and managed events of all shapes and sizes. I jump-started my career as the primary communications manager for SXSW Interactive in Austin. After three years with the SXSW team, I switched gears and joined Porter Novelli, where I worked on launching, growing and managing startups to household names. Most recently, I worked with Jones-Dilworth, Inc. as an extension of their executive team, as well as managing PR clients such as 500px, Bottlenose and working on The Daily Dot.
Alonso Aguilar-Castillo
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Alonso Aguilar-Castillo is the festival director at the Cabos International Film Festival.
Ty Ahmad Taylor
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Ty has worked at the intersection of technology and media for the last 17 years, including time at the New York Times, Excite@Home, Comcast, Viacom, his startup, FanFeedr, and Samsung Electronics.
Randy Alexander
Friday March 14th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Randex Communications is marking its 17th year as a boutique Entertainment, Lifestyle, Consumer and Music publicity firm. Named a "tastemaker" by the Philadelphia Inquirer, one of "24 People to Watch" by SJ Magazine, and one of South Jersey Magazine's "Names to Know," Randex Communications' founder, Randy Alexander, brings over 20 years of award-winning entertainment and sports journalism experience to his public relations company. Randex Communications was nominated "Publicity Firm of the Year" in the New Music Awards/Hollywood, and Randy was twice nominated as "Top Publicist" in the NARIP (National Association of Recording Industry Professionals) Best in the Biz Awards. He was honored as a top public relations professional in the 2009 global directory of Who's Who.
Randy Alexander is a member of the Entertainment Publicists Professional Society and Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia, an executive board member of the Philadelphia Music Alliance (Philadelphia Walk of Fame), and member of the Grammy® Recording Academy (NARAS), for which he volunteer s as "Grammy in the Schools" instructor and panel moderator. A 2013 invited guest speaker of the Kresge Artist Fellows in Detroit, he also is a frequent guest lecturer in university classrooms, as well as moderator, panelist or mentor for SXSW, CMJ Music Marathon, NARAS, Garden State Film Festival, DIY Convention, IMC, and Cape May Singer-Songwriter Conference. Randy has been sought for national and local TV appearances on the CBS Early Show and the CBS3 Morning Show, and gets quoted nationally as an industry expert (CBS Radio, CNN Radio, FOX TV, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Inquirer, Yahoo! Travel, KYW Newsradio, FanBridge). He successfully made the transition from daily newspapers to founding his own public relations firm after interviewing hundreds of celebrities and entertainment executives over 20 years covering music, TV, radio, Atlantic City casinos and numerous lifestyle stories for The Trenton (NJ) Times.
A nationally respected music journalist and winner of three writing awards (New Jersey Press Association, Society of Professional Journalists and Garden State Association of Black Journalists), he reported daily on the historic birth of Live Aid and marked the 10th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death on an extended mission to Memphis and Tupelo, Miss., to explore and uncover the roots of the King of Rock 'n' Roll. He has been a daily contributor to America Online's MusicSpace Channel, pop music critic for the Courier-Post (Gannett's South Jersey daily) and rock columnist for Action, the in-house publication of the Wachovia Spectrum, then Philadelphia's leading entertainment arena. His coverage of Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." tour was included in the best-selling biography, Glory Days, and in 2012, he wrote the Springsteen cover story for South Jersey Magazine.
Alexander lured an array of celebrities to his talk radio show and has covered TV nationally as a member of the Television Critics Association in Los Angeles and New York. He made a cameo on ABC's One Life to Live' and was Philadelphia bureau chief for cable industry trade Multichannel News. He also edited two national cable guides published by TVSM and was a regular video reviewer for Home Viewer magazine.
Alexander started his career in North American pro and college sports press boxes as an Amfax Communications correspondent covering championship events for the NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball. While still in college, he switched from sports to entertainment at The Philadelphia Journal, a sports- and entertainment-oriented daily tabloid. A Philadelphia native, Alexander holds a bachelor of arts degree in Journalism with a News-Editorial concentration from Temple University's Annenberg School of Communications and Theater, and also is a graduate of Germantown Academy in Fort Washington, Pa.
Joe Amodei
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
"At Virgil Films we pride ourselves as being an all-in distribution company. Our unparalleled experience in the movie business has allowed us to understand each film's potential and plan accordingly. One of our strengths is being able to adapt to the latest industry trends and we specialize in staying ahead of the curve on emerging potential revenue streams. We are an industry leader not only when it comes to traditional home video releases but also in cutting-edge technology and digital distribution methods. Our reputation in the industry has allowed us to forge direct relationships with all major retail and rental outlets – whether it is brick and mortar, online, TV or video on demand. We look forward to exploring the opportunity of distributing your film."
Joe Amodei has enjoyed a career in the video industry for close to thirty years. Joe is one of the few industry veterans who can honestly say he was around since the beginning - when video stores seemed to be on every corner. From the demise of Beta and VHS, through the DVD and eventual Blu-ray convergence and on to today's digital world, Amodei has seen and been a part of it all. His personal love for independent films and documentaries made its way into his business life when he became President of USA Home Entertainment in 2000. Previously he had enjoyed stints at Polygram Home Video, Turner Home Entertainment and Live Home Entertainment. But it was his work at USA that changed his outlook on films and the industry at large. While shepherding films like Steven Soderbergh's TRAFFIC, Spike Jones' BEING JOHN MALKOVICH and Robert Altman's GOSFORD PARK into the home entertainment world, Amodei learned what it took to get these films noticed. When USA was sold he partnered with John Hart and Jeff Sharp and created Hart Sharp Video. Since then there has been a name change to Virgil Films and Entertainment - but the indie spirit continues. Under Amodei's leadership the company has released such award winning hits as SUPER SIZE ME, PAPER CLIPS, RESTREPO, AMREEKA, FORKS OVER KNIVES and a host of other hit indie films. He has been able to take his own passion and love for "everything movies" and turn it into a way to help young filmmakers see their dream of getting their film seen. This is his biggest accomplishment.
John Arrow
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
John Arrow, Founder & Chairman of the Board
John Arrow is a veteran of entrepreneurship with a passion for harnessing disruptive and emerging technologies. His ability to combine market vision with methodical execution has propelled Mutual Mobile, Inc. to become the world's largest mobile consulting company.
Over the last ten years, John founded successful businesses in the online payment processing industry and the consumer and enterprise software spaces. He also created one of the first site targeted PPC advertising networks. An adventurer and an innovator, John guides Mutual Mobile with a continuously evolving vision for the future.
Joy Banner
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Dr. Joyceia Banner is an Assistant Professor of Business in Huston-Tillotson University's School of Business & Technology. Dr. Banner earned her Ph.D. in Communication Studies at Louisiana State University. She also holds a B.S. degree in Marketing from Louisiana State University and an MBA from Nicholls State University. Her research interests include family business communication, social media usage among African-Americans and Hispanics; and small business response strategies to on-line complaints. Dr. Banner teaches Business Communications, Marketing, and Small Business Management to name a few.
Hugues Barbier
Tuesday March 11th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Hugues Barbier is a long time genre films lover that grew up watching Giallos, American Grindhouse and other exploitation flicks. He's been involved for over 5 years in the organization and programming of the Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival and is the Co-Founder/Artistic Director of the Ithaca International Fantastic Film Festival upstate NY. Hugues is also working for the Toronto based International sales/production company: Raven Banner as well as recurrent writer for the French film magazine CUT.
Rachel Barnhard
Friday March 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Rachel Barnhard works in digital marketing at artist management firm, Borman Entertainment. She helps manage interactive marketing and partner promotions, with a passion for fan experience, for the Borman roster including Keith Urban, Alison Krauss, and Michael Franti.
Previously she co-founded BigData Marketing, an agency focused on data-driven marketing and e-commerce, serving clients including Wynton Marsalis, Martina McBride and label aggregator, Thirty Tigers.
Originally from Wichita, KS, Rachel moved to Nashville in 2004 for an internship with Dualtone Music Group. She received her MBA from Vanderbilt University and Bachelor's from Indiana University.
Christopher Bartik
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Professionally I grew up in the dot com bubble of the late 90's which compacted a lifetime's worth of experiences into a market and industry swing of both what's possible and lessons learned. These were the building blocks for more than 15 years of experience in high-tech marketing.
Most of my career has been spent in enterprise software, most notably with SaaS start-ups, (with various stints of hardware and consumer-tech thrown in for equal measure opportunity and sanity) so I understand the market, competitive landscapes and relevant metrics for measuring success.
Inbound Marketing
Lead Generation
Content Marketing
Cloud-based technology, applications and services
Glen Basner
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Glen Basner is the Chief Executive Officer of FilmNation Entertainment, one of the leading independent international sales & distribution and production companies in the world. The company was founded in 2008 by Basner, who is widely regarded as one of the preeminent international sales agents and creative professionals operating in the film business today. FilmNation titles have grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office and the future looks to be even more successful. Previously released and upcoming titles include: The King's Speech, Magic Mike, Looper, Nebraska, All Is Lost, Mud, The Bling Ring, The Imitation Game, Terrence Malick's Knight of Cups and his untitled project; and many more. In its short history, FilmNation has forged a number of strategic relationships with some of the most prolific, respected producers and financiers operating in the film business. By leveraging the company's strong relationships and partnerships with top-tier producers, financiers, and filmmakers, Basner has been able to secure an industry-leading, commercially viable slate of sales titles for the company. Prior to FilmNation, Basner was President, International for The Weinstein Company (TWC), where he oversaw all international operations for TWC and Dimension Films. His responsibilities included the exploitation of all TWC and Dimension films abroad in all media, which spanned across the sales, marketing, and distribution functions within those companies. Under his leadership, the international group at TWC grossed more than $200 million in international box office revenue in only its second year. Before joining TWC, Basner was Executive Vice President, International Sales & Distribution at Focus Features. Basner transitioned to his role at Focus after quickly rising up the ranks to become the head of international sales at the venerable New York independent film company Good Machine, which was acquired by Universal to create Focus Features in 2002. Basner is based at FilmNation's New York City headquarters and is an alum of Boston University.
Glen is representing PREMATURE for its World Premiere at SXSW.
Adam Bauer
Wednesday March 12th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Adam Bauer is the President of Fleming Artists.
Luciana Bazanella
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Graduated in Advertising, with a Masters in Social Communications (evaluated with honors in one of the top universities in Brazil), Luciana is a highly experienced marketing and advertising professional, with a background that includes coordinating major corporative events, working on International Public Relations at Brazilian Government on promoting Brazil and brazilian products, and planning brand strategies for major players in Brazil. Currently holds the position of Head of Planning and Social Media in AG2 Publicis Modem, digital arm for Publicis Groupe in Brazil. In this position, coordinates a team that plans digital strategy and social media management for some of the biggest players in Brazil such as Petrobras, Natura, General Motors, Nestlé and Sanofi Aventis.
Brian Beck
Wednesday March 12th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Brian Beck is a manager from Zeitgeist Artist Management.
Lane Becker
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Lane Becker has been hanging out on the Web since it was invented, from his work-study job building websites for the University of Texas at Austin in 1994, to his first, sadly failed startup in 1999, and on to more successful ventures: co-founding Adaptive Path, the first user experience design firm, in 2001, and Get Satisfaction, an online customer service community platform, in 2007.
In 2012, Lane co-authored a New York Times bestselling book, "Get Lucky: How to Put Planned Serendipity to Work," about harnessing serendipity as a business practice. He's currently working with the non-profit Code for America to develop an open-source solution for city websites.
Steven Beckman
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Steven Beckman heads the Content department at FilmBuff, a leading curator of digital entertainment. Identifying and developing partnerships with relevant projects for FilmBuff, Steven strategizes their release plans, primarily through maximizing opportunities in the new media landscape. Steven graduated from NYU with a B.A. in History and minor concentrations in Economics and Cinema Studies.
Steven Beer
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Steven C. Beer is an attorney with the firm Franklin, Weinrib, Rudell & Vassallo, P.C. and concentrates his practice on film, television and music matters. He represents industry-leading film production, film finance and film distribution companies and has acted as counsel to numerous award-winning writers, directors, producers, and multi-platinum musical artists. Steven has been listed annually as a "Super Lawyer," in the field of Entertainment and Sports, since the 2006 edition of New York Super Lawyers/ Manhattan, ranking among the top 5% of Manhattan attorneys. According to the magazine, this selection was based on an independent survey of 59,000 lawyers and an evaluation by a "blue ribbon panel of preeminent peers" in each area of practice. Also, Research and Markets listed him as one of the top lawyers in Entertainment Law, Settlements and Negotiations, and he was cited in The Wrap online magazine as one of "21 Great Thinkers of Indie Film. "Steven regularly attends major film festivals -- including Cannes, Sundance, South By Southwest and Tribeca -- where he has negotiated distribution rights deals for many independent films. He also has acted as executive producer for independent films, in addition to acting as distribution counsel. Steven frequently writes and lectures about issues related to film finance production and distribution. In 2012, his article "The New Renaissance Paradigm - A Break-through Time For Artists" was published in the inaugural edition of the Berkeley Journal of Entertainment and Sports Law and his article "Life After Sundance: Distribution and Marketing for the 99 Percent" was published in Indiewire. Each January at the Sundance Film Festival, in conjunction with the New York State Film Office, Steven programs and moderates panels for filmmakers, producers and financiers. Before joining FWRV, Steven practiced as a shareholder with Greenberg Traurig, LLP from 2003-2012, and was a founding partner of Rudolph & Beer LLP where he practiced from 1993-2003. Steven received his B.A. with Honors from Washington University in St. Louis in 1981. After working as a Legislative Assistant to United States Senator Arlen Specter from 1981-1983, Steven received his J.D. from The Villanova University School of Law, in 1986 where he was named to the Villanova Law Review
Brian Behm
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Brian is Motion Design Director at Rooster Teeth Productions in Austin, TX. He oversees screen graphics for all of the various RT productions and other special projects.
When he's not designing, Brian and his wife enjoy hunting new food trailers and being involved in the Austin film scene.
John Bernstein
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:30pm
John Bernstein is a producer of Short Form Content at Walt Disney Studios. During his time at Disney, John has produced and developed shorts, documentaries, and interactive for a range of film and television projects including the Blu-ray and DVD releases of THE MUPPETS, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, ABC's LOST, Marvel's AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D and releases from MIRAMAX during the years they were under the Disney umbrella. He was a part of the development team for Second Screen projects, and is involved in a number of digital initiatives. As a festival veteran, John helped run the Atlanta Film Festival, served on the programming team of AFI Fest, and was a short film screener for Sundance for a decade. During his years as a freelance journalist, John was a writer/photographer for Detour, Rough Cut, and served as contributor to indieWIRE during its formative years.
Camille Bertrand
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Wild Bunch is one of the world's leading players in the field of international sales, its position strengthened by both a wealth of experience recognized by foreign distributors world-wide, and a broad, artistically diverse selection of the best of director-led international cinema.
Camille Bertrand grew up in southern France where she studied economics, film and learned English watching the X Files and westerns. She got started in the industry doing internships and volunteering at film festivals. In grad school, she studied the economy of crowdfunding as well as film festivals as an alternative distribution network for indie films. After moving to the US, she worked at the San Francisco Film Society, Film Society of Lincoln Center, FilmBuff, Kino Lorber, Under the Milky Way. Presently, Camille is part of the acquisitions team at Wild Bunch NYC, a satellite of the renown Paris-based international sales agent and distributor of Blue is the Warmest Color, The Wind Rises, Holy Motors, The Artist and many more.
Rohit Bhargava
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Rohit Bhargava leads the Influential Marketing Group and is an independent marketing expert focused on helping to bring more humanity back to business. For the past decade before starting his own "concierge marketing" consultancy to work with brands on a more exclusive one to one basis, Rohit led branding, digital and social media strategy for dozens of the biggest brands in the world through leadership roles at Ogilvy and Leo Burnett marketing agencies in the US and Australia. He is the best selling author of two books (including the recent global marketing best seller LIKEONOMICS), a non-boring keynote speaker and Professor of Global Marketing at Georgetown University.
Brian Bloom
Saturday March 15th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Brian A. Bloom is a partner at Moritt Hock & Hamroff LLP where he concentrates his practice on all facets of intellectual property and licensing matters. The scope of his practice is diversified, and includes counseling emerging brands and Fortune 500 companies, telecommunication companies, pharmaceutical companies, major record companies' merchandising affiliates, recording artists, photographers, artists, and authors with respect to a diverse range of intellectual property matters. Brian also represents large and small merchandising companies with respect to entertainment related litigation and complex corporate transactions involving intellectual property issues. His practice includes the representation of a variety of clients in civil litigation involving claims to copyright and trademark infringement, counterfeiting, trade dress, false advertising, unfair competition, right of publicity, privacy and defamation. Brian has pursued cybersquatters in federal court, ICANN arbitration proceedings, and in complex WIPO actions. In addition, Brian counsels clients in regard to risk assessment issues of trademark and copyright use and licensing, on-line business operation, branding, marketing partnerships and sponsorship agreements. He earned his J.D. from Hofstra University School of Law, magna cum laude and his B.S. from Cornell University, with distinction.
Margot Bloomstein
Friday March 7th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Margot Bloomstein (@mbloomstein) is the author of Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Engagement (Morgan Kaufmann, 2012) and principal of Appropriate, Inc., a Boston-based brand and content strategy consultancy. She crafts brand-appropriate user experiences to help retailers, universities, and other organizations engage their target audiences and project key messages with consistency and clarity.
A participant in the inaugural Content Strategy Consortium, Margot speaks internationally about enriching interactive engagements with content strategy. Recent engagements include CS Forum Cape Town, Content Marketing World Health Summit, IA Konferenz Germany, CS Forum London, Confab, UPA, and Web 2.0. She also helps organize the Content Strategy New England meetup.
Printz Board
Thursday March 13th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Printz Board is an artist, producer & songwriter. He also founded his production company Beets And Produce.
Nick Bodor
Wednesday March 12th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Nick Bodor is the owner for the New York City venue, Cake Shop.
Richard Botto
Monday March 10th 9:30am – 10:30am
Richard "RB" Botto is the Founder and CEO of Stage 32, the world's largest social media and educational site for film, television and theater Creatives. An actor, producer and optioned screenwriter, Botto served as Associate Producer on Sam Levinson's debut Another Happy Day (2011), which starred Ellen Barkin, Demi Moore, Thomas Hayden Church, Kate Bosworth and Ellen Burstyn and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival, winning Best Screenplay. Botto's own latest script, The End Game, just placed as the 1st runner up at this year's Creative World Awards.
A pioneer of the early stages of the Internet boom, Botto developed Stage 32 so Creatives across the globe would have a dedicated network to find work and representation, launch projects, secure funding, and make life and career altering connections. In just over a year, Stage 32 has organically reached over 200,000 members from 186 countries and has been described by Yahoo! Entertainment as "LinkedIn meets Facebook for people in the entertainment industry."
Botto has spoken all over the world at industry conferences including American Film Market, Screenwriters World West and East, Great American Pitchfest, STN Convention and many more.
Prior to creating Stage 32, Botto was the Founder, Publisher and Editor of RAZOR magazine, a national men's lifestyle magazine which boasted a readership of 1.5 million at its peak. A former radio host on ESPN and FOX Sports affiliates, Botto has appeared on such networks as CNBC, MSNBC, NBC News, FOX News, CBS News and VH1, riffing about the entertainment business and social media.
In the 90's, Botto was an integral part of the team responsible for creating the vendor tracking system used by many of today's top e-commerce companies. Botto headed the development, design and commercial implementation for several of the top 50 most visited sites on the web during that period.
Botto serves on the Advisory Board for Old Town Music Hall, a classic film theater in El Segundo, built in 1921. A lifelong fan of film, a serial entrepreneur and a passionate Creative himself, he's a great guy to have a drink with!
Benjamin Braun
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Benjamin Braun is the Manager of Sales and Distribution for Submarine Entertainment/Submarine Deluxe in New York City. Submarine Entertainment is a hybrid sales and production company, consulting and strategizing on the sale, distribution and development of documentaries, feature films and non—fiction entertainment programming and producing unique and high quality feature films, documentaries and television properties.
Submarine Deluxe is the company's distribution label, which releases feature films and documentaries including LOVE MARILYN, WEEKEND OF A CHAMPION, CASTING BY and the Academy Award nominated CHASING ICE. Braun has worked on the sale of such films as: DINOSAUR 13, THE ONE I LOVE, PING PONG SUMMER, BATTERED BASTARDS OF BASEBALL, BLACKFISH, DIRTY WARS, 20 FEET FROM STARDOM, THE SUMMIT, THE CASE AGAINST 8, THE SHORT GAME, CHEAP THRILLS, CHASING ICE, MUSCLE SHOALS, CUTIE AND THE BOXER, IVORY TOWER, and many others.
Daniel Braun
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Dan Braun is the co-founder and co-president of New York based Submarine Entertainment, a company whose services include film sales, distribution and marketing services, production and broadband content creation.
Mr. Braun, the chief creative and head of operations at Submarine has been involved with the sale of many feature films and documentaries including Man on Wire, Woody Allen an Untitled Documentary, Searching for Sugar Man, Tiny Furniture, Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work, Cutie and the Boxer, Black Rock, Food Inc, Muscle Shoals, Buck, 20 Ft from Stardom, Muscle Shoals, Dirty Wars, Queen of Versailles, among others.
Braun runs the subsidiary distribution label Submarine Deluxe of which recent theatrical releases include Chasing Ice which was short listed for the Academy Award and nominated for best song, Casting By, Dear Mr Watterson, GMO OMG! Love, Marilyn and Weekend of a Champion. DVD releases include deluxe double disc editions of Wild Style, Downtown 81 and Chasing Ice.
Braun is a producer on the upcoming Creepy feature anthology horror film to be directed by Chris Columbus and is a writer/editor on all the Creepy and Eerie line of comic books and archival volumes being published at Dark Horse Comics.
Michael Bremer
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
While still a Senior at UCLA's school of Motion Pictures & Television, Mike began his career working as a Casting and Production Assistant on feature films. This led to work the day after graduation as an Agent Trainee, before transitioning into International Distribution as Director of International Sales for Lorimar and Warner Brothers International. But his agent roots called again at the height of the home video boom, as he left sales to become an Acquisitions Agent for foreign distributors, traveling the world on behalf of clients in Japan, Germany, South Korea, Italy, Spain, and Latin America among others.
As home video waned with the international privatization of television, Mike segued into producing, arranging the financing and distribution for two independent features (Lies and Whispers, aka Prague Duet, and Do You Wanna Dance?), followed by two television films (More Than Meets the Eye: The Joan Brock Story and CyberSeduction), followed by two self-help books (Dr. Laura Schlesinger's "Ten Stupid Things Women do to Mess up Their Lives" and Heidi Murkoff's "What to Expect When You're Expecting"), the latter two at CBS prior to the dissolution of CBS's Original Movie division.
In 2007 Mike returned to Warner Brothers on a six-month independent contractor assignment that ended up going nearly five years. It was during this time that he realized he missed Cannes, the mother of all Film Festivals, and, when the opportunity presented itself, jumped at the chance to lead The American Pavilion's Cannes student programs. At Cannes 2013, Mike shepherded 175 students and mentors through The American Pavilion's most successful festival in its 25-year history.
Sharon Brenner
Thursday March 13th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
U.S. Immigration Attorney Mentor. This is a special mentor session focusing on international musicians and industry professionals seeking advice on U.S Immigration options. Only sign up for one ten-minute consultation during this specific mentor session, please.
Sharon Brenner has worked in various sectors of immigration law since 2004. She is well-versed in visa matters for creatives, and has spoken on the topic on numerous occasions. Just a few of her diverse clientele in this area have included renowned musicians, film industry professionals, fashion designers, fine artists, chefs, graphic designers, photographers and more.
Sharon also represents clients in business-related immigration matters, from individuals to startups to established businesses, and has spoken at coworking and incubator spaces about U.S. immigration options for startups and entrepreneurs. Sharon's work additionally includes family-based immigration, asylum, and naturalization.
Sharon is a member of the California Bar and the American Immigration Lawyers Association. She holds B.A. degrees in African History and International Relations from the University of California, Davis. She also studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and New York University's program in Paris, France.
Stuart Brown
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Stuart Brown is a Goldsmiths graduate of Fine Art at degree level and Cultural Studies at MA level. He has been working for the BFI since 1998. He leads the team responsible for the programming and production of events at BFI Southbank and the BFI London Film Festival, and is a key member of the core programming and management team for both.
His team produces the BFI's internationally respected programme of on stage interviews and film-maker masterclasses, including the Guardian Interviews and Times Screen Talks series. Stuart specialises in music and youth- orientated programming and has developed a portfolio of both self-generated and partnership events designed to drive new audiences to the BFI. These include Resfest, Noise of Art, Bird's Eye View, The Disability Film Festival, Reality Film, Blacktronica, onedotzero and AV club event Dark Fibre – all events or festivals that approach cinema from non traditional perspectives, and /or involve some kind of cross disciplinary performance.
In 2005, Stuart Co-established, programmed and produced 'Optronica', (with AV artists Addictive TV), London's first festival dedicated to live audiovisual performance or 'visual music', supported by the Arts Council England. In 2006 Stuart programmed a major, two month season of popular music on screen, 'Access All Areas', incorporating over 60 screenings and events including World and UK Premieres. In 2007, Stuart programmed and produced the 2nd 'Optronica festival of visual music, and managed the launch strategy for the opening of BFI Southbank. In 2010 Stuart programmed a two month season of films and events that explored the ways in which film makers and artists have examined the human condition in the future. 'Future Human' tied into the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society, and for its launch Stuart programmed and produced the first ever live orchestral performance of Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey, working the South Bank Centre and conductor Andre De Ridder. In 2012 Stuart took a lead role in the BFI's Hithcock project, which saw 9 of Hitchcock's silent films restored and new scores commissioned for each. Stuart lead upon the delivery of premieres of these, working with composers such as Nitin Sawhney, Neil Brand, Mira Calix, Soweto Kinch and Shlomo.
He has also programmes film and live AV performance for the Big Chill music festival and worked collaboratively with the South Bank Centre on the Meltdown festival, most recently with Massive Attack and Yoko Ono.
His current projects at BFI include BUG: The Evolution of Music Video with comedian Adam Buxton, and the popular music / cinema crossover night Sonic Cinema, and James Lavelle's Meltdown.
Twitter: @brownstu
Caroline Bruderer
Saturday March 8th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
For the past 25+ years, Caroline has been creating innovative integrated marketing and PR campaigns for consumer technology, culinary, entertainment, lifestyle and social causes.
Caroline has executed campaigns for clients such as Capitol Records, dineLA Restaurant Week, Estee Lauder/Clinique, Hermes of Paris, HBO, Legendary Rock Photographer Jim Marshall, Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, Phillips, The Plant Recording Studios, Seagram & Sons, the 2002 SLC Winter Olympics, United States Senate, Warner Bros. Records, and YouTube.
She is an advisor for: Active Music, Alice Cooper's Solid Rock Foundation, Beckstrand Cancer Foundation, Share our Strength, Sweet Relief Musicians Fund and The Respect Institute.
A graduate of Arizona State University and the Richmond College in London, United Kingdom, Caroline is a devotee of great food and live music, a 4th Week camper at the Lair of the Bear-Camp Gold, and is in search is the perfect pizza. She lives in Laguna Beach, CA with her husband and three sons.
Dominic Buchanan
Tuesday March 11th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Selected as the only producer to appear on Screen Daily's 'Stars of Tomorrow 2012' and subsequently appearing in 2013 Screen Daily's 'Future Leader: Producer' list. Dominic has forged an in depth career in the UK film industry. He has worked at The Weinstein Company (2008) in acquisitions and production at the London office, Universal Pictures International (2009) in the co-productions and acquisitions department and Qwerty Films (2010-2012), under revered UK film producer Michael Kuhn as head of development. "Gimme The Loot" won the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW, then had its International debut at Cannes in Un Certain Regard (released in the US via IFC, France via Diaphana and the UK via Soda Films). His most recent feature "Lilting" opened the World Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2014. The film stars Ben Whishaw and has secured UK distribution via Artificial Eye, US via Strand Releasing, with further sales to be done by Protagonist. Dominic was appointed Head of Film at Stink in May 2012 and is amassing a slate of quality feature films, he is committed to making films that audiences can enjoy and be challenged by.
Jordan Burger
Friday March 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Jordan Burger has been a booking agent for nearly 20 years. After running his own agency out of Atlanta GA, and spending the last decade as an agent at the Agency Group NYC, Jordan opened a New York office for Fleming Artists in 2010, and a Nashville office in 2012. Jordan has booked over 100 touring artists, an impressive list of bands that includes Kid Rock, Squeeze, Oasis, Will Hoge, Sugar Ray, The Cat Empire, Sister Hazel, Travis, & Marc Cohn. Fleming Artists has offices in San Francisco, Ann Arbor, and Melbourne AUS, and the agency represents such artists as Toad the Wet Sprocket, Ani Difranco, Lisa Marie Presley, and Colin Hay. Jordan is the primary responsible agent for great bands on the rise like Delta Rae, Civil Twilight, A Silent Film, Katie Herzig, David Cook, Kris Allen, Caroline Glaser, Amber Carrington, The Black Cadillacs, Carbon Leaf, and many others performing at SXSW 2014.
Ron Burman
Thursday March 13th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Ron Burman is the North American President of Mascot Label Group.
Suzanne Cadgene
Friday March 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Suzanne Cadgene is a Publisher at Elmore Magazine
Kelly Callahan-Poe
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:00pm
20+ years of experience creating and implementing successful marketing strategies, with a special focus on the travel, hospitality and sustainable transportation categories.
Passionate about using digital media to spark customer engagement and brand advocacy.
Tina Cannon
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
A seasoned entrepreneur, Ms. Cannon is a Partner with Napkin Venture, an entrepreneurial advisory firm that provides assistance with legal, branding, strategy and drop-in C-level support for startups. Ms. Cannon is the co-founder of PreAccelerate, a pre-seed stage incubator in Austin, TX. She was the CEO and co-founder of PetsMD.com, the leading online pet health resource acquired in 2011. She was also the co-founder of Book-a-Vet, a spin-off company post acquisition of PetsMD. Ms. Cannon served as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for Texas State University and has been a guest blogger for CBSNews.com. She has been a featured presenter at various technology events including hosting a panel at the upcoming SXSWi in March of 2014 as well as serving as an entrepreneurial mentor for the SXSWi event. Ms. Cannon has mentored numerous start-up businesses throughout Austin. Prior to her entrepreneur experience, Ms. Cannon was a financial auditor and business consultant in the private sector. Cannon graduated from Texas State University with a Bachelors degree in Accounting.
Ashley Capps
Wednesday March 12th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
One of the foremost independent promoters in the United States, Mr. Capps and his company, AC Entertainment, create, produce, book, and present hundreds of concerts and events every year, including internationally recognized festivals such as the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, Forecastle, Mountain Oasis, & Big Ears.
Bobbie Carlton
Saturday March 8th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Bobbie Carlton is the Chief Marketing Officer at RapidMiner, the world's most popular predictive analytics tool, and the founder of Mass Innovation Nights, a monthly product launch party and networking event powered entirely by social media. The "MassInno" Community has helped to launch more than 600 new products over the past 5 years.
Nick Case
Tuesday March 11th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Nick Case helped produce Cam Archer's WILD TIGERS I HAVE KNOWN, which premiered at Sundance in 2006. TIGERS was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award and was distributed by IFC Films. He also co-produced Archer's second feature SHIT YEAR, which premiered at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival in Director's Fortnight. In 2009, Nick co-founded Paper Moon Films with his producing partner Ryan Watt. Paper Moon Films produced Kentucker Audley's OPEN FIVE and HOLY LAND. OPEN FIVE was named one of the 'Top 25 Films of 2010' by The New Yorker Magazine as well as other critical acclaim by The New York Times, Wall St. Journal, and Variety. Their second feature as a company was Martha Stephens' PILGRIM SONG, which premiered in Narrative Competition at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival. It was awarded Best Southern Film of 2012 by Oxford American Magazine. They also produced Robert Machoian & Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck's FORTY YEARS FROM YESTERDAY, which premiered at the 2013 LA Film Festival in Narrative Competition with an International Premiere at the Locarno Film Festival. Nick was invited to attend the 2011 Sundance Creative Producing Summit. He was also chosen by IFP to attend the 2013 Rotterdam Producers Lab. Paper Moon Films is currently developing additional projects with Machoian & Ojeda-Beck, Martha Stephens, Calvin Lee Reeder, Brent Stewart, Michael Melamedoff amongst others.
Amanda Cevallos
Monday March 10th 9:30am – 10:30am
I was born in Dallas and raised in Houston. Moved to Austin after living up north in WY and MT for 10 years during college. I work as a booking agent for a wedding music business by day, and play music in a honky tonk band at night. In the middle of the night I write country songs. In my spare time, I book my band, manage interns for my entertainment business, country dance, practice, and network. I am big on making a personal connection because I LOVE people, BUT I LOVE technology, too because it helps me have a life. I'm interested in what you do to be as personal as possible, but still get work done.. that's all i can think about sometimes... I can't wait to meet everyone!
Anil Chawla
Sunday March 9th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Anil Chawla is the founder and CEO of ArchiveSocial (http://archivesocial.com), a social media archiving company that enables businesses to automate record keeping of activity on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Prior to founding ArchiveSocial, Anil was a lead engineer at IBM responsible for developing enterprise security software and Big Data analysis solutions. He has more than 10 years of experience creating software products, and has spent last the 4 years developing social media technology. He is the creator of Tweetymail (http://tweetymail.com), the leading email-to-Twitter solution with more than 30,000 users worldwide. Anil and his work have been featured in prominent publications including TechCrunch, LifeHacker, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Fast Company, InformationWeek, and Entrepreneur.com. Anil received a B.S. degree in Computer Science from Georgia Tech.
Dante Chinni
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Dante Chinni is representing the American Press Institute, a think tank for journalism which conducts research, training, convenes thought leaders and creates tools to help chart a path ahead for journalism in the 21st century.
Chinni is the director of the American Communities Project at American University, which studies the United States' shifting community landscape, and the writer of the Politics Counts blog on WSJ.com. He is also co-author of the book "Our Patchwork Nation" and the creator of the Patchwork Nation Project, which won a 2009 Knight Batten Award for journalistic innovation.
Anais Clanet
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Anaïs Clanet opened Wide House, Wide's Documentary branch, with Loic Magneron early 2011. Wide House represents THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 sold in more than 20 territories theatrically and to broadcasters, ELENA by Petra Costa and MY FATHER AND THE MAN IN BLACK by Jonathan Holiff among other theatrical documentaries. The company also handles worldwide one of the biggest Cinema and Ballet documentary collection including BERGMAN & MAGNANI: THE WAR OF VOLCANOES and BALLET BOYS
Michele Clark
Friday March 14th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Michele Clark is the CEO/Founder of Sunset Sessions.
Dave Clemmons
Thursday March 13th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Dave Clemmons is a Producing Partner at StylesFour Productions.
Elizabeth Cohen
Friday March 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Associate Vice President of Global Licensing at ABKCO Music & Records Inc.
Heather Collier
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Heather Collier is an agent, and owner of Collier Talent Agency.
Cecy Correa
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:00pm
It is my passion to coach newcomers to the tech industry find a career path to reach their professional development goals. Want to get hired at your dream agency or are looking for a career change? Talk to me.
By the end of our session, I hope to give you a good blueprint to follow for your professional development.
Who am I?
In addition to being Director of Business Development at @FourKitchens, I am a core organizer for @RefreshAustin, as well as the Austin chapter of Girl Develop It.
Jason Costa
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Jason Costa is a developer advocate at Pinterest where he works with the technology and partnerships teams to help businesses be successful on Pinterest. Prior to Pinterest, Jason was Twitter's Developer Relations Manager, and also previously served as Google's manager of developer products, and as a Facebook product intern.
Matt Cowal
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Matt Cowal is SVP of Marketing and Publicity for Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing.
Gabriel Cowan
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Gabriel Cowan is an American filmmaker and philanthropist who launched NEW ARTISTS ALLIANCE in 2008.
He founded NAA to support emerging filmmakers while sharing profits with cast and crew members.
In the last 2 years, Cowan has written, directed, and or produced 12 feature films. 3 of them premiered at SXSW including the audience award winner CHEAP THRILLS.
In 2013, Cowan founded a screenwriting program for Juveniles facing effective life sentences. Later this year, he will produce the 20 page screenplay written by the inmates.
Cowan is involved with such causes as The Children's Defense Fund, Inside OutWriters, The Rape Treatment Center, and Human Rights Watch.
In 2013, Cowan produced A CONSPIRACY ON JEKYLL ISLAND (AnnaSophia Robb, Minnie Driver, John Leguizamo), JUST BEFORE I GO, Courteney Cox's directorial debut (Seann William Scott, Olivia Thirlby) WHY NOW (Marisa Tomei, Sam Rockwell) Dir. Adam Wrap SAN DIEGO TWINS (David Arquette, Paz De La Huerta) THE ORDINARY WORLD a documentary on Juvenile Justice, and he Directed 3 NIGHTS IN THE DESERT (Wes Bently, Amber Tamblyn) in 2012 he produced MAKING THE RULES (Jaime Pressly, Robin Thicke) THE SCRIBBLER (Katie Cassidy, Eliza Dushku, Gina Gershon) CHEAP THRILLS (David Koechner, Sara Paxton, Ethan Embry) BAD MILO! (Ken Marino, Gillian Jacobs, Patrick Warburton) and he co-wrote and produced STATIC (Milo Ventimiglia, Sarah Shahi) and the SXSW hit EXTRACTED (Sasha Roiz, Dominic Bogart) @naafilms
Roger Cramer
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
I am an entertainment attorney with a strong background in personal management. I specialize in representing recording and performing artists in all genres, including producers, songwriters, actors, executives, creative licensors and licensees, entertainment entrepreneurs, small businesses including internet entrepreneurs, technology developers, small LLC's, record companies, music publishers and film distributors.
I am counsel to Songs Music Publishing, the top independent music publishing company and to OWSLA, one of the leading EDM labels. I have also been providing production counsel services to independent filmmakers. In the past year, my client Karmin's single "Broken Hearted" peaked in the Billboard top 20 and my client Robert Glasper won a Grammy for Best R&B Album.
My areas of expertise include recording and publishing agreements, producer agreements, executive employment agreements, distribution agreements (recording and film), composer agreements, live performance agreements and riders, joint venture agreements, license agreements of all kinds, sponsorship and endorsement agreements, LLC operating agreements, formation of small companies, etc.
Prior to practicing law full time (I was admitted to the NY Bar in 1988), I was a full time manager from 1988 to 2000. During that time period, I represented Living Colour, Lisa Loeb, Vernon Reid, Citizen Cope, Wayne Shorter, The The, Pleasure (who later changed their name to Semisonic), Sonic Youth, Soul Coughing, Ween, Basehead, and a number of other artists.
I have appeared on panels at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Clay Crenshaw
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Clay Crenshaw is a veteran Austin creative professional whose experience spans ad agencies, startups, big brands, and a range of freelance work. He's managed to make a living doing what he loves; designing, writing, acting, making stuff. He's currently working with MapMyFitness and Under Armour on the next major breakthrough in connected fitness.
Juan Cristobal Losada
Friday March 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Venezuelan born Juan Cristóbal Losada is a multi Grammy and Latin Grammy Award winning engineer and producer. Losada has worked with an impressive roster of world-renowned artists, including Carlos Santana, Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Placido Domingo, Shakira, Jose Jose and Chayanne, among many others.
In addition to that, Juan leads an incredibly successful boutique label, Sonic Projects Records, where acts such as Black Violin, World Renowned Master Percussionist Edwin Bonilla, Placido Domingo Jr., Electro/Pop singer Anna Palmerola and Street Funk Rock band Urban Rebel have recorded, produced and released their projects. Winged under his boutique label, these artists are transcendental as to how Indie Music is redefining the Music Industry today.
Juan Cristóbal Losada continues to evolve with this ever-changing industry, while staying true to the artistry and philosophy of an Indie; giving Indie a whole new meaning.
Sejin Croninger
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Sejin is Vice President of Worldwide Acquisitions of Entertainment One.
Natalie Currie
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:00pm
I'm the founder of the strengths-based professional development company: Natalie Currie Enterprises Inc. (www.thewayfindingcoach.com).
I've harnessed my 24-years of broad-based experience in the public, private and entrepreneurial sectors to become a sought after business and executive coach, a corporate trainer and a speaker. My sweet spots are working with creative and social entrepreneurs and forward-thinking organizations. I help my clients quickly breakthrough the stress and overwhelm of building successful and sustainable businesses using laser-focused and pragmatic evidenced-based science coaching tools.
I look at business development through the unique combination of lenses of brain-based coaching, applied positive psychology and human-centered design with the mindset that business is a critical force for social change.
I am a part-time Faculty Member at my alma mater, The University of Toronto, in the Continuing Education Department (The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) where I teach and mentor adults how to be exceptional workshop trainers and facilitators.
Christie Dames
Tuesday March 11th 9:30am – 10:30am
As an uber-connector and cross pollinator of people and ideas, Christie is dedicated to bringing together visionaries, engaged activists, world catalysts and planet changers to rebuild a healthy world for healthy beings.
As a custom designer of face-to-face executive visibility speaking programs for corporate clients, Christie works with thought leaders and designers around the world opening doors and building lasting partnerships between businesses, organizations, people and communities expanding their reach to making the world better.
As founder and developer of the Niehaus Ryan Wong, Inc. Speakers Bureau, Dames created the first speakers bureau ever dedicated to strategically placing leaders and visionaries before rapidly growing audiences in the new and evolving technology arena. Her vision opened new doors in the conference industry by bringing tech speakers to the forefront through innovative settings, in-depth research methods, broad-based audience appeal and strategic speaker development.
Earlier in her career, Christie worked to develop Public / Private partnerships involving organizations such as Goodwill Industries, Kimpton Hotel Group, Hilton Hotels, and the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Program. These grew out of her own organization "San Francisco Shine", a forerunner of the San Francisco Business Improvement District, which hired the homeless to clean up the downtown area and was featured on CNN and C-SPAN.
Additionally, for the past 12 years Christie has translated her business experience into her personal mission — helping people find the answers to seemingly unanswerable health problems. As a medical detective, she helps people to explore new paths, find new answers, locate the hidden causes that lead to physical conditions, and build their own "map of choices" to get better.
Robin Danar
Wednesday March 12th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Robin Danar is a music producer, engineer, artist and mixer. He started his career engineering records in New York City with artists like Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, Carly Simon and Chaka Khan for producers including Phil Ramone, Steve Lillywhite, Gary Katz and Russ Titelman. At the same time, he was doing live sound and recording at CBGB's with bands ranging from Blondie, the Ramones, Patti Smith and Television through the Dead Boys and The New York Dolls. He spent over 2 decades mixing front of house sound internationally for acts including Laurie Anderson, Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, The B-52's, The Church, The Blue Nile, Ian Hunter, Michelle Branch, Shelby Lynn, Glenn Hansard and Cyndi Lauper while finding new artists, developing their careers and producing their albums. Recent productions include live recordings with Macy Gray as well as Bonnie Raitt and Los Lobos for the Wim Wenders film "A Soul of a Man", part of the PBS series "Martin Scorcese Presents The Blues."
As a Technical Producer, Robin is very involved with Santa Monica's KCRW and their "A Sounds Eclectic Evening" project, which includes performances by artists such as Coldplay, Beck, Norah Jones, Franz Ferdinand, Death Cab for Cutie and many special guests. More recently, he's also produced the web broadcasts for their "Sessions" project with Sia, Moby and KD Lang. His role as a producer of the Shortlistofmusic Award has included similar broadcasts and recordings of the show for MTV and XM Radio with a variety of artists including Damien Rice, Interpol, N.E.R.D., Bright Eyes, Iggy Pop, Sigur Rós, TV on the Radio and Cat Power.
Jacob Daneman
Thursday March 13th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Jacob Daneman is a publicist for Pitch Perfect PR.
David-Michel Davies
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
President of The Webby Awards, Cofounder of Internet Week and Netted.net.
DMD has devoted his career to championing and celebrating the very best of Internet culture.
At The Webbys, DMD has built a remarkable team that shares his passion. Together, they oversee the IADAS, a global membership network of more than 1,000 Internet experts who sift through cat photos, political blogs, robot videos, celebrity tweets and more to uncover the most innovative work on the Internet annually. Since taking over The Webby Awards as executive director in 2005, DMD and team have grown the award to be what the New York Times calls "the Internet's highest honor."
Dubbed "a master of things that are a little bit of a joke and a little bit serious" (!) by the New York Times, DMD has lectured to audiences at a diverse mix of conferences and companies including Intel, IDEO and the Institute for the Future.
DMD lives with his wife Stella Lee and sons Louis and Auguste in Brooklyn, NY.
Christine Davila
Sunday March 9th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Christine Dávila is the Director of Ambulante California, the recent U.S. expansion of the traveling documentary film festival founded by actors Diego Luna, Gael Garcia Bernal and producer Pablo Cruz. She has been a Programming Associate for Sundance Film Festival since 2008. She is also a Programmer for the Curaçao International Film Festival, which focuses on emerging Caribbean island filmmakers. Other programming experience includes LA Film Fest, San Francisco International Film Festival and San Antonio's CineFestival, as well as an indie film series for LA's Downtown Independent Theater. A champion of up and coming Latino talent, Davila tracks filmmakers and the festival scene on her blog chicanafromchicago.com, and is a contributor to Indiewire's LatinoBuzz column. She curates a collection of films on streaming platform, Seed & Spark, under the conversation "Mas American". Prior to being a film programmer Davila worked in the uninspiring studio and agency world.
Mitchell Davis
Friday March 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Mitch is the Co-founder of Dynamite Music, a new boutique record label launching with Caroline, part of the Capitol/Universal Music Group. He has been a longtime Concert promoter staging concerts at places from Corporate, Charity and Sporting events such as the Long Beach Grand Prix. As well has having a past background in media and technology, from digital media distribution and an early online streaming music network.
Jenn Deering Davis
Sunday March 9th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Union Metrics, PhD in Organizational Communication and Technology
Mike DesRoches
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Mike is a Senior Sales Support Engineer at Sony Electronics Inc.
Sylvia Desrochers
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Sylvia Desrochers, President and Founder of Big Time PR & Marketing, has worked with some of the most celebrated filmmakers in Hollywood, including: John Ridley (12 Years a Slave and All Is By My Side), Ross Katz, Freida Mock, Sofia Coppola, Alfonso Cuaron, Mira Nair, Marc Forster, Roman Coppola, Michel Gondry, Kimberly Peirce, and The Farrelly Brothers. Feature film campaigns include: Omar, The Bling Ring, Somewhere, War Witch, The We and the I, The Iran Job, Decoding Deepak, My Reincarnation, Wonder Boys, Proof, and American Beauty. Festival experience includes Sundance, SXSW, AFI, Tribeca, LAFF, Venice, Toronto, and Cannes. Corporate clients include 108 Media / Paladin, Indian Film Festival of LA, and The Amazonas Film Festival in Brazil. Prior to founding Big Time, Sylvia honed her skills at Bumble Ward and Associates and Miramax. She is also an opera singer, with a degree in Vocal Performance from California Institute of the Arts. She is representing JIMI: All Is By My Side for its U.S. Premiere at SXSW.
Alicia Dixon
Saturday March 8th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Alicia Dixon is a Product Manager with a specialization in mobile software. Her expertise includes product development, product strategy, and market research. Throughout Miss Dixon's marketing career she has successfully produced enterprise and consumers products through positions held at leading companies including UPS, Dell, Blackboard, Fruit of the Loom, Nike & Toys R Us. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Howard University along with an MBA from Baruch College, CUNY and an MS from the University of Alabama. She is an active member of DC technology community and sits on the planning committee for ProductCamp DC. Miss Dixon currently resides in Maryland.
Jim Dobson
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Jim Dobson has been one of the leading entertainment publicists in the U.S. for over 30 years, implementing campaigns for countless feature films in both production and release as well as personalities.
His extensive credits have included numerous film campaigns including the winning films at every major film festival in the country including; "Circumstance", "Valley of Saints", "Middle of Nowhere", "Young and Wild","Natural Selection", "Weekend" "That Evening Sun" , "Citadel", "Bay of All Saints", "Incendies", "The Topp Twins", "Marwencol" and many others
Adam Donaghey
Tuesday March 11th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Adam Donaghey, founder of Zero Trans Fat Prods., is an award-winning independent film producer from Texas. His work has been nominated for both the Independent Spirit and Gotham Awards, and has been showcased at fests including Sundance, Berlinale, SXSW, Sitges, LA Film Festival, AFI Fest, Hamptons Int'l Film Festival and Thessaloniki; and via distributors including IFC Films, XLRator Media, Cinetic Media, the Lifetime Channel and the Lifetime Movie Network. Adam is a Partner and Vice President of Aviation Cinemas, inc., the holding company operating the historic Texas Theatre, an arthouse and national landmark in Dallas, Texas. Financed by Howard Hughes in 1931, the Texas Theatre received national attention after the arrest of Lee Harvey Oswald, alleged shooter of President John F. Kennedy. Adam Co-Founded Aviation Cinemas Prods., currently in development on Danny Casolaro, a feature film investigating the unsolved death of the titular writer mere weeks before he was to break a story uncovering high-level corruption within the Reagan Justice Dept. Adam is also Co-Founder of and programmer for the Oak Cliff Film Festival, which has been covered in various national publications including Texas Monthly and the New York Times. Adam regularly speaks and judges at universities, film festivals and industry related workshops, conferences and competitions and is a freelance film columnist for D Magazine. Adam is a graduate of the University of North Texas with a B.A. in philosophy. Adam is a Producer on EASY, a short film premiering at SXSW.
Lindsey Dryden
Tuesday March 11th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Lindsey Dryden is an award-winning independent director and producer, who was nominated for 'Best New UK Filmmaker' (London Open City Docs) and 'Best Female-Directed Film' (Sheffield Doc/Fest) in 2012, for her feature doc about deafness, music and the brain, LOST AND SOUND.
LOST AND SOUND world-premiered at SXSW 2012, went on to win awards and screen at numerous festivals on 5 continents, and has picked up TV, digital and educational distribution (with a hybrid distribution strategy personalised to the film). It continues to play at special events and festivals around the world.
Lindsey spent 7 years working on TV documentaries for broadcasters like BBC, Channel 4, and History Channel, before starting to make her own films independently.
She's fiercely committed to ethical filmmaking, and to the world of indie storytelling and distribution. Through her British company Little By Little Films, she works as a producer with exciting emerging directors and films, creating bespoke and positive collaborations.
Dryden's recent projects include producing LITTLE ONES, a short documentary by rising talent Joanna Coates and funded by Film London and the Kevin Spacey Foundation; producing outreach on ANGELS AND GHOSTS, an award-winning short animation about mental health narrated by Oscar nominated actress Samantha Morton; and directing and producing a film for art galleries about 70s feminist artist Alexis Hunter.
Lindsey spent the first weeks of 2014 as Filmmaker-in-Residence at the Jacob Burns Film Center, in upstate New York. She has been mentored by Women in Film & TV (WFTV) and the National Film & Television School (NFTS) in the UK, and she trained at Goldsmiths College, London.
She founded Little By Little Films in London, UK. It specialises in beautiful and unusual storytelling in arts, health, music, and science, and is known for its richly intimate and ethical portrayals of people and subjects.
Credits/clients include Wellcome Trust, Royal Shakespeare Company, Royal Court Theatre, Community Channel, The Space, Film London, Kevin Spacey Foundation.
DocGeeks say Little By Little makes "formidable and innovative uses of the documentary format to provide a unique insight into the human condition," – and that's how it aims to continue.
Steli Efti
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Steli is CEO and Co-Founder of Close.io and ElasticSales, where he helps thousands of startups (including the likes of Foursquare and General Assembly) succeed in scaling their sales efforts. He's a Y Combinator alumni who is considered a thought leader in Silicon Valley when it comes to sales and the art of the startup hustle.
James Evans
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
James Evans is the AAA Promotion and Marketing Director at Interscope Records.
Hannah Fidell
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Hannah Fidell's first feature film, A TEACHER, premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival. That same year, Fidell was awarded the Chicken and Egg Emerging Narrative Female Director award at SXSW. She is currently in preproduction on her next feature film and is developing A TEACHER into a TV show with HBO.
Dan Fisher
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Dan is Manager of Worldwide Acquisitions at Entertainment One.
Nancy Fly
Wednesday March 12th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Nancy Fly has been working in the music industry since the 1970's in diverse endeavors including publishing, community radio, performing, booking and management. Currently the Nancy Fly Agency specializes in booking roots music artists throughout the US and Canada. Her artist roster now includes Carolyn Wonderland, Del Castillo, BettySoo, Guy Forsyth, A.J. Croce, Sara Hickman, Warren Hood, Marshall Ford Swing Band, Milk Drive, Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur, Beto and the Fairlanes, Miss Lavelle White, Cindy Cashdollar and Redd Volkaert.
Shari Foldes
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Shari Foldes is head of marketing for DFJ. She provides strategic marketing and communications counsel and support for DFJ's portfolio companies.
Before joining DFJ, Shari led marketing and communications for several startups including Ustream and Popchips. At Ustream, she was responsible for the company's external marketing and communications efforts including partnership and event announcements, social media, and outbound demand generation campaigns. She oversaw Ustream's marketing efforts behind the Shiba Inu Puppy Cam, the most viral video of 2008. Shari began her career in brand marketing and communications at Ketchum in San Francisco.
Shari graduated with a B.A. dual degree in journalism and political science from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications and has lived in the Bay Area since 2003.
Dave Fowler
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Dave Fowler is the founder of Chartio, an award-winning interface to data. Dave moved to the Bay Area to join Y Combinator and pursue his startup idea of giving a face to data. Since then, Forbe's has named Dave a Forbe's 30 under 30 Technology Pioneer, both in 2011 and 2012. Prior to Chartio, Dave worked at IBM on the processor for Xbox 360 and filed 10 patents. Dave attended Gustavus Adolphus College for his undergraduate work, where he received three degrees in physics, electrical engineering and computer engineering. He received his masters in electrical engineering from the University of Minnesota.
Tom Fowler
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Having joined Recon in July 2012, Tom leads marketing and sales strategy for the company. Prior to joining, he was the corporate development officer and director of sales and marketing for Cervelo Cycles, stewarding that company through its explosive development. His 25-year career has also included senior roles at Nike and Wilson Sporting Goods in category and general management.
Tom is a former professional triathlete, and continues to cycle at a high recreational level. He is an avid cross-country and alpine skier as well as accomplished mountaineer.
Austin Francalancia
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
He's a proud employee of Open Road Films which is an American film distribution company launched in 2011 by the two largest U.S. theatrical exhibitors, AMC Theatres and Regal Entertainment Group. Films released by Open Road Films include THE GREY, END OF WATCH, THE NUT JOB, A HAUNTED HOUSE, SIDE EFFECTS and KILLER ELITE.
Akil Franklin
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Director of Technology, Fenway Group
Responsible for:
- Digital Thought Leadership
- Digital Strategy
- Driving faster digital innovation at major brands like American Airlines, CenturyLink, and Cinemark
- Mentoring disruptive startups via the Fenway Incubator
Areas of Interest:
- Agile
- Big Data
- Social Media
- Machine Learning
- Digital Currency
Trevor Gale
Saturday March 15th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Trevor Gale's nearly two-decade tenure at SESAC has ushered in one of the performing rights organization's most profound eras of growth, success, and creativity. As Senior Vice President of Writer Publisher Relations, Gale has been pivotal in building an acclaimed song catalog and a roster of renowned songwriter talent.
Guided by Gale's invaluable experience and insight, SESAC has signed prestigious artists such as Bryan-Michael Cox, Bale'wa Muhammad, Omarion, Swizz Beatz, Jason Perry and Angela Hunte, Jack Knight, and Nate "Danja" Hills, and the performing rights organization has enjoyed its largest-ever increase in its repertory. SESAC has secured an enduring legacy in the business by advocating for and supporting all of their affiliates whose accolades include multiple Grammy wins, songwriting credits for chart topping artists such as Beyonce, Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, Usher, Mariah Carey and Timbaland earning recognition in Top 50 Greatest Hip-Hop Producer polls.
Gale joined SESAC in 1996, fresh from a previous career as a highly regarded drummer, songwriter, and producer. His rarefied palette, artist-friendly ethos, and progressive music business perspective have been assets in what could be called a gilded age in SESAC history. As Senior Vice President of Writer Publisher Relations he oversees the entire SESAC Writer/Publisher Relations staff, including the signing and development of songwriters and publishers in all musical genres.
In the music business community at large, Gale maintains associations with some the industries' most respected organizations. He is as an active member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, a member of the venerated Black Rock Coalition and a board member of the Harlem Cultural Festival. He has been featured as a panelist at such conferences as BESLA, Boston Music, SXSW, CMJ and Canadian Music Week.
Gale is a world-class drummer who has toured and recorded with artists such as Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Vanessa Williams, Run DMC, rock band Humble Pie and Chaka Khan. He's also an esteemed producer who previously established and ran his own boutique full-service music production facility, Gale Warnings Production Company.
The transition for Gale from fulltime drummer and producer to music executive was seamless, as the skills built within these roles—being supportive and enhancing creativity—are big assets in developing talent and signing songwriters. "I think my background puts artists at ease when they talk business with me—they feel like they can trust me with their music because they know I'm coming from the same place as them," Gale explains.
This career shift has been artistically satisfying for Gale: At the time they hired him, SESAC was actively looking to bolster their urban music profile, and they entrusted him with this task. "They gave me the keys to the car to see what I could do," Gale explains.
Paramount to Gale's success at SESAC has been artistic instincts. "I remember playing with Whitney Houston the day her first single came out ['You Give Good Love']," he says pensively. "That record had nine amazing songs. When you're right in the room with the people who create these kind of songs you get a sense of the ingredients that make hits."
Reflecting on past accomplishments while still laying the groundwork for future successes Gale observes: "It's funny, I can almost say 'mission accomplished,' but I constantly want do more and achieve more, I never want to rest on my laurels, but I take pride in my part in these successes, and applaud the other reps, and my colleagues, here on their great work."
Jim Galis
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
With more than a decade of experience working as an Executive Producer in game development, Jim has successfully managed talented teams of technical and creative people to deliver multi-million dollar video game projects for major publishers, such as Electronic Arts, Nintendo, and Sega on next generation game consoles and PC's. Utilizing the unique combination of his engineering and management background, he has provided technical direction and oversight to effectively lead his teams to successful solutions. Jim is well known for his ability to motivate highly creative teams toward excellence in their day-to-day work while overcoming difficult project challenges. His experience in the entertainment field encompasses console, mobile and social applications, Free-to-Play PC games and Casino Video Slot games. Additionally, Jim has contributed to the design of curriculums for game development programs as Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington where he taught the inaugural Game Development class. He is active in the local International Game Developers Association, ACM, SIGGRAPH and holds a BSE in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Arlington.
Andrew Garrison
Monday March 10th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Andrew Garrison works in both documentary and fiction. His work has been in festivals from SXSW and Sundance to Rotterdam and Locarno, broadcast on PBS, and earned Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and AFI fellowships. His most recent film, TRASH DANCE, premiered at SXSW 2012 and went on to win Audience Awards for Best Documentary Feature at both AFI/Silverdocs and the Full Frame Festival, among others, and is now available through Netflix. Garrison teaches documentary and narrative production at the University of Texas, and is a member of Cinema Audio Society as a production mixer. His current project as director is a feature fiction film set in Texas and Mexico.
Rudy Garza
Tuesday March 11th 9:30am – 10:30am
As founder and managing general partner of G-51, Rudy focuses on the development of all portfolio companies, syndication partnerships and deal flow. Through mentoring as well as serving on portfolio boards, he is instrumental in driving success through defining and then guiding the implementation of well-grounded business and marketing strategies. Rudy is an expert at finding and defining business and revenue models, market shaping services, business growth strategies and talent sourcing. Rudy has served as an investor and board member for over 20 companies, selling several to publicly traded firms including SAP, ADP, Prudential, and Cisco Systems among others.
Rudy is also an active leader in the venture community, as a longtime member of the NVCA and the Texas Venture Capital Association. He has served as Chairman of the Board of the University of Texas Alumni Association ("Texas Exes") in 2011. In addition, Rudy is a lifetime honorary trustee of the Dell Children's Medical Center Foundation.
Lawrence Gelburd
Friday March 14th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Record producer and entrepreneur Lawrence "Gelboni" Gelburd is a voting member of NARAS, the Grammy organization. He worked at EMI Music Publishing in the Business Affairs and A&R departments, then at SBK records in the A&R department, leaving to form Integrated Entertainment, an independent production and publishing company, in the 90's. His mentors include Tony Maserati, Steve Addabbo, and Grammy-winning producer/engineer/mixer Phil Nicolo with whom he formed a strategic alliance in 2008. He has been teaching entrepreneurship at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania since 2003.
Gelboni has produced albums across the US, varying stylistically from complex modern rock to singer-songwriter (AAA). He has honed his skills as an arranger, focusing on the pre-production phase as critically important to a project's success. His productions range from demos to full-blown international releases. He mixed Dash Rip Rock's greatest hits album entitled "Gold Record" for the Ichiban label. He has also produced Shane Cooley, Gatlin, Ash Wednesday, Paul Jones, Seth Paul, Three Miles Out, Playing for Audrey, Margin of Error, Squash, Amy Carr, Real, Sundowner Syndrome, and many other bands. His work with Gatlin has been played on Infinity Broadcasting station WXTM (Cleveland); Ash Wednesday on Clear Channel stations WKQQ (Lexington, Kentucky) and WEBN (Cincinnati) -- quite an achievement for unsigned bands.
Gelboni has been a panelist and moderator at dozens of music conferences including South by Southwest (SXSW), Access to Amsterdam (A2A) in the Netherlands, NEMO in Boston, North by Northeast (NXNE) in Toronto, 2NMC in Nashville, MEIS in Lexington, KY, the Florida Musician's Workshop in Ft. Lauderdale, MPMF in Cincinnati and MMC in Harrisburg. He is also a final-round judge for the USA Songwriting Competition.
Since 2008, Lawrence has advised media and entertainment entrepreneur and investor Jason Kothari. Jason is the co-founder, former ceo, and current vice chairman of Valiant Entertainment (www.valiantuniverse.com). Lawrence also continues his strategic alliance with Vivek J. Tiwary, founder of TEG (www.tiwaryent.com).
Valiant Entertainment:
Valiant is a leading character-based entertainment company with a library of over 1,500 characters, including X-O Manowar, Bloodshot, Shadowman, Eternal Warrior, and many more. Established in 1989, Valiant has sold over 80 million comic books, and today its characters continue to be forged in publishing, licensing, film, video games, and beyond.
Tiwary Entertainment Group:
Green Day's American Idiot
The Addams Family: A New Musical Comedy
The Ride: New York
The Fifth Beatle
Punk Rock Dad
Down and Dirty Pictures
A Little Night Music
Mel Brooks' The Producers
A Raisin in the Sun
Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein
Ted Geoghegan
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Ted Geoghegan studied screenwriting under the late Carroll O'Connor and began his film career co-writing German filmmaker Andreas Schnaas' 2001 English language debut, Demonium. He has since written eleven feature films, two shorts, and a science fiction novel.
Ted's selected filmography as a writer and producer includes the indie slasher Sweatshop (2009), Drafthouse Films' Graceland (2012), Timo Rose's Barricade (2007), acclaimed director Ryoo Seung-wan's blockbuster Korean action film The Berlin File (2013), and the upcoming ABCs of Death 2 (2014). 2014's We Are Still Here, which he wrote, marks his directorial feature debut.
Megan Gilbride
Tuesday March 11th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Megan is an Independent Spirit Award nominated producer of narrative and documentary films. Her credits include HABIBI, SUNSHINE, THE FICKLE, and Bryan Poyser's LOVERS OF HATE, which premiered in the US Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival and was distributed by IFC. Collaborators since 2005, Megan produced Poyser's SXSW World Premiere comedy, LOVE & AIR SEX and is developing his next film, SAN MIGUEL.
Megan co-produced Heather Courtney's Emmy and Film Independent Spirit award-winning documentary, WHERE SOLDIERS COME FROM. The film screened at numerous festivals worldwide and aired on PBS in a special Veteran's Day presentation of the acclaimed series POV. She is currently developing Keith Maitland's documentary film TOWER.
Megan received a Bachelor's Degree in English Literature from The College of William and Mary and an MFA in Film Production from the University of Texas.
Jonathan Ginsburg
Thursday March 13th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
U.S. Immigration Attorney Mentor. This is a special mentor session focusing on international musicians and industry professionals seeking advice on U.S Immigration options. Only sign up for one consultation during this specific session, please.
Jonathan Ginsburg is an Attorney with Fettmann Ginsburg PC.
Cedric Giorgi
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Cédric Giorgi is the Co-Founder and CEO of Cookening, a global marketplace to connect people and cultures through Food. Before that, he was Seesmic Europe Director furing one year and Scoop.it Marketing Director during 4 years.
Cédric started being involved in the startup industry in 2005 when he started blogging on his own blog, which led him to the position of Techcrunch France Co-Editor and Conference Organizer until mid 2011. He took also part to the organization of LeWeb conference during two years. Cédric has graduated in computer science and business from two major French universities, and is fluent in French, English and German.
Cédric spends 10% of his time helping the ecosystem and other startups: as a regular mentor for startups in France, especially at LeCamping, first Startup Accelerator in Paris. He's involved as a teacher in different Business and Internet schools in France, and he created and managed a closed community of 500+ French Startupers on Facebook. He's a regular speaker at tech conferences in France & Europe.
Asher Goldstein
Monday March 10th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Asher Goldstein is an executive and producer at Traction Media, an independent film sales, production, and packaging company based in Los Angeles. At Traction, Asher oversees the financing, production, and sales/distribution of Traction projects and those of their clients. He most recently produced Destin Daniel Cretton's 2013 SXSW Jury Prize and Audience Award winner SHORT TERM 12, he was also a producer on Cretton's first feature I AM NOT A HIPSTER which premiered at Sundance 2012. He received a BFA with honors in Film/TV Production from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.
Peter Goldwyn
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Peter Goldwyn is the Senior Vice President for Samuel Goldwyn Films. He began his career writing and directing socio-political documentaries and regional commercials for Motion Inc. and Banyan Film, respectively. Prior to joining Samuel Goldwyn Films in 2001, Goldwyn worked for Satellite Films on national commercials and as an Assistant Director at ESPN, where he covered live sporting events.
Since joining Samuel Goldwyn Films, he has acquired a number of high profile titles for the company – which, in total, have grossed more than $165 million and have garnered three Academy Award® nominations, four Golden Globe nominations and 15 Independent Spirit Award nominations. These include: SUPER SIZE ME, THE SQUID AND THE WHALE, WALK ON WATER and EL CRIMEN DEL PADRE AMARO. He is also responsible for the critically-acclaimed RAISING VICTOR VARGAS, the controversial WHAT THE BLEEP DO WE KNOW!?, 2 DAYS IN PARIS, Claude Lelouch's ROMAN DE GARE, PRICELESS starring Audrey Tautou, HARRY BROWN with Michael Caine, MAO'S LAST DANCER, THE WHISTLEBLOWER, ROBOT & FRANK starring Academy Award® nominee Frank Langella and Academy Award® winner Susan Sarandon, DIANA VREELAND: THE EYE HAS TO TRAVEL about the late fashion icon, WAITING FOR LIGHTNING about the legendary skateboarder Danny Way, Gilles Bourdos' biopic RENOIR the lush film about the famous painter's later years and France's official submission for the 2014 Academy Awards®, Academy Award® nominee James Cromwell starrer, STILL MINE, and the Jason Wise much buzzed about film SOMM. Upcoming releases include Academy Award®-winner Freida Mock's critically acclaimed documentary ANITA featuring intimate and in-depth interviews with Anita Hill, filmmaker Lucia Puenzo's haunting film and Argentina's official submission to the 2014 Academy Awards® THE GERMAN DOCTOR, Denis Henry Hennelly's apocalypse drama GOODBYE WORLD, and David Posamentier and Geoff Moore's irreverent comedy BETTER LIVING THROUGH CHEMISTRY.
Goldwyn has served on panels at every major film festival across the country.
Eddie Gomez
Wednesday March 12th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
A veteran of music publishing for almost 25 years, most recently as SVP of Creative for Bug Music. Knack for signing career artists and songwriters, eye for talent and ability to get deals done. Many contributions these past 18 years towards building Bug Music as one of the most respected music publishers in the industry. Has placed numerous songs in film, television, and commercials as well as artists covers. Worked with a variety of artists and writers such as Johnny Cash, Buddy Guy, T Bone Burnett, Townes Van Zandt, Iggy Pop, Kings of Leon, Wilco, Ryan Adams, Paul Westerberg, Spoon, Jay Farrar, Jimmie Vaughan, Alejandro Escovedo, Los Lobos, Hayes Carll, Buddy Miller, Dave Alvin, Calexico, the estates of Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, willie Dixon, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gram Parsons and numerous others.
Rob Gonda
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Rob Gonda is currently a Corporate Vice President within the IT Solutions Organization. In his role, Rob helps defining the company vision for all digital go-to-market strategies enabled through platforms and technology, and leads the global data enablement strategy that empowers business intelligence and customer insights. He oversees and the IT Digital Engagement and IT Data teams. The Digital team is focused on all digital channels such including but not limited to web, mobile, and social, and kiosks through commerce, consumer, and employee engagement technology solutions; whereas the Data team leads the collection, delivery, and analysis of data to inform McDonald's business decisions as well as customer management and omni-channel personalization. Rob works closely with our Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer find balance and ensure alignment of our technology solutions with the broader McDonald's brand and digital vision.
Rob has 20+ years of experience in digital experiences, business management and consulting, branding and advertising for clients such as Coca-Cola, Chrysler Group, Unilever, Diageo, Target, and others. His areas of specialty include systematic innovation management, strategic planning, foresight, as well as enterprise application solutions, big data, and product and service design. Rob has been an active thought leader in the industry giving keynotes and speaking at dozens of international conferences such as SXSW and Cannes Lions, authoring books and articles, and chairing digital experiences and technology industry associations.
Prior to joining McDonald's, Rob held the position of Global Head of Innovation with Sapient where he was globally responsible for establishing technology standards, managing technology lifecycles, ensuring delivery excellence, running innovation workshops and strategic planning for top clients, and leading the innovation labs.
Mike Goodridge
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Mike Goodridge is chief executive of UK-based sales and finance company Protagonist Pictures which has credits including Calvary, Frank, '71, Searching For Sugar Man, Streetdance, Monsters and The Selfish Giant. Goodridge took the reins at Protagonist in 2012 after 22 years as a business journalist in the film arena. He worked in senior editorial positions at Screen International for 19 years including 12 years as US editor in Los Angeles and three years as editor in London.
Jesús Gorriti
Sunday March 9th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Jesús Gorriti may have 12 years of experience in interaction design, but he's secretly a magician. He's passionate about finding the most innovative design solution: one that captures user needs, strengthens a client's business and pushes technology until it seems to have disappeared, thus becoming indistinguishable from—that's right—magic. As Fjord's Service Design Director in the US, he leads a team of over thirty designers to ensure outstanding work and the overall success of Fjord's clients. Jesús has a few tricks up his sleeve to help Fjord designers achieve their best work: transparency, efficiency, and happiness. He believes in open dialogue, using the right tools to achieve timely problem-solving, and keeping the work meaningful and exciting for everyone. Jesús's wizardry expands far beyond interaction design though; he has worked on everything from strategy to product development, providing a unique perspective and deep understanding of how digital products are made.
Matt Grady
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Matt Grady is the founder of Factory 25, an independent film distribution company launched in 2009. Factory 25 is a home for conceptually provocative narratives and documentaries. Grady's mission is to deliver specialized film and music titles in an aesthetically captivating way while exposing the indie world to under-the-radar films, music, and other curiosities theatrically, digitally, on TV, VOD, via subscription, limited edition DVDs with vinyl LPs and books. Recent titles include SXSW films: Kid Thing, Sun Don't Shine and Pavilion. Factory 25 headquarters are in Brooklyn, New York.
Amy Grappell
Monday March 10th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Amy Grappell's most recent documentary "Quadrangle" premiered at Sundance (2010) winning a Jury Prize, and went on to win Best Short Film at SXSW and AFI Film Festival before being broadcast on HBO. She is currently writing a one-hour pilot based on "Quadrangle" for a narrative HBO series.
Gregory Green
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Geek, nerd, technophile, engineer…and that's just before breakfast! Gregory has been involved with the Internet since inception, both his and its. Born with a Cat5 umbilical cord and fingers pre-curled into QWERTY shape, he has unparalleled knowledge of 'teh interwebs', technology and the impact both have on modern culture.
Liliana Greenfield-Sanders
Monday March 10th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Liliana Greenfield-Sanders is a writer and director – born and raised in the East Village of New York City. She was a Sundance Lab Fellow in both Directing and Screenwriting with her feature film 'Adelaide.' Her other film and television work has won awards through The Sloan Foundation, Women in Film & Television, Lifetime TV, Channel 13, The AFF Teleplay Competition, Tribeca All Access, The National Board of Review and others. Her short films have screened at over 50 film festivals around the world.
Greenfield-Sanders created and runs the film program at The Wassaic Project. She is currently one of nine writer's in the 2014 Warner Bros. TV Writer's Workshop.
Her twitter recently got a shout out in the NYTimes, @liliana.
Amado Guloy
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Amado Guloy is currently an intellectual property engineer at CGG where he supports six business units on intellectual property strategy, prosecution and other matters. Prior to joining CGG, he was a patent engineer at an intellectual property boutique where his practice focused on startups and large companies in the clean energy, semiconductor, oil, gas, pharmaceutical and biotech industries.
Brandon Haas
Thursday March 13th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Brandon Haas is the Head of Publishing at Glassnote/Insieme Music Publishing.
Matt Hanks
Thursday March 13th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Matt Hanks is a Vice President at Shore Fire Media in Brooklyn, where he has worked for thirteen years. Some of his current and recent clients include Bon Iver, Neko Case, Grizzly Bear, Nick Lowe, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Graham Parker, St. Vincent, Mavis Staples, , Trombone Shorty, and venues including The Capitol Theatre, Hill Country Live and The Iridium.
Prior to working at Shore Fire he was a publicist at Autotonic in Memphis, TN, where his clients included labels like Drag City, Thrill Jockey and Revenant.
Nathan Hanners
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:00pm
I'm digital product designer. But I've made magazines, brochures, data visualizations, video games, applications, business cards, logos, infographics, motion graphics, advertisements, soundtracks, websites, record covers, posters, newspapers, books, banners, billboards, and designed the outside of buildings. It's all design, right?
Olivia Harrington
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Olivia Harrington is a Manager with Red Light Management.
Martin Harrison
Monday March 10th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
I was born in Ireland, moved to England quite young and grew up in a pub. I studied Philosophy at the University of Warwick, before starting out as an Account Manager. Over the past 15 years I have worked in a variety of agencies and a variety of roles (Account Management, Planning, Strategy, Social Media) and have developed strategies for Unilever, Diageo, Johnson and Johnson, Agent Provocateur, Sainsbury's and Pedigree. My work on Lynx's (Axe) Facebook page led to an IPA effectiveness award and I was a course lecturer at the Chartered Institute of Marketing. I'm primarily interesting in developing integrated strategies that use digital properly and understanding the role of interaction in reinforcing brand preference.
David Hartstein
Monday March 10th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
David Hartstein is an Emmy award winning documentary producer who calls Austin home. Immediately out of film school, David produced and directed Along Came Kinky: Texas Jewboy for Governor, a feature documentary chronicling Kinky Friedman's 2006 gubernatorial campaign that premiered at SXSW 2009. He is the producer of The Happy Poet, a feature comedy that had its international premiere at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. He was a producer of Where Soldiers Come From, nationally broadcast on PBS and winner of the News and Documentary Emmy Award for Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story as well as the Truer Than Fiction Independent Spirit Award. Recently, David was a producer of America's Parking Lot, a feature doc about Dallas Cowboys tailgaters that aired on ESPN in 2013. David is also currently in production as producer/director of his feature-length documentary, Untitled Israel Football Project, and was a producing fellow at the recent Biennale Cinema College lab in Venice with La Barracuda, a new narrative project.
David earned a BA in Film Studies from Emory University followed by an MFA in Film/Video Production from the University of Texas. He has taught narrative and documentary production at the University of Texas. He serves on the Filmmaker Advisory Committee to the Austin Film Society and is currently a producer and director on the MSNBC series Wounded: The Battle Back Home about veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Daniel Harvey
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Currently, I'm the Experience Design Director of SapientNitro in London, where I work with many clients including EE, Football League, and RBS/NatWest and head a small practice dedicated to innovation. Previously, I was an Executive Creative Director at R/GA in New York, leading creative teams across multiple accounts including HBO, Verizon, and Walmart. And prior to that, while also at R/GA, I was an Interaction Design Director and technologist creating and managing the Quality Assurance department.
My work has won awards at Cannes, The One Show, The Webbys, and been included in The Library of Congress, and has been profiled in Ad Age, Adweek, The BBC, CNN, Fast Company, The Guardian, TechCrunch, The New York Times, and Wired. I've been interviewed for The Drum, Campaign, Marketing Magazine, and Forrester and written and spoken about experience design at SXSW and IxDA. I've also been a guest lecturer at SVA and NYU and a consultant for early-stage startups in NYC and London, large multinational technology firms in Japan, and the UK Technology Strategy Board.
Mary Henige
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Mary Henige, APR has held many communications positions in her nearly 28 years with General Motors. In her current role as director, social media, digital communications, research and reputation management, she leads GM's social media strategy, employee policy and training; blogs; community engagement on GM's corporate brand channels; and crisis monitoring and response. Her team works in cooperation with other areas to broaden the reach of GM's "stories" including video production and media outreach.
Additionally, Henige oversees GM's creative interactive and user experience team who develop and support the company's global intranet and external websites and channels such as the media site, corporate blogs and retiree website.
She received a bachelor's degree in speech communication and public relations, and a master's degree in organizational communication and public relations, both from Wayne State University (WSU), in 1986 and 1993, respectively.
Henige enjoys working with and mentoring students and new professionals. She has recruited and trained interns for many years. In 2005, she began overseeing General Motors' internship program. She has been the professional advisor to WSU's PRSSA Chapter since 1993. In 2005 she became chair of Wayne State University's Department of Communication PR Advisory Board. Henige has taught introductory public relations courses at Wayne State, and has been a guest lecturer at many universities.
Holly Herrick
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Holly is an Associate Artistic Director at Austin Film Society.
Darren Hill
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Darren Hill is the President of Ten Pin Management.
Zach Hinkle
Friday March 14th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Zach Hinkle is a marketer and creative with over 10 years of music industry experience, starting out as an artist and moving into the marketing, publicity, and digital aspects of the music industry. He is now Marketing Director at Sneak Attack Media, a boutique digital agency in New York City. At Sneak Attack Media Hinkle works with music labels, artists, publishers, app developers, brands and more, building powerful and unique online marketing campaigns to support their products and releases.
Hinkle is also a published writer having interviewed multiple artists for PopMatters including the late Vic Chesnutt, New York songwriter Adam Green, and songstress Orenda Fink. He writes fiction on his days off.
Lastly, he's a self-proclaimed nice guy so feel free to reach out, say hello, and have a chat.
Emi Hofmeister
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Emi Hofmeister is passionate about running marathons, hitting the ski slopes, tasting cheese, and helping marketers connect the dots across the customer journey – from consideration to retention. As the senior product marketing manager for Adobe Social, a leading social marketing platform that integrates social data with web analytics, Emi helps marketers measure social media and tie interactions to real business results.
Previously in her director of strategy role at Context Optional, Emi managed social strategy engagements for several Fortune 500 companies such as Hyatt, Dell and Levi's. Emi has a BA in History from Stanford University. She has been working in digital marketing since 2004 and has been chosen as a SXSW Mentor.
Teresa Hollingsworth
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
As Senior Program Director for South Arts in Atlanta, Georgia, Teresa directs the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers working closely with filmmakers and partner communities to present new documentaries, narrative, animated and experimental films throughout the South. She is currently serving as the film programmer for Caravanserai, A Place Where Cultures Meet, a national project funded by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts that presents contemporary Muslim films and filmmakers to midsize communities. Teresa is a seasoned film festival veteran who annually attends national and regional film festival to identify filmmakers for Southern Circuit. She has contributed to a number of media projects, educational publications and scholarly journals, curated museum exhibits, and served as a project consultant, lecturer, festival stage manager and grant panelist.
Brian Holt
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Brian Holt is presently the redditgifts front developer at reddit. This essentially means he gets paid to use JavaScript, CSS, and HTML to help you connect to the world around you, gain deep and meaningful insight, and look at cat pictures for hours. When not saving the world one line of JavaScript at time, Brian loves to ski, mountain bike, trail run, and hang out with his wife and Havanese puppy. Brian is currently a resident of Salt Lake City, UT.
Diana Holtzberg
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Diana is Vice President of Films Transit International Inc.
Dan Hou
Friday March 7th 3:30am – 4:30am
Dan Hou is Director of Strategy at Huge, where he guides the development of compelling user experiences from concept to implementation. He's worked with a variety of Huge's largest clients including CNN, Target, and Four Seasons. Dan was also the founding CEO of the Huge Labs product Honey, a collaborative communication tool for the workplace. Prior to joining Huge, Dan served as a product manager at Microsoft and Motorola, where he lead digital entertainment initiatives spanning hardware, software, and services, with responsibilities that ranged from building high-end music devices, to speech writing for Bill Gates. Dan holds degrees in economics and computer science from the University of Pennsylvania's Jerome Fisher Management & Technology program.
Eugene Hsu
Friday March 7th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Eugene Hsu has been involved in digital marketing since he was a brand manager at Dell nearly a decade ago. He was involved in customer acquistion in the early days of online social gaming, even before Facebook had their platform.
Tom Hudson
Tuesday March 11th 9:30am – 10:30am
Accomplished director of development with over 13 years success in client/server Internet technologies. Committed to building strong client relationships while acting as liaison to their interactive marketplace. Thoughtful leadership skills and proven results through retention and growth of the department. Respected member of executive management involved in company-wide directives. Dedicated to meeting the demands of a fast-paced industry while maintaining a fun and stimulating culture for employees to thrive.
David Hudson
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Blogging, tweeting, and tumbling about movies for nearly a decade now, David currently writes for Fandor.
William Hulsey
Saturday March 8th 9:30am – 10:30am
Mr. Hulsey is rated "AV—Preeminent" by the Martindale-Hubbell Legal Directory and "10 out of 10—Superb" by the Avvo.com lawyer rating service. Over the years, Bill has prepared and prosecuted over 1500 patent applications in the technical areas of semiconductor devices, electronics, software and Internet technologies, as well as medical devices, mechanical inventions for energy and other industries, and aerospace technologies. A significant number of the patents he has obtained for clients have been deemed critical to their receiving venture investments, winning government contracts, and achieving either lucrative settlement agreements or decisions of others infringing their patents.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in theoretical mathematics from Rhodes College, where he graduated With Distinction and now serves on the national alumni executive board. Mr. Hulsey is a graduate of the U.S. Navy's nuclear program, which is widely acknowledged as having the most demanding academic program in the U.S. military. Through this training and his hands-on work as a commissioned nuclear trained naval officer, he has a deep understanding of nuclear physics, electrical power theory and generating equipment, nuclear reactor technology, thermodynamics, chemistry, materials science and metallurgy, and health physics.
As a commissioned Naval Officer, he attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy Submarine Force. Bill served first as a member of the USS Jacksonville (SSN699) nuclear submarine pre-commissioning and initial sea trials crew and then later as an Engineering Duty Officer, completing his naval service as Commanding Officer of a engineering unit supporting Submarine Base Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. While in graduate school, Bill worked as a Scientific & Technical Intelligence Analyst for the United States Army's Foreign Science & Technology Center in Charlottesville, Virginia and Electronics Research & Development Command in Adelphi, Maryland. From this work, he maintains a Secret Security Clearance and frequently assists clients in classified matters before the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and contractors to these federal agencies.
Bill holds a Doctor of Jurisprudence Degree from the Vanderbilt School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif honorary scholastic society, served as Senior Managing Editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review, and assisted two professors in the proofreading and editing of their respective legal treatises. While a law student at Vanderbilt, he formed the by-laws and corporate charter for the Nashville Business Incubation Center, by which he began his career of serving the technology law needs of early-stage and emerging growth companies.
Bill also has earned a Masters of Arts degree in economics from the University of Virginia, where he studied mathematical and theoretical economics. His graduate thesis was to research and describe salient factors determining the growth of regional technology centers, such as Austin, Texas; Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; the Route 128 Area near Boston, Massachusetts; and Silicon Valley, California.
Mr. Hulsey is a member of the State Bars of Texas, Tennessee and New York and Registered to Practice before the United States Patent & Trademark Office. He is a Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation and the New York Bar Foundation, and a Sustaining Member of the New York Bar Association. He is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, The United States Federal District Court for the Northern & Western Districts of Texas.
He serves as a Global Fellow of the IC2 (Innovation, Creativity & Capital) Institute of the University of Texas at Austin. Through his legal work, as well as with teaching through the IC2 Institute, Mr. Hulsey has visited and taught intellectual property rights formation, protection, and commercialization in 43 countries throughout the world.
Mr. Hulsey established HULSEY, P.C., Intellectual Property Lawyers to apply a highly developed specialty and experience in a broad span of technical fields. HULSEY, P.C. takes great pride in serving emerging growth companies competing in global markets with products and services relating to renewable and sustainable energy technologies, life sciences, electronics, environmental innovations, software, and aerospace technologies. As broad and numerous as are HULSEY, P.C.'s technological proficiencies, the firm is yet tightly focused in providing its clients with the highest quality in patent, trade secret, copyright, and trademark legal services. As a practicing patent attorney, Mr. Hulsey has developed and implemented complete intellectual property protection and licensing programs for numerous companies.
Clients receiving HULSEY, P.C. services span the globe in geographic diversity from Norway to New Zealand, north-to-south, and from Siberia to Singapore, east-to-west. HULSEY, P.C. represents clients before the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, as well as other intellectual property offices of nations around the globe via a network of foreign associates with whom the practice daily collaborates.
Bill firmly believes that the privilege of practicing law includes an obligation of continually returning value to the profession and the communities the profession serves. Accordingly HULSEY, P.C. takes a leading role in the Inventor Assistance Pro Bono Program, as established by the Leahy-Smith America Invents Act of 2011. Moreover, Mr. Hulsey has served on the Selection Committee for the Central Texas Regional Center for Innovation & Commercialization under The State of Texas Emerging Technology Fund Program. Most recently, Bill wrote the submission for the City of Austin to receive a U.S. Patent Office Satellite Office, which assisted in Texas' successful selection for the venue. He also frequently serves as a Judge in the internationally recognized Idea to Product (I2P®) UT Competition at the University of Texas campus. Most recently, He served as a judge for The I2P® Portugal Competition 2010, which has organized by COTEC Portugal and for the 2011 and 2012 Global I2P® Competition at the Royal Technical University in Stockholm, Sweden.
Bill also is the author of CREATING, MANAGING, AND LICENSING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ASSETS, a major work of over 30 hours of streaming video courses providing intellectual property education and training, through Stanford University.
An avid singer of classical choral works, Bill is a tenor with the Texas Choral Consort, the Conspirare Symphony Chorus, and the St. Michael's Episcopal Church Chancel Choir. He has sung an extensive variety of choral works from a broad array of composers over a ten-year period, including most recently, Beethoven's most significant work, Missa Solemnis, to be performed in the summer of 2013.
Josh Inglis
Saturday March 8th 9:30am – 10:30am
Josh Inglis is the founder of Propllr, a public relations and content marketing firm that helps startups build awareness and credibility as change-agents and innovators. A 20-year PR pro, Josh has experiences helping startups in a wide range of industries, including big data, healthcare, education, e-commerce, manufacturing, fashion and financial services. For a sampling of his team's work at Propllr, please visit http://propllr.com/client-news-2.
Aristides Ioannides
Monday March 10th 9:30am – 10:30am
In 2000, Mr. Ioannides developed Emerald Data Solution's first eGovernance technology for Marietta City Schools in Georgia, and formally launched BoardDocs® nationally in 2002. As the Chief Software Architect of BoardDocs, Mr. Ioannides and his team have been able to deliver the premiere cloud-based Board Management System that is used by over 30,000 users to successfully manage over 100,000 public meetings to date. BoardDocs success is based on a combination of 5-star resort quality service, community driven feature development and powerful marketing. BoardDocs success is measured by record-breaking subscriber growth on top of 99% retention. Mr. Ioannides has been a guest speaker at the International City/County Management Association, the National School Boards Association and the American Association of School Administrators. He has also authored numerous articles and white papers and has been published in leading industry journals, including Network Computing.
Kevin Iwashina
Tuesday March 11th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Kevin Iwashina is a Managing Partner of Preferred Content, a film production, sales and finance advisory company.
Founded in January 2010, Preferred Content (PC) is one of the premiere brokers of North American distribution rights for both fictional and non-fictional filmed entertainment content. Additionally, PC is a leading supplier of independent movies with a specialization in low budget genre and documentary features.
Recent PC productions include David Gelb's feature documentary, JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI, distributed in North America by Magnolia Pictures, Nicholas McCarthy's THE PACT, released in the US and Canada by IFC Films and Xavier Gen's THE DIVIDE, distributed in North America by Anchor Bay. Other PC sales and financing projects include the 2011 Toronto Midnight Selection THE DAY, the 2012 Sundance competition films THE END OF LOVE directed by Mark Webber and Ira Sachs' KEEP THE LIGHTS ON, and the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival Audience Award winner ANY DAY NOW.
In addition to his responsibilities at PC, Iwashina is the Managing Partner of Preferred Ventures, a digital media venture fund launched with Chris Kelly, the former Chief Privacy Officer of Facebook, and Ed Ojdana, the founder of FreeCreditReport.com. Iwashina also holds the title of Managing Director of City Room Creative, an entertainment marketing and creative editorial agency. Lastly, he is partnered with Christine Vachon in Killer Digital, a production company focused in creating original content for digital platforms.
Prior to founding PC and his suite of affiliated companies, Iwashina spent 10 years at the Creative Artists Agency (CAA), where he was a talent agent, specializing in film packaging, financing and distribution. Individual projects for which he has arranged distribution and financing include Richard Kelly's DONNIE DARKO, Zach Braff's GARDEN STATE, Paul Haggis' Academy Award winning CRASH and the Peabody Award winning documentary NANKING. Clients Iwashina has represented include Italian filmmaker Gabriele Muccino, French filmmaker Patrice Chereau, European actors Vincent Cassel, Monica Bellucci and Emmanuelle Seigner, independent films icons John Waters and Christine Vachon as well as Netflix and the former Vice Chairman of AOL, Ted Leonsis.
Iwashina holds a B.A. in English Literature with a minor in French Language and Culture from U.C.L.A. He is active in the non-profit and political sectors and currently serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Coalition of Asian Pacifics in Entertainment (CAPE) and is a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Documentary Association (IDA). He began his career in the mailroom at the United Talent Agency (UTA).
Richard James Burgess
Thursday March 13th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Richard James Burgess Ph.D. began his career in recorded music as a studio drummer and percussionist for EMI Records in New Zealand. He went on to enjoy international success as a studio musician, major label producer, engineer, composer, artist, and manager of both producers and artists garnering many multi-platinum, platinum and gold albums to his name. Richard authored The Art of Record Production (pub. Music Sales) in 1994, and recently updated it for a fourth edition as The Art of Music Production in addition to penning his latest book entitled The History of Music Production (both to be published by Oxford University Press). He lectures on music production, the music business and music career strategies. He is credited with co-designing the Simmons SDSV drum synthesizer, coining the term "New Romantic" (when he was producing Spandau Ballet in the early eighties) and producing one of the proto-house records (1985's "Trapped" by Colonel Abrams). He is known for his pioneering electronic music work in the seventies being one of the earliest users of the MC-8 microcomposer (Landscape's From The Tearooms of Mars…) and the Fairlight CMI sampler (Kate Bush's Never Forever). Richard was educated at Berklee College of Music, Boston, Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London and The University of Glamorgan, Wales. He is currently Vice President of the Washington DC chapter of the Recording Academy, co-chair of the DC Chapter of the Academy's Producer and Engineer Wing and a member of the P&E Wing's national steering committee. Additionally, he is Joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal on the Art of Record Production, which is based out of the London College of Music. For the past twelve years he has overseen revenue generation at the award-winning Smithsonian Folkways Recordings label.
Soo Jin Hwang
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Soo Jin Hwang is the representative of the Korean Film Council (KOFIC) in the United Sates. She works to promote Korean involvement in US film productions, introducing Korean films, Korean filmmakers, and Korean entertainment companies to leaders of the Hollywood film industry and facilitating interaction between American and Korean cultures.
Before joining KOFIC, Soo Jin worked for 3-1/2years as the Los Angeles correspondent for Cine21, the top entertainment magazine in Korea.
Soo Jin earned a BA in Aesthetics from Seoul National University and an MFA in Film Production from Florida State University. Her thesis film, Tycho's Nova, won the Student Emmy Award in 2006.
Soo Jin chose Los Angeles because her love of Blade Runner and she also loves arthouse theater. The Downtown LA theater district is her favorite place.
Chris Jones
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:00pm
SparkFire Labs is on a mission to democratize the process of innovation and entrepreneurship. Our cloud-based technology platform provides private collaboration, business development and innovation work spaces.We help turn ideas into opportunities.
I am also a mentor for a student startup team in the Longhorn Startup Class at UT.
Previously I was the Director of Marketing at Axion Capital Management,research & analysis at Axion Opportunity Fund. In 2004 I founded the research consulting firm OmniPresent Media. I also founded 2 CRM startups in the automotive service aftermarket.
I have a strong interest in promoting veteran-based entrepreneurship and veteran's issues. In August 2013 I was a panelist at the American Legion's National Convention.
Mary Juetten
Monday March 10th 9:30am – 10:30am
Mary Juetten is founder & CEO of Traklight.com, a Phoenix based, software company that provides cost-effective, online IP identification tools and resources that enable inventors, creators, entrepreneurs and small businesses to identify and protect their IP. Mary consults and mentors start-ups in the areas of planning, business models, and IP identification and is active in national crowdfunding organizations CFPA and CfiRA. You can find her on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Mary Jurey
Wednesday March 12th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Mary Jurey joined the Playing In Traffic Records/Loophole Management team in August of 2010 becoming the GM of the label. Most recently, she has also taken over GM duties at The Noise Company - Ben Kweller's boutique label based in Austin, TX.
Prior to working at Playing In Traffic Records, Ms. Jurey worked in Los Angeles, CA for New West Records. In her 7 years at New West, she oversaw more than 150 releases including Grammy winning albums by Delbert McClinton and Steve Earle. In addition, she was responsible for managing the label's international business and was project manager for the series Live From Austin, TX which saw the release on CD and DVD of the extended performances from the award winning TV show Austin City Limits.
Previous to her work at New West Records, Ms. Jurey worked at Columbia Records/Sony Music Entertainment as part of the West Coast A&R department with legendary A&R man John D. Kalodner. Notable releases during this time were Aerosmith's Just Push Play (Platinum) and Shawn Colvin's Whole New You (Gold).
Ms. Jurey's foray into the music business began with a three year stint as the personal assistant for the 5 time Grammy winning artist Mary Chapin Carpenter.
Deena Kalai
Saturday March 8th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Deena Kalai has offices in both Austin and Manhattan and represents clients engaged in entertainment, intellectual property and technology, including film, television, fashion, and mobile/interactive media. Deena represents writers, directors, and talent, and has provided production counsel for many narrative and documentary films. She is also an executive producer for two feature films currently in development.
Ryan Kampe
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Prior to founding Visit Films, Ryan spent a number of years in International Distribution at Focus Features. With Visit Films, he has been responsible for the worldwide sales and development of a number of important American independent and international films that have premiered in festivals such as Cannes, Sundance, Berlin, and Toronto from filmmakers as diverse as Harmonie Korine, Werner Herzog, the Duplass Brothers, Valérie Donzelli, Joe Swanberg and David Robert Mitchell.
Ryan speaks on numerous panels each year and has served on a number of film festival juries while logging over 200,000 air miles flown annually. He is as an avid soccer enthusiast and graduated from Macalester College in St. Paul, MN
Beth Katz
Saturday March 8th 9:30am – 10:30am
Beth Katz is the founder and executive director of Project Interfaith (projectinterfaith.org), a non-profit who's received national and international recognition for its innovative use of technology and multimedia to create intercultural and interreligious understanding. I could be a helpful sounding board for ideas and projects related to social entrepreneurship, launching and managing a non-profit, using technology and media to advance a social cause, fund/resource development, organizational development, or whatever you want to brainstorm about.
Jette Kernion
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Jette Kernion founded Slackerwood in 2006 to cover all aspects of the Austin film scene. The site has grown from a single-person blog to a daily news and features site with more than 10 regular contributors, and is now published by Austin Film Society.
Lesli Klainberg
Sunday March 9th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
For two decades, Lesli Klainberg has lead not for profit organizations and initiatives, as well as produced and directed acclaimed independent documentaries.
She is currently the Interim Executive Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and had previously been the Managing Director of the Film Society and Producer of the organization's New York Film Festival and annual Chaplin Award Gala.
As the Executive Director of NewFest, New York's LGBT Film Festival, Lesli stewarded the NYC event from 2008 - 2011. She also worked as a Consulting Producer for the Sundance Institute's Documentary Film Program and as the Producer of IFP's Independent Film Week Forum. For three years, 2009 – 2011, she was Co-Leader of the organization's weeklong Documentary Finishing Lab.
In her work as an award winning documentary producer and director, Lesli Klainberg's most recent film credits include Line Producing the feature documentaries A PLACE AT THE TABLE (Sundance 2011 premiere, nominated for a 2013 PGA award), BEWARE OF MR. BAKER (SXSW 2011 Audience Award) and MISSION BLUE (Berlin 2014 premiere).
From 2000 to 2012, her production company, Orchard Films, produced documentaries that screened at film festivals around the world, including Sundance, Berlin, Frameline and Provincetown, and were broadcast on PBS, A&E, AMC, IFC and WE. Orchard productions include the documentary mini-series, INDIE SEX, exploring various aspects of sexuality in cinema; the three episodes INDIE SEX: TEENS, INDIE SEX: EXTREMES and INDIE SEX: CENSORED (which Lesli also directed) premiered on IFC TV in 2007. FABULOUS! THE STORY OF QUEER CINEMA, for IFC in 2006, is a feature length documentary that explored the history of American independent gay and lesbian cinema, while IN THE COMPANY OF WOMEN (2004, IFC), is a documentary about women in independent film and MISS AMERICA (PBS/American Experience, 2001) offered a history of the Miss America Pageant.
Lesli is also producer of the acclaimed independent film, PAUL MONETTE: THE BRINK OF SUMMER'S END, which won the documentary audience award at Sundance, Frameline and Outfest and was released theatrically by First Run Features and broadcast on HBO/Cinemax Reel Life. MONETTE was also a short list selection for the 1997 Academy Awards and it was nominated for the IDA Award for Best Documentary. The film screened at the Walter Reade Theater in 1997 as part of the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Indie Night series.
Lesli Klainberg is a Founding National Board member of GLAAD and a former Board member of both Outfest and NewFest and has served on numerous film festival juries.
Lesli has a BFA in Film from Purchase College in New York and is a proud graduate of the High School of Music and Art in New York City.
Robert Koehler
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Robert Koehler is a Los Angeles-based film critic, programmer and North American manager for the film sales and distribution company, FiGa Films. His film criticism can be read at Cinema Scope magazine, cinema-scope.com, Cineaste magazine, Indiewire.com, Film Comment magazine, filmcomment.com, Artsmeme.com, Sight & Sound and Filmjourney.org. His blog column analyzing film festivals, "Festival Circus," can be read at Indiewire.com. His film criticism has previously appeared in Variety, The Christian Science Monitor, Cahiers du Cinema (France and Spain), L'Espresso and Die Tagezeitung, and has been translated into many languages. He has served as Director of Cinematheque Programming at the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Director of Programming at AFI Fest Los Angeles. As partner in Festworks, Koehler has served as programming consultant to several American festivals, including the Santa Fe Film Festival. He was instructor/programmer for UCLA Extension's Sneak Preview program from 2003-2007. In 2003, he developed the successful, innovative film program, "The Films That Got Away," an ongoing series presenting significant recent work that has previously not screened in Los Angeles. Institutions with which the series has collaborated include UCLA Film Archive, the American Cinematheque and the Los Angeles Film Festival. In 2009, he was appointed director of programming at AFI Fest Los Angeles, where he helped create a new and focused competition section titled "New Lights," as part of AFI Fest's programming concept as a festival-of-festivals. A graduate of UCLA, Koehler was a theater critic for the LA Weekly and Los Angeles Times during the 1980s and 1990s. He is a member of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics, and has served on festival juries in Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, Vancouver, Buenos Aires, Indie Lisboa, Copenhagen, Riviera Maya, Montreal, FICCO, Guadalajara, FICUNAM, Santiago, Palm Springs, Bermuda and Miami. Among his published work are chapters in the books "Cine Argentino 1999-2009," "On Film Festivals" from Wildflower Press, "American Comedy," published by the San Sebastian Film Festival and "10 Years with New Danish Screen," published by New Danish Screen/Danish Film Institute.
Tim Kolleth
Saturday March 15th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Tim Kolleth is the Director of Radio Promotion at Alligator Records.
Marian Koltai-Levine
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Marian Koltai-Levine currently serves as Executive Vice President of the film department at PMK*BNC. As the department head, Marian and her team seek to offer clients a unique approach which includes not only traditional PR but marketing and distribution services as well. Marian and her team's method and tactics come as a result of many years of experience working on both the studio and agency side of the film industry. Under Marian's direction, the film department at PMK*BNC has run successful campaigns for Roadside Attractions' The Music Never Stops, The Weinstein Company's The Artist and The Iron Lady, Film District's Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and Safety Not Guaranteed, Sony Pictures Classics' Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest and academy award campaigns for some of 2012's most notable films: Lincoln, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Sessions and Hitchcock. Most recently, Marian completed campaigns for Academy Award nominated films Beasts of the Southern Wild and Silver Linings Playbook which raked up 12 nominations between both films. She helped lead Beasts of the Southern Wild beginning with its Sundance Film Festival debut in 2012 where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition through its theatrical release and finally finishing with an awards campaign where it was nominated for Best Picture. Marian helped represent Silver Linings Playbook through its theatrical release, awards campaign where it was nominated for 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Actor and won for Best Actress Jennifer Lawrence and most recently with the home video release. Most recent film departments clients include All is Lost starring Robert Redford, Anchor Bay's Lords of Salem, Ketchup Entertainment's Big Sur, The New York Film Festival , HBO's Casting By, 2013 Toronto Film Festival films: Horns and Life of Crime among others and Sundance Film Festival film Life After Beth.
The film department also represents many highly regarded directors, producers and production companies including Baltasar Kormákur, (The Deep, Contraband), David Hoberman & Todd Lieberman (Mandeville Films), Red Granite Pictures and Sundance Productions.
As Marian is passionate about new voices and the global artistic community, she additionally represents various arts nonprofits including Sundance Institute, IFP and UJA. She is recognized for offering clients a complete "outsourced marketing department," as well as theatrical distribution services.
Prior to her current position, Marian was the Founder and President of Zipline Entertainment, which launched in April of 2009. Zipline Entertainment became a leader in the evolving world of content and distribution and joined the PMK*BNC family in August, 2010. Some of Zipline's notable successes include: Is Anybody There?; Bass Ackwards; the award-winning documentary Racing Dreams; Focus Features' The Kids Are All Right; the new cable channel EPIX; and 2011's Independent Film Summit in conjunction with MOMA and IndieWIRE. In addition, Zipline Entertainment has represented MOMA/Film Society of Lincoln Center's "New Directors/New Films Festival." Marian has established herself as an expert on marketing and distribution, speaking on panels at Sundance Film Festival, SXSW, IFP, and the Producers Guild conference, as well as guest lecturing at Columbia, Yale and New York University.
Marian was named one of the hundred most powerful women in Hollywood by The Hollywood Reporter. She is a featured speaker at the Produced By Conference, Sundance Institute, Independent Film Project, Variety Marketing Conference, and several others.
Kristen Konvitz
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Kristen Konvitz is the New York-based Manager of Film for global crowdfunding platform, Indiegogo. Her role includes acquiring projects in varying stages and overseeing them through all stages of their campaigns. She is instrumental in building relationships between both established and up and coming talent and also performs community outreach for the New York filmmaking community. Prior to joining Indiegogo, she spent 7 years as the Director of Acquisitions and Production at Wild Bunch, one of the leading independent film sales, financing & distribution companies. She began working in acquisitions at The Weinstein Company and made the transition to Wild Bunch to assist in opening its first U.S. office. She has also produced numerous award winning short films and music videos. Kristen holds a B.S. in media studies from New York University and a M.F.A. in film producing from Columbia University.
Ingrid Kopp
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Director of Digital Initiatives at the Tribeca Film Institute where I oversee the TFI New Media Fund, TFI Interactive and the Tribeca Hacks series. Storytelling + technology + design.
Erica Krusen
Friday March 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Erica Krusen is the Senior Director at Musicares.
Esther Kuperman
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Esther Kuperman has been a lead marketing and design influence in leading brands such as the National Basketball Association and startups. As a UX/UI design expert, Esther has designed and developed compelling interfaces for mobile apps and e-commerce platforms. She has spent considerable time implementing digital marketing campaigns to grow audiences and acquire customers for software products.
Jordan Kurkland
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Jordan Kurkland is the Owner of Zeitgeist Artist Management.
Laya Kushner
Thursday March 13th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
U.S. Immigration Attorney Mentor. This is a special mentor session focusing on international musicians and industry professionals seeking advice on U.S Immigration options. Only sign up for one consultation during this specific session, please.
Laya Kushner is an Attorney at Kushner and Kushner PC.
Rosa L. McCormick
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Rosa has been working with start-up companies since 2004 and is currently Managing Director of Wild Basin Investments, LLC, a closely-held entity focused specifically on early-stage equity investments, and President of Key Light Capital LLC, an Austin-based investment firm with an emphasis in venture investing. Rosa serves on the Board of VolunteerSpot, Inc., a company that provides online volunteer coordination, sign-up and reminders and is a Board Observer for Boomerangs Pies and Quarri Technologies. Rosa has been an active investor with the Central Texas Angel Network since 2007 and has served on that organization's Board since 2011. Rosa is a member of the Society of Kauffman Fellows (Class 18).
Tom LaSorda
Tuesday March 11th 9:30am – 10:30am
Tom LaSorda recently founded and launched IncWell LP, a private Venture Capital Fund in Michigan in mid 2013. Tom launched the fund because he believes in great people. He enjoys coaching enthusiastic entrepreneurs with a disruptive technology who know their numbers and who have a great team.
Prior to IncWell, Tom launched Stage II Innovations, another VC fund, with Manoj Bhargava, the Founder and CEO of 5-Hour Energy. Tom spent over 33 years in the Automotive industry starting at GM. He was the CEO at Chrysler from 2005 to 2007 and held the position as CEO at Fisker in early 2012.
Tom met his wife Doreen in Windsor, Ontario Canada and has been married for over 36 years. Currently, Tom is having fun at IncWell and helping his daughter build a bakery in Chicago.
Cassie Lancellotti-Young
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Cassie is VP Optimization and Analytics at Sailthru, where she works with top retail and media brands to strengthen customer retention and improve top-line revenue. Before joining Sailthru, Cassie spent a year leading "intrapreneurship" at Gerson Lehrman Group, where she shipped several products under the HighTable.com brand. Prior to GLG, Cassie served as VP Marketing at Savored, where she managed customer acquisition, email and product marketing, and partnerships; Savored sold to Groupon in 2012. Previously, Cassie was an early employee at TheLadders.com, where she spent several years managing direct marketing and subscription analytics and was responsible for tremendous growth in readership and revenue. She began her career as a media/tech analyst at Citigroup Global Corporate & Investment Bank and has also held a variety of consulting roles with large digital brands such as AOL and SapientNitro.
Cassie graduated from Duke University and holds an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth.
Stephen Land
Friday March 7th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Stephen began preparing for a career in advertising at the age of four by watching copious amounts of television. And not just PBS, but the really good stuff like Little Rascals, Green Acres and Petticoat Junction. At the same time, he watched movies—lots and lots of movies ranging from Bambi to Patton. While his mom thought he was rotting his brain he was actually developing an appreciation and talent for storytelling, a talent that would serve him well in his future career.
Then came the Atari and the Commodore 64, which set him on a lifelong path of gaming and technology and eventually building his own computers from scratch. He's passionate about picking the parts, learning about all the technology and troubleshooting problems until he's built a PC just the way he wants it.
Today, Stephen takes advantage of his pop culture and gaming background to create marketing campaigns of all kinds from banners and websites, to TV and experiential. Many of our clients have benefited from Stephen's unique knowledge including Chili's, the United States Air Force, John Deere and NAMCO BANDAI. Prior to GSD&M, Stephen worked at Digitas, Deutsch, Grey and Tracy Locke. Stephen's past clients include American Express, Pepsi, Chase, Oracle, Aquafina and numerous others. His awards and recognition include the One Show, the Clios, Communication Arts Advertising and Interactive Annuals, the FWA, Webbys, Ad Tech and a number of ADDYS.
Jesse Lauter
Wednesday March 12th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Jesse Lauter is a New York City-based Producer/Engineer/Mixer and musician, originally from Atlanta by way of San Francisco. He has worked with The Low Anthem, Elvis Perkins, Ingrid Michaelson, James Blood Ulmer, Marco Benevento, Blind Pilot, Alela Diane, Ivan & Alyosha, Smokey Hormel, Bobby Long, Surprise Me Mr. Davis, Pete Francis of Dispatch, The Woes, among others. He is currently producing a tribute album to Bob Dylan's overlooked 1980s catalog, so far featuring Bob Weir with members of The National, Gene Ween, Craig Finn (The Hold Steady), Deer Tick, Carl Broemel (My Morning Jacket), Dawn Landes & Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Langhorne Slim, Reggie Watts, Widespread Panic, among others. In 2008, Jesse produced and engineered The Low Anthem's Oh My God, Charlie Darwin. For that record, he designed a makeshift studio on Block Island, Rhode Island. Charlie Darwin received critical acclaim from the New York Times, Rolling Stone, and NPR, as well as the praise of musicians like Bruce Springsteen, Robert Plant and Emmylou Harris. In 2010, Jesse invited LA folk-rockers Dawes to perform and record in the basement of Big Pink, the legendary Catskills home where Bob Dylan and The Band recorded "The Basement Tapes." In addition to working in traditional studios and setting up recording rigs in odd environments, Jesse also writes for Tape-Op Magazine, does live sound at various venues, and from time to time you can catch him around town spinning his favorite brands of psychedelic country-rock, southern soul, and roots reggae. He resides in upper Manhattan.
Brian Lemond
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Co-Founder of the digital agency Brooklyn United and the CG visualization studio Brooklyn Digital Foundry; CCO of the entertainment industry startup Busby.
Brian has worked in digital media for over 14 years, building businesses through effective strategy, design, development, and management. The diverse client roster for Brooklyn United and the Brooklyn Digital Foundry includes AT&T, Blue Man Group, Levi's, the Guggenheim Museum, Gucci, and Columbia University, and the businesses continue to discover new opportunities for clients in all industries.
For the past year, Brian has served as the CCO and lead on the Brooklyn United team delivering strategy, design, and development support for the entertainment industry startup Busby, a trusted community of professionals showcasing their work, building their network, and discovering opportunities to collaborate. The site is currently in private beta.
Jo Lenardi
Saturday March 15th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Jo Lenardi is a Project Manager at Barsuk Records.
Michael Lerman
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Michael Lerman is co-executive producer at Tiger Industry Films.
Don Levy
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:00pm
After 17 years on the senior management team at Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment, responsible for strategy, marketing, communications and organizational development in the studios visual effects, feature animation, online games, mobile and broadband entertainment businesses, I am now the co-founder of Spud Media LLC, an entertainment network designed for the family market, and am an active advisor to a variety of startups and organizations including The Entertainment Technology Center@USC, Cosmic Forces, a digital production studio, and Smartoonz, an animation company, and a member of the board of advisors to BLUE, the Ocean Film Festival and Conservation Conference. My expertise is primarily in media, entertainment and technology but not limited to those fields. I look forward to helping you in any way I can and making your mentor session worthwhile.
Ursula Liang
Saturday March 8th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Ursula Liang is a senior publicist at The 2050 Group, a public relations agency specializing in social issue documentary film. She has worked on aggressive publicity campaigns for documentaries around major film festivals, theatrical and DVD releases, broadcasts, and awards season that have led to widespread press attention for clients including HBO Documentary Films, Sundance, "Brooklyn Castle", "When I Walk", "William and the Windmill", "12 O'Clock Boys", "Our Nixon", "Return to Homs", "Prison Terminal", "Best Kept Secret", "The New Black", "The Trials of Muhammad Ali", "American Winter", "Call Me Kuchu", "Love Child", "The Waiting Room", "Wo Ai Ni, Mommy".
Ursula was a full-time journalist for over a decade and held staff jobs as a writer, reporter, editor, producer, radio host, guest booker at both elite mainstream national outlets (ESPN The Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine) and local and ethnic media (the International Channel, Hyphen magazine, WPOP, WBAI).
Ursula is also a documentary filmmaker. Her films "Tough Love" (producer) and "9-Man" (director) will both premiere spring 2014.
Ursula Liang
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Ursula Liang is a senior publicist at The 2050 Group, a public relations agency specializing in social issue documentary film. She has worked on aggressive publicity campaigns for documentaries around major film festivals, theatrical and DVD releases, broadcasts, and awards season that have led to widespread press attention for clients including HBO Documentary Films, Sundance, "Brooklyn Castle", "When I Walk", "William and the Windmill", "12 O'Clock Boys", "Our Nixon", "Return to Homs", "Prison Terminal", "Best Kept Secret", "The New Black", "The Trials of Muhammad Ali", "American Winter", "Call Me Kuchu", "Love Child", "The Waiting Room", "Wo Ai Ni, Mommy".
Ursula was a full-time journalist for over a decade and held staff jobs as a writer, reporter, editor, producer, radio host, guest booker at both elite mainstream national outlets (ESPN The Magazine, T: The New York Times Style Magazine) and local and ethnic media (the International Channel, Hyphen magazine, WPOP, WBAI).
Ursula is also a documentary filmmaker. Her films "Tough Love" (producer) and "9-Man" (director) will both premiere spring 2014.
Marc Lipkin
Friday March 14th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Award-winning music industry publicist Marc Lipkin has been Director Of Publicity for Alligator Records since September 1992.
Marc has placed countless feature stories and reviews, both locally and nationally, in newspapers, magazines and on-line. He has worked to book performances and interviews on national television and radio for Alligator artists, including Joe Louis Walker, Koko Taylor, Mavis Staples, Shemekia Copeland, The Holmes Brothers, Luther Allison, Marcia Ball, James Cotton, JJ Grey & Mofro, Anders Osborne, Rick Estrin & The Nightcats, Guitar Shorty, Charlie Musselwhite, Lil' Ed & The Blues Imperials, Tommy Castro & The Painkillers and many others.
During his tenure at Alligator, he has written every artist bio for each new release (numbering near 200) and every press release. Samples of his work are featured in "The Billboard Guide To Publicity" (2nd Edition), written by Jim Pettigrew. An interview, including a discussion on publicity tactics and techniques, appears in Tad Lathrope's "This Business Of Music."
In 2005, Marc received the Keeping The Blues Alive Award For Publicist of The Year from the Memphis-based Blues Foundation, becoming the first-ever recipient of the award in this newly created category.
James M Johnston
Tuesday March 11th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
James is a Producer of AIN'T THEM BODIES SAINTS, PIT STOP, and LISTEN UP PHILIP.
Kelly MacLean
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Kelly MacLean leads Facebook's Emerging Markets Ads Product business within Monetization Product Marketing. Kelly influences the product development and the business adoption of Facebook's advertising product portfolio across brands, agencies, and small businesses. She most recently worked on Facebook's acquisition of Atlas, premium & brand products, mobile ad network, and mobile app install ad. Prior to Facebook, Kelly held several marketing, product, sales, and operations leadership positions at Flite, LiveRamp/RapLeaf, and Dell.
Kelly received a B.Sc. in Business from Purdue University and an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She grew up in Canada and played professional soccer for 6 years.
David Magdael
Monday March 10th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
As founder and president of DAVID MADGAEL & ASSOCIATES, INC, his company continues to specialize in documentaries, independent films, directors, and public affairs issues since 2000. From developing Oscar® campaigns for documentaries to creating film festival strategies for filmmakers and indie films to television broadcast publicity to theatrical release public relations and film unit publicity, the company has become an important entertainment communications firm that boasts a client roster including numerous Academy Award® winning and nominated documentary and short films, Sundance Film Festival Award winners, Toronto International Film Festival standouts, Tribeca Film Festival and South by Southwest gems and independent films, as well as studio projects and television broadcast films for Lionsgate, Paramount, Universal, Sony/Columbia, Variance Films, Zeitgeist, Showtime, HBO, Relativity, Fox Searchlight, Rogue, Focus Features and others.
Magdael has been representing films at SXSW Film Festival for over 7 years since 2006. Recent film projects include: BLOOD BROTHER; AMERICAN PROMISE; ESCAPE FROM TOMORROW; A RIVER CHANGES COURSE; CENTRAL PARK FIVE; COMRADE KIM GOES FLYING; BURN; ASAD; KING'S POINT; OUT OF THE CLEAR BLUE SKY; LOVE FREE OR DIE; BIG BOYS GONE BANANAS!*; MANSOME; THE SECRET DISCO REVOLUTION; EVERYBODY HAS A PLAN; 5 BROKEN CAMERAS; IF A TREE FALLS; THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM; WE ARE LEGION; BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER'S JOURNEY; THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975; COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN'S HOPE; ELITE SQUAD: THE ENEMY WITHIN; THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES; GIVE UP TOMORROW; THE OTHER F WORD; POM WONDERFUL PRESENTS: THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER SOLD; WASTELAND; THE INTERRUPTERS; SEMPER FI: ALWAYS FAITHFUL; SUPERHEROES; LEAVE IT ON THE FLOOR; ADDICTION INCORPORATED; SUPER SIZE ME; WHAT WOULD JESUS BUY; JAM; and others.
Jenny Magic
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Jenny guides the overall direction of the agency as well as the integration of adaptive content strategy in the web design process, both internally and for clients. Prior to this role, Jenny founded Better Way to Say It, a content marketing firm specializing web content strategy. Jenny loves to speak and teach about online marketing. She has delivered workshops to clients like Prudential and Acxiom, contributes to the Content Marketing Institute, presented at the 2012 Content Marketing World conference, hosts the #AustinContent Meetup, and is a member of the BlogathonATX advisory board. She is also a visiting instructor at the University of San Diego and coordinates the communications team for TEDxAustin 2014. An avid reader, cheese connoisseur, fierce game night competitor, and former top man of the family waterski pyramids, Jenny geeks out over Wired magazine and loves using her young son as an excuse to do fun kid stuff.
Annick Mahnert
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Annick Mahnert studied film production at the New York Film Academy and worked as a production assistant at Roger Corman's Concorde-New Horizons. After moving back to Switzerland, she went on to work at 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. When the opportunity arose, she took up the job of Marketing Manager for the Pathé Multiplexe in Dietlikon (Zürich).
Mahnert also worked for two years at maximage Filmproduktion as a production assistant and participated at the production of documentaries and feature films, some of which won awards at the Swiss Film Awards (Heimatklänge, Dir. Stefan Schwietert - Nebenwirkungen, Dir. Manuel Siebenmann).
Annick Mahnert worked for 5 years as a Sales Manager for Frenetic Films, a major swiss independent film distributor in Zurich, dealing with Studio Canal, Europacorp and Wild Bunch titles amongst others before movig to Paris early of 2012 to join the renowned sales agency Celluloid Dreams handling sales and acquisitions. Since 2013, she is working as a freelance acquisitions consultant and festival programmer and was hired in November 2013 as Foreign Representative for the Market & Festivals department at Swiss Films, the promotion agency for Swiss filmmaking.
In 2008, she produced the short film Dead Bones, directed by Olivier Beguin, and persuaded actors Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead) and Arie Verveen (The Thin Red Line) to boar the project. The movie was shot in Almeria, Spain, and has more than 90 festival selections worldwide, winning several awards.
She is currently developing a project based on an Edward Bunker novel with Fathi Beddiar, screenwriter of the upcoming Colt 45, a thriller directed by Fabrice du Welz and produced by Thomas Langmann (La Petite Reine) and recently boarded the new films by Gustavo Hernández (La Casa Muda), Dios Local, and Jeremy Gardner's (The Battery) yet Untitled Project, as an executive producer.
Keith Maitland
Monday March 10th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Keith Maitland is currently in production on two feature docs – TOWER, an animated re-telling of the witnesses, survivors and heroes of the first American school shooting at the University of Texas in 1966; and the UNTITLED AUSTIN CITY LIMITS DOCUMENTARY, that looks at the past, present & future of the longest-running live music show in television history.
Maitland is the director and producer of the Emmy-nominated THE EYES OF ME, which premiered at SXSW and was broadcast on PBS's Independent Lens. An independent producer/director, and founder of IllegalFilms, Keith Maitland first gained invaluable hands-on experience on productions for MTV, Jim Henson Productions, Woody Allen, Janusch Kaminski, Joel Schumacher, and as an AD on 7-seasons of LAW & ORDER.
Diego Marambio
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Ventana Sur Program Coordination. The Market focus in Latin American Film Industry. Every December more than 400 feature films are presented and more than 350 international buyers for cinema release, TV and VOD platforms, festival programers, exhibitors attend looking for the production from Latin America.
Diego also works for Argentine Film Institute promoting and positioning the argentine cinema.
Jennifer Masset
Wednesday March 12th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
As A2IM's Director of Member Services, Jennifer works closely with service and solution providers (Associate Members) who want to engage more closely with the American independent music label companies. She organizes networking events, portals, and opportunities throughout the year including (but not limited to) A2IM Indie Week (NYC, June 16-20, 2014).
Glenn Max
Wednesday March 12th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Glenn Max was born and raised in NYC.
In 1997, after years of performing in venues and organising art exhibitions, he was asked to serve as creative director of the multi-tiered performing arts venue, The Knitting Factory where he produced work by avant-garde artists such as John Zorn, Phillip Glass and Diamanda Galas. He expanded the programme to include cutting-edge rock and pop artists such as David Byrne, Sonic Youth, Suicide, The Roots and Stereolab producing festival dates in Central Park and Battery Park. He also established the organisations concert programme with Ali Farka Toure farewelll concert appearance at New York's Town Hall.
In 2000, he was asked to take over at the South Bank Centre in London as Producer of the Contemporary Culture program where he oversaw 9 Meltdown Festivals and conceived and organised new festivals such as Ether , and Mind Your Head, doubling the size of the contemporary culture programme. Achievements include Brain Wilson's comeback concerts and his follow-up 'Smile' concerts, The New York Dolls reunion, David Gilmour and Morrissey and lesser-known artists like Iva Bitova, Robyn Hitchcock, Plaid and David Axelrod.
Ether was started in 2001 to address the vast gap in electronic culture and concert hall culture and the expectations of artists and audiences who typically engage in contemporary electronic culture and seldom go to concert halls for events. The festival had huge impact across art centres in the UK and aborad by presenting electronic music alongside contemporary classical and presented collaborations between the London Sinfonietta and Radiohead.
In addition, he developed the programme for African music and music from the Balkans through concert series and educational programmes.
In 2010, Glenn Max left the Southbank to work on the Wilderness Festival which was voted best New Festival at the UK Festival awards. He also took over as Creative Director of the Village Underground re-positioning that venue as an essential performing arts centre in East London establishing it as one of London's leading venues for presenting new music, art and ideas.
Glenn Max is a curator of the Wilderness Festival which won 'Best New Festival' at the UK Festival Awards.
In 2012 he took over management of the progressive chamber rock art ensemble, known as the Irrespressibles.
Elijah May
Friday March 7th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Over a 15 year career, I've become somewhat obsessed with the idea that creating a great experience is far and away the best form of marketing. Why can great customer service alone now make all other forms of PR and marketing unnecessary? Because we live in a technology-enhanced, hyper-interactive world that multiplies the effects of word of mouth marketing exponentially... and that's a pretty awesome thing.
Ryan McCarthy
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Ryan McCarthy is an intellectual property (IP) professional and a Principal in the Austin office of Fish & Richardson. Ryan's practice emphasizes IP strategy for entrepreneurs and emerging companies. Ryan counsels clients in matters such as early-stage IP strategy (in view of business goals and resources), co-founder agreements, and funding.
Adam McCrimmon
Saturday March 8th 9:30am – 10:30am
I lead Digital Strategy & UX at HY Connect. Where I work with companies of all sizes to make their web destinations and digital advertising more awesome.
Leah McDougald
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:00pm
As Director of the Design Research department, I lead the team that is responsible for championing a human-centered design process that both inspires and influences the design of future products and experiences. We deliver actionable insights to inform product strategy, marketing, and design decisions with a focus on experiential research and product innovation. My experience is based in gathering and translating findings to improve human and brand interaction on both emotional and functional levels.
Passions include public speaking and providing user insight to inform great design / brand messaging, or to fuel innovation.
I'm 100% extrovert and empathy and I absolutely love learning from people through conversation.
Deborah McIntosh
Tuesday March 11th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
WME Global agent Deborah McIntosh has helped structure the financing and arrange North American distribution for some of the most successful independent films of the past year. As part of her work in WME, she develops financing packages for production companies and secures theatrical distribution to international and domestic markets.
McIntosh recently closed financing for Damien Chazelle's "Whiplash," the feature adaptation of his Sundance-winning short. Jason Reitman ("Up In The Air"), Jason Blum ("The Purge") and Bold Films are all on board to produce. McIntosh also assisted with the financing of Nic Refn's' "Drive" , Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton's upcoming film "Life Itself", and Jeff Baena's directorial debut "Life After Beth" starring Dane Dehaan, Aubrey Plaza, and John C Reilly.
McIntosh was part of the team that sold "Beasts of the Southern Wild," which went on to earn four Academy Award nominations. McIntosh was also involved in the sale of "The Way, Way Back" from Oscar winners Jim Rash and Nat Faxon, one of the biggest sales in Sundance history. At the Toronto Film Festival this year, she was part of the team that sold Denis Villaneuve and Jake Gyllenhaal's independent feature "Enemy" to A24. She continues to represent and work closely with Alamo Drafthouse to develop their Drafthouse Films distribution arm.
Dan McKernan
Saturday March 8th 9:30am – 10:30am
Dan is a seasoned multimedia, marketing, advertising and creative director with several years of experience providing leadership, development and industry expertise to the organizations he has supported. As InspireHUB's Creative Director, the leader of the Creative team, Dan provides leadership for the development and management of the company's website, social media presence and proprietary technology systems.
Prior to joining InspireHUB, Dan served on the Board of Directors for Camp Fire, USA, proving children ages 3 – 18 with opportunities to learn and develop leadership skills through small groups interactions with peers and adults, exploring the natural world through outdoor programs. Dan also previously served as the Director of Digital Marketing and Advertising for UMeTime Corp., a startup company that utilized social media as the primary medium for customer engagement. Dan is also the Founder and Web Designer for McKernan Design, a marketing design company focused on the evolution of online marketing and integration with social media networks.
Davis McLarty
Wednesday March 12th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Davis McLarty is the President of Atomic Music Group.
Stacey McLeod
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Stacey McLeod is a Toronto-based journalist and the editor-in-chief of the award-winning interactive tablet app Travel + Escape Magazine. She has more than a decade of experience crafting multi-platform content and strategies for major media outlets and digital start-ups, and is a firm believer that travel content is best served on a tablet.
Kalli Meisler
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Kalli Meisler is the Founder of StartupChicksin NY, and the micro-crowd funding platform, MazelTov. As a Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Optimization Specialist, Kalli has launched over 7 iOS and Android apps into their respective markets. In 2012, Kalli was on the Marketing team for Gigwalk, the app named "Most Disruptive Tech Startup" by Forbes.
Bryan Menell
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
A finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award, Bryan has 20 years of experience founding and growing Exact Systems (1991), Perficient (NASDAQ: PRFT) (1997), and Fusion Learning Systems (2001).
He is active in Austin's technology scene, and is a co-founder and Mentor of Capital Factory, a seed stage mentoring program for technology companies. Bryan is the publisher of AustinStartup, which highlights emerging technology companies in Austin, and is an investor and advisor to a select group of companies.
Ashley Meyers
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Interested in how your social enterprise or non-profit can become more sustainable by partnering with companies and building a strong network of major donors who are advocates and advisors? Ashley Meyers helped build Code for America corporate partnerships and individual donor program, and can share expertise on philanthropic partnerships and creating sustainability for social innovation.
Ashley Meyers brings expertise in coalition building, policy, and community engagement to manage CfA's development efforts. She came to Code for America with a background in politics and government. After catching the campaign bug in Chicago on a U.S. Senate race, Ashley did a stint on the Hill, and has since worked in a variety of roles, most recently serving as the Finance Director on a Congressional campaign. In 2010 she was awarded a Coro Fellowship in Public Affairs and spent a year studying cross-sector public policy issues in Northern California, working with a number of government agencies and non-profits in the Bay Area. Ashley was a 2013 New Leaders Council Fellow and is a graduate of Northwestern University with degree in history and political science.
Tyler Middleton
Saturday March 15th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Tyler Middleton is an Attorney at Graffam Middleton.
RJ Millard
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:30pm
RJ Millard has worked in the entertainment industry for twenty years. He currently runs his own marketing, publicity and sales agency, Obscured Pictures, representing films and filmmakers including MITT (Greg Whiteley), AFTERNOON OF A FAUN: TANAQUIL LE CLERCQ (Nancy Buirski), THE SQUARE (Jehane Noujaim), MATEO (Aaron Naar) and HAPPINESS (Thomas Balmes). As a corporate consultant, he has worked for Netflix, New Line Cinema, Paramount Vantage, IFC, and Warner Indepenent and oversaw the self-distrubition team for Lee Daniel's debut, SHADOWBOXER.
He was recently VP of Publicity at Focus Features and previously served as the Senior Vice President, Marketing & Publicity for Samuel Goldwyn Films & Roadside Attractions. He was the Press Officer and national spokesperson for the Sundance Film Festival as well as the Marketing and Publicity Director for the Los Angeles Film Festival and has consulted on behalf of many other U.S. festivals.
Barbara Mitchell
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Armed only with a Sharpie and a sharp wit, Barbara Mitchell has survived more than 23 years (and even more job titles) in the ever-shifting sands of the music business. It's a journey that started in the publicity department of venerable indie labels in LA and quickly led to a career-expanding move to Seattle that incorporated independent PR for clients like Death Cab for Cutie and Rickie Lee Jones, the resuscitation and management of The Posies, and the creation of a short-lived label/launching pad for Mudhoney guitarist Steve Turner's incarnation as a skate-folk troubadour. A brief foray into Portland provided four years' worth of experience as a music writer, the opportunity to live part-time in Melbourne, and a renewed love affair with the Emerald City. She currently oversees public relations and special opportunities for One Reel/Bumbershoot.
Joan Myers
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Public Relations and marketing consultant for a bunch of years. Have been lucky to have been involved in the careers of many and still love what I do, most days.
Curran Nault
Sunday March 9th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Curran Nault is the Artistic Director and Board President of OUTsider, the first multi-arts LGBT festival in the United States. Previously he was the Artistic Director of Polari: The Austin Gay and Lesbian International Film Festival and the Director of Programming for the Austin Asian American Film Festival (AAAFF). In addition to his festival work, Curran is an academic with a PhD in Radio-Television-Film from the University of Texas at Austin (UT). His writings have been published in The NeoAmericanist, Jump Cut, Feminist Media Studies, In Media Res and the anthology Queer Love in Film and Television. Curran occasionally dabbles in film production and was the Associate Producer of PJ Raval's documentary Before You Know It (SXSW 2013 Premiere).
Steve Nice
Friday March 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Steve Nice is a Manager at Nice Management and Consulting.
Emilio Nicolas
Saturday March 8th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Emilio B. Nicolas is an attorney with the Austin, Texas office of Jackson Walker L.L.P. Mr. Nicolas represents and counsels a variety of domestic and international clients on matters involving entertainment, media, and intellectual property. His practice includes intellectual property and general commercial litigation, entertainment and media transactions, and intellectual property rights management. Mr. Nicolas has litigated civil claims in state and federal courts involving copyright, trademark, right of publicity, defamation, and restraint of trade. He has also handled inter-party and ex parte trademark proceedings before the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Nicolas received his B.S. in Business Administration (Finance and Marketing concentrations) from Trinity University, his M.S. in Media Management from Syracuse University, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Syracuse University College of Law. Mr. Nicolas has been named a "Rising Star" by Thomson Reuters and is a frequent author and speaker on such topics as copyright law, trademark law, and the right of publicity.
Alex Nohe
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Alex joined Circus Road in 2013 having worn every hat in the business.
In 2006, he launched Walking Shadows, a theatrical distributor and released over 40 independent films. Previously, Alex produced "Independent Focus", a talk show on the Independent Film Channel with film critic Elvis Mitchell. Alex also produced and directed "Burning Man – The Burning Sensation".
Alex is also the former Director of Programming of IFP/Los Angeles. He has written for "Filmmaker" and "Film Threat"; served as a Programmer at the AFI, Slamdance, and LA Independent Film Festivals; and was a Juror at the Seattle, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles Italian Film Festivals.
A native Kansan, he graduated from the University of Kansas with degrees in Film and Psychology. Alex grew up on Ohio Street in Lawrence, Kansas.
Shawn Nolan
Friday March 14th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Shawn Nolan is an attorney at the law firm of Jonathan E. Leonard, P.C. in Atlanta, GA. The firm handles the legal affairs of various Grammy award winning and platinum selling performers, musicians, writers, and producers in all facets of the entertainment industry as well as publishing companies, management companies, studios and record labels.
Shawn graduated from Georgia State University School of Law and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to law school Shawn was the VP of International Marketing and Distribution and Director of Film & TV licensing at Sub Pop Records in Seattle, WA where he worked with artists such as Iron & Wine, the Postal Service, the Shins, Mudhoney and Sleater Kinney among others. Prior to his employment at Sub Pop, Shawn was the Director of Film/TV Licensing at Mammoth Records and the personal manager for artists such as Archers of Loaf and Crooked Fingers.
Shawn was previously on the Board of Governors of the Pacific NW Chapter of the Grammy Association and is currently an active member of the Recording Academy Atlanta Chapter.
Clients performing at SxSW 2013 include Deep Sea Diver, Hundred Visions, METZ, Mount Moriah, the Soft Moon and Turbo Fruits.
David Nugent
Sunday March 9th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
David is the Artistic Director at the Hamptons International Film Festival.
Charlie O'Donnell
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Brooklyn based VC interested in NYC area startups, and awesome people anywhere.
Linda Olszewski
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Linda Olszewski is vice president at Shorts International.
Juliana Ortiz
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Proimágenes Colombia is a non for profit organization supported by the private and public sectors, dedicated to the development of the Colombian film industry,
Proimágenes administers the Film Development Fund, which supplies resources to the national film sector, and promotes Colombian cinema internationally.
Proimagenes acts also as the National Film Commission promoting the country as a location for making films and granting economic incentives that benefit international producers. Since february 2013, Proimagenes is managing the cash rebate offered in the country to film production
Rod Paddock
Monday March 10th 9:30am – 10:30am
Software engineer, cinephile, metal head, comic book aficionado, damn good dungeon-master, Rod Paddock could be considered a true blooded geek if there was such a classification. Born and raised in Southern California, Rod made his way to Austin with his beautiful wife and two amazing children in 2008. As owner of Dash Point Software, Inc. Rod has had the opportunity to write killer software, author numerous articles and books on the art of software development and has been a featured speaker at numerous conferences in the US and abroad. Rod is a co-founder of www.oneofus.net and is happy to work with three of the finest gentleman a microphone has ever met. Follow Rod on Twitter or visit his software company at www.dashpoint.com.
Dosin Pak
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Dosin Pak graduated from Columbia University in Chicago majoring in filmmaking. He started working for the Busan International Film Festival(BIFF) in 2001 as a foreign press coordinator. He also worked for another film festival in Korea, Jeonju International Film Festival in 2002. The same year, he came back to BIFF for Korean Cinema Coordinator. In 2005, he became a head manager of programming department for the festival. Two years later, he was in charge of one of the festival's section called MIDNIGHT PASSION specializing in genre or commercial films for the festival. Now, he is a programmer for North American regions and also in charge of Asian Film Academy (AFA), the educational program for new talents in Asia run by the festival.
Tim Palmer
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Tim Palmer started his career in London. He was soon engineering and by 21 he had his first real success mixing the number one single 'Died in your arms tonight' for Cutting Crew. In the latter half of the '80s, Palmer became a producer, and his keen ears and technical knowledge contributed to groups such as the Mighty Lemon Drops, the Mission and Gene Loves Jezebel. Next up Tim produced 'Now and Zen' for rock icon Robert Plant (Top 10 US album), David Bowie's debut LP with Tin Machine and to close the 80's Palmer mixed 'TEN' for Pearl Jam. The album sold over 14 million albums and earned a place in the top 50 best selling albums in US history. In the 90's Palmer started to focus more on mixing for diverse groups like Mother Love Bone, the Cure, and Concrete Blonde. Palmer was nominated for a Grammy for his mixing work on U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind album and in 2003 Tim produced and wrote with Ozzy Osbourne on his Platinum selling 'Down to Earth' More recently Tim has produced and mixed for Switchfoot, HIM and The Goo Goo Dolls. Since moving his studio to Austin, Texas in 2009 he has continued to be active producing and mixing for Jason Mraz, Blue October and Bob Schneider and The Polyphonic Spree. Tim has been moderator for 3 years at SXSW, and is a Governor of the Texas chapter of the Recording Academy.
Julie Parker Benello
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:30pm
JULIE PARKER BENELLO co- founded CHICKEN & EGG PICTURES with Judith Helfand and Wendy Ettinger in 2005 with a shared belief that powerful women storytellers can help build and sustain local and global movements for justice, equity, and health. Chicken & Egg Pictures matches strategically timed grants with dynamic mentorship and creative collaboration focused on story, craft, and community engagement. At Chicken & Egg Pictures, the team supported 2012 Academy Award winner Saving Face; 2008 Academy Award winner Freeheld; and Executive Produced 2012 Academy Award nominee The Barber Of Birmingham in addition to supporting Academy nominees -- The Square, The Invisible War, King's Point, and Sun Come Up. Additional recent films of note include After Tiller, Brooklyn Castle, Call me Kuchu, Garbage Dreams, Private Violence, Semper Fi: Always Faithful, Sepideh and Valentine Road.
Julie is currently one of the co-founders and managing directors of a recently launched equity fund – GAMECHANGER FILMS– whose mandate is to invest in a slate of films by narrative women directors. Gamechanger's first film Land Ho! by Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz just premiered at Sundance and worldwide rights were scooped up by Sony Pictures Classics. Julie also served as an Executive Producer of Jill Soloway's Sundance 2013 award winning debut feature film Afternoon Delight and Dee Rees Gotham Award winning, 2012 breakout success Pariah. She is Executive Producer of Leigh Janiak's directorial debut -- Honeymoon - premiering in the Midnighters section of SXSW 2014.
Earlier in her career, Julie co-produced the 2002 Sundance award-winning Emmy nominated, HBO documentary Blue Vinyl. Prior to Blue Vinyl, Julie was a Production Executive for the distribution company Non Fiction Films and a researcher for Walter Cronkite's production company. She cares passionately about creating access and investment opportunities so that more women are in the director's chair.
Sabrina Parsons
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Sabrina Parsons is CEO of Palo Alto Software, developer of the best-selling business management software, LivePlan. Palo Alto Software develops software and tools specifically targeted for entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Sabrina assumed the CEO role in May 2007 and is responsible for Palo Alto's business planning, fiscal and strategic goals and all of the company's traditional marketing.
Sabrina began her professional career with the marketing team at EnCommerce. In 1997, she became Director of Online Marketing at CommTouch Ltd. an email services company, and left in 1999 to help start Epinions.com. Epinons.com was bought by Shopping.com and later by eBay, becoming an eBay property.
In 2000, Sabrina founded Lighting Out Inc., an internet consulting company. While at Lighting Out, Sabrina focused on improving conversion rates online for clients, achieving, in some cases over 100% conversion rate improvements.
In 2001, she moved to London, continued consulting with Lighting Out, and also founded a software distribution company. She eventually sold the company to Palo Alto Software and joined headquarters in Eugene, Or as the head of Marketing and Communications.
Sabrina, as a mother of 3 boys 7 and under, is the author of a blog about the challenges and rewards of being a "Mommy CEO" on ForbesWomen.
She is a staunch supporter of entrepreneurs, and supports entrepreneurial organizations. She is President of the Princeton Entrepreneurs' Network (www.princetonen.org). Sabrina has chaired the Willamette Angel Conference twice. (http://www.willametteconference.com/).
Sabrina believes in community involvement and is helping and volunteering in different organizations in Eugene, OR to help further economic development and public education in the community:
She sits on the Board of Directors for the Eugene Chamber of Commerce (http://www.eugenechamber.com/contact/leadership.aspx), on the Board of Directors for Whole Earth Nature School (http://wholeearthnatureschool.com/), and has been nominated by the School Board to join the budget committee for the 4J School District starting in January 2012. She is also the technology adviser for the Fox Hollow Charlemagne Elementary School PTO.
She is a graduate of Princeton University.
Pamela Pavliscak
Saturday March 8th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Pamela (Pav-li-check) is founder of Change Sciences, a user experience research and strategy firm for Fortune 500s, startups, and other smart companies. Over the past 15 years, she's logged thousands of hours in the field trying to better understand how people use technology and run hundreds of UX studies on almost every type of site you could imagine.
Right now she focuses on combining qualitative and quantitative data, running experiments, and using data to intelligently inform design. Many of her clients are in CX, competitive intelligence, global marketing, and business strategy.
Pamela speaks about data of all shapes and sizes and user experience strategy at conferences like IASummit, Blend, UXSTRAT,and Conversion Conference and @paminthelab.
Mark Peranson
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Head of Programming, Festival del Film Locarno. Editor and Publisher, Cinema Scope magazine. Director, La última película.
Mike Phillips
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Mike works at an advertising agency by day and writes a popular indie marketing website by night. He has helped to launch two Call of Duty brands in the UK and currently is responsible for the digital communications strategy for brands such as Durex and Lynx (AXE). He also works with indie game developers on a freelance basis providing marketing advice and consultancy.
Kevin Planovsky
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Kevin is Co-founder and Principal of Account Strategy of Vert, an award-winning digital agency focused on mobile + social headquartered in Atlanta. After several years in both the tech startup (Zipcar) and digital agency (Nurun) worlds - Kevin helped launch Vert in late 2008. Over the last 4 years the agency has grown to dozens of full-time strategists, developers, media planners, and designers building cutting-edge digital media experiences for brands like InterContinental Hotels Group, The Weather Channel, Coventry Healthcare (Aetna), SunTrust, and Quikrete.
Taya Pocock
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:00pm
Taya Pocock, Director of Business Development and Co-Owner of Panomatics USA, has a diverse background in marketing, new media, photography, sales and international relations.
Her expertise is based on identifying the challenges businesses are experiencing throughout their Internet marketing and providing them with visual and interactive solutions to attract greater online exposure and increase sales.
As Director of Business Development and co-owner of Panomatics USA, Taya oversees the Panomatics USA sales team with sales reps in San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York.
Prior to launching Panomatics USA in 2008, Taya spent five years working as a freelance marketing and promotions consultant for high-profile international companies/brands in both Munich, Germay as well as New York City.
Scott Porad
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
All about Scott at http://scottporad.com/about
Charles Prince
Saturday March 8th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Charlie founded the fan club for the band Korn in high school and went on to work at Epic Records and later Sony Music as the college marketing representative for Washington DC, MD and DE throughout college. After making a series of awful black and white films at NYU's basic filmmaking class in 2000, he went to NYU School of Law, where he launched CinemaStrikesBack.com, a website for film news and reviews. After law school, he worked at Outlaw Productions in Hollywood, and then in the mergers and acquisitions group at Skadden in NYC from 2003 to 2006, during which time he also produced a feature length documentary about underground poker clubs in NYC. Charlie joined the film and television group at Grubman Shire & Meiselas in 2007. He is on the film committee at MoMA, the new wave film committee at Lincoln Center, and is on the board of directors at DCTV and the Friars Club. In 2009 he was certified as a film festival professional by the international film festival summit. He proudly watches over 500 movies a year and is delighted to be returning for the legal mentors session at SXSW!
Paolo Privitera
Monday March 10th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Paolo Privitera, CEO and founder of Pick1 "Know Your Customers"
Polyhedric Human Network Router & Serendipity Innovator believing in Exponential Growth - part of Start-up Chile and 500 Startups
20 years in technology, 6 startups, 10+ awards, 1st company at 16 years old.
"Ahead of Number One" Paolo is a young technology entrepreneur and visionary, specializing in structuring progressive business models that capture the moment and stay on top of the future.
Heather Rae
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Heather Rae is a producer, most recently on the film 'I Believe in Unicorns' which is premiering at SXSW 2014.
PJ Raval
Monday March 10th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Named one of Out Magazine's "Out 100 2010" and Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film 2006," PJ Raval is an award-winning filmmaker whose credits include TRINIDAD (Winner Best Documentary Cleveland International Film Festival 2009, Showtime, LOGO), the highly charged & not-safe-for-work CHRISTEENE video collection (praised by the Hollywood Reporter as "...something you wish you could desperately un-see."), and BEFORE YOU KNOW IT his latest documentary following the lives of three gay senior men as they face the challenges of life and love in their "golden years" (SXSW 2013, Winner Best Documentary Dallas Asian Film Festival). Slant Magazine hailed BEFORE YOU KNOW IT as an "…exemplary example of a documentary that successfully puts human faces on wider issues, eschewing polemics in favor of the personal." indieWIRE described the film as "…a crucial new addition to the LGBT doc canon."
Also an award-winning cinematographer, Raval's work has earned him awards such as the ASC Charles B. Lang Jr. Heritage Award as well as the Haskell Wexler Award for Best Cinematography. Raval's work includes the 2009 Academy Award-nominated & Sundance Grand Jury Award winner TROUBLE THE WATER as well as the Independent Spirit Award-nominated ROOM. He recently completed the highly anticipated feature THE BOUNCEBACK directed by Bryan Poyser (SXSW 2013) as well as PRIMATE CINEMA: APES AS FAMILY the first film created for a chimpanzee audience (Sundance 2013, Berlinale).
In his spare time Raval likes to try and take small naps and pretend he knows ballet.
David Reilly
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
David Reilly has been a programmer at BAMcinématek since 2011, curating series such as "Booed at Cannes," "Of Freaks and Men: The Films of Aleksei Balabanov," and "Kino Polska: New Polish Cinema." He also co-curates and oversees the annual BAMcinématek festivals New Voices in Black Cinema and Puppets on Film. He was previously the Project Coordinator for BAM's President's Office, and prior to that worked for Gartenberg Media Enterprises. He is a graduate of NYU's Cinema Studies Department.
Greg Rhem
Sunday March 9th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Greg Rhem is Director of Documentary Programming for Home Box Office. For the past nineteen years, he's been involved in discovering new and distinctive documentary programming for HBO Documentary Films. Some of his finds have been: the Oscar®-winning "Freeheld," "Born Into Brothels," "Thoth," and "Breathing Lesson: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien"; and Oscar®-nominated "Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall," "Mondays at Racine," "The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner" and "Spellbound."
Mr. Rhem holds a M.A. in Media Studies from the New School University, and a B.A. degree in English and Film Studies from the University of Rochester.
Zach Richardson
Monday March 10th 9:30am – 10:30am
Zach Richardson is the CTO of the Daily Dot, the hometown newspaper of the World Wide Web. As CTO, Zach has lead development and design for the online publication, focusing on better contextual integration of editorial content and mobile compatibility. Before joining The Daily Dot, Zach was co-founded Ravel, the Austin-based big data startup. He also served 5 years in the US Navy
Rene Ridinger
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Rene is Vice President of Entertainment at MPRM Communications
John Roa
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
John is a life-long digital entrepreneur and international thought-leader in User Experience and Human-Centered Design. After successfully exiting from a founding role in a LA-based video game marketing firm at the end of 2006, he came to Chicago to start ÄKTA. John is an active angel investor in the Chicago start-up community, and was recently recognized as one of Crain's 40 Under 40. He founded and runs Digital Hope, a not-for-profit charitable organization that uses the power of crowd-funding via social media to support underfunded international NGOs. You can find him on the speaking circuit (including TEDx) promoting the art and science of User Experience. Outside of work, he is an avid world traveler (aiming for 50 countries & all 7 continents before age 30), beach volleyball junkie, and photographer.
John Robert Reed
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
John Robert Reed is a PR and marketing consultant at Jones-Dilworth, Inc., a boutique consulting firm focused on bringing early-stage technologies to market. As a member of the founding team, Reed has worked on a wide cross-section of startups such as MY ASICS, Siri, Livefyre, Outbox, Aviate, Spanning, Austin City Limits, Roku, Cerego, and many more. He brings experience in naming and branding, messaging and positioning, media and analyst relations, fund raising, event planning, and growth strategy. Reed has also served as a product manager at Totem, the press page company, and held several marketing positions in music and technology, including stints with SXSW and the South Padre Music Festival. His experience building and marketing products lends him a unique perspective on what it takes to make startups succeed.
Michael Robin Manning
Friday March 7th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
On Sundays you'll find me playing Super Mario or in the kitchen baking something sweet. During the week, I play the role of supermom, marketing director & wife.
Celina Rollon
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Rollon Entertainment is a dynamic, new age, entertainment company providing Marketing / Management Consultancy & Record Label Services. As a former Marketing Manager for Sony Music and 18 years music industry experience, Celina Rollon has coordinated & managed the releases of multi-platinum albums from international super stars such as Beyonce, Destiny's Child, John Legend, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez & many more.
Linda Rose
Thursday March 13th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
U.S. Immigration Attorney Mentor. This is a special mentor session focusing on international musicians and industry professionals seeking advice on U.S Immigration options. Only sign up for one consultation during this specific session, please.
Linda Rose is a noted immigration attorney based in Nashville, TN. She is consistently cited as one of Tennessee's top attorneys and is listed in U.S. News and World Report among the best attorneys. She is also a musician. She plays vibraphone and the African xylophone and leads the jazz ensemble RoseOnVibes Quintet.
Brian Rosenblatt
Thursday March 13th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Brian Rosenblatt is a partner at SmithAmundsen, LLC.
Josh Rosenfeld
Wednesday March 12th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Josh Rosenfeld is the President of Barsuk Records.
Jeff Ross
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Founder/Director of SF IndieFest which this year will present the 16th San Francisco Independent Film Festival, the 13th San Francisco Documentary Festival and the 11th Another Hole in the Head Genre Film Fest plus live plays, live music, art shows and general merriment for the benefit of San Francisco Bay Area fans of art/music/film/fun.
George Rush
Saturday March 8th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
George is an Attorney at the Law Offices of George Rush.
Stephen Saito
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Stephen is a Writer/Editor at MovableFest.com
Alexandra Saks
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Alex graduated from Wake Forest University and joined ICM Partners in 2012 as a coordinator in the international and independent film department and was promoted in 2013 to agent. Prior to ICM Partners, Alex worked at the independent film company, Automatik, where she worked under Brian Kavanaugh-Jones on twelve projects including: INSIDIOUS, TAKE SHELTER, DARK SKIES, WELCOME TO THE PUNCH, SAFE, DEAD MAN DOWN, SINISTER BULLET TO THE HEAD and A HAUNTED HOUSE, among others. She started her career working for producer, Mark Gordon on SOURCE CODE and THE DETAILS, along with CRIMINAL MINDS, CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR, GREYS ANATOMY, ARMY WIVES, PRIVATE PRACTICE and the development of RAY DONOVAN.
Alexandra Saks
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Alex graduated from Wake Forest University and joined ICM Partners in 2012 as a coordinator in the international and independent film department and was promoted in 2013 to agent. Prior to ICM Partners, Alex worked at the independent film company, Automatik, where she worked under Brian Kavanaugh-Jones on twelve projects including: INSIDIOUS, TAKE SHELTER, DARK SKIES, WELCOME TO THE PUNCH, SAFE, DEAD MAN DOWN, SINISTER BULLET TO THE HEAD and A HAUNTED HOUSE, among others. She started her career working for producer, Mark Gordon on SOURCE CODE and THE DETAILS, along with CRIMINAL MINDS, CRIMINAL MINDS: SUSPECT BEHAVIOR, GREY'S ANATOMY, ARMY WIVES, PRIVATE PRACTICE and the development of RAY DONOVAN.
Michael Saleman
Saturday March 8th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Michael Norman Saleman is a Martindale-Hubbell AV rated attorney at law admitted to practice in the States of California and Texas, Federal Courts of the United States and the United States Tax Court. He is a graduate of UCLA and Whittier College School of Law. He was admitted to practice law in California in 1980 and in Texas in 1994.
Mr. Saleman has three offices: one in Los Angeles, California, one in Austin, Texas and another in Dallas, Texas.
Mr. Saleman's practice maintains a special emphasis on the representation of producers and production companies of independent films and reality television. In the course of such representation, he handles the creation of production companies, prepares financing documents, handles production/legal contracts and distribution negotiation and agreements.
Now in his 34th year of practice, he has represented independent filmmakers, television producers, writers, former studio heads of network programming, directors, actors and other members of the entertainment industry. He has been involved in negotiation and transactions, as well as litigation, involving films and television programs that have been distributed on a worldwide basis. He has prepared offerings, L.L.C.s and other financing vehicles for independent film projects.
Some films that he has worked on over the years include "Tilt" (Brooke Shields first film), "Das Boot", "All the Pretty Horses", "Dancer, Texas Pop.81", "Going Overboard" (Adam Sandler's first feature film as a lead) and many others. Some television series and programs he has worked on include "Shipping Wars", "My 600lb Life", "Texas Car Wars", "Quints By Surprise", "Heavy" and many other. His website, www.movielaw.net has been acclaimed as a valuable tool for independent film producers seeking legal information in connection with their films.
He has lectured at film festivals, such as SXSW and in continuing education seminars for other entertainment attorneys. He has also lectured at the University of Texas at Austin, UCLA, Loyola Law School, Whittier College School of Law, University of Montana, Rice University, Chapman College Film School and other institutions. He acts as advisor to the Texas Film Commission, sits on the board of the Film Texas Fund and was one of the drafters of the Texas Film Development Act.
Dan Satorius
Saturday March 8th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Dan Satorius' firm is Satorius Law Firm, PC. He has represented clients in independent film and TV for over 25 years. His clients include Academy Award, Emmy Award, Independent Spirit, SXSW, and Sundance award winners. He frequently writes and speaks about entertainment law, was an adjunct professor of law, and is the Motion Picture and Television Vice-Chair of the ABA's Forum on the Entertainment Industry. Dan is on the Super Lawyers® list in the area of Intellectual Property/Entertainment. He is rated by American Lawyer as a 'Top Rated Lawyer in Intellectual Property' in 2013 and received the AV Preeminent® peer review rating from Martindale-Hubbell.
Dan has a Masters of Arts in Film and is a producer of award-winning films which gives him a unique ability to help his clients and their projects. In 2011 he released TWELVE THIRTY, a feature film he produced and Jeff Lipsky wrote and directed. He is currently in development with a fictional feature and several documentary features.
Dan is the President and Chair of the Minnesota Film & TV Board, the film commission for the State of Minnesota.
His practice focuses on transactions, intellectual property, and financing principally in the entertainment business. You can find out more about his practice at our website: www.SatoriusLawFirm.com and at IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2655735/.
Ben Satterfield
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Ben is VP of marketing and brand of Burstly and co-founder of TestFlight, the leading over-the-air distribution platform for iOS app developers and testers. With over seven years of executive and start-up experience in the technology industry, Ben has demonstrated tremendous success with his diverse portfolio of high-growth and profitable organizations. He began his entrepreneurial career by founding Rootdown, a comprehensive online resource and forum for aspiring traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. Its growing success led to the creation of other businesses, including Gigotron and Twiddla—platforms recognized for their innovative and technological capabilities as mobile applications and online tools. Ben has earned multiple awards and widespread praise for his mobile apps and developmental abilities, including the Best Mobile Application Award at 2009 SXSWi for Gigotron and Technical Achievement Award for Twiddla at 2008 SXSWi.
Nancy Schafer
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Nancy Schafer is currently a consultant who works in independent film. Until July 2012 she was Executive Director of Tribeca Film Festival (TFF) and Executive Vice President of Tribeca Enterprises (TE). In her current role as consultant Schafer continues to work with Tribeca as well as other filmmakers and film organizations.
Nancy Schafer was the Executive Director of the Tribeca Film Festival and an Executive Vice President of Tribeca Enterprises. Schafer became co-executive director of the Festival in 2007 and executive director in 2008. She joined the festival staff for the first Festival in 2002 as a programmer and has held positions as programmer and managing director. As Executive Vice President, Schafer lead the artistic curation and business development for Tribeca's business expansion, specifically with Tribeca Film, the distribution label which launched in 2010. As Executive Director, she oversaw all budgeting and operations for the Festival as well as working closely with the sponsorship team to raise funding. She has lead programming for the Festival since 2007, sharing the responsibilities with Geoff Gilmore and Frederic Boyer this past year. She also worked on Tribeca's year round events and was involved in the launch of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival.
Prior to joining Tribeca, she created and ran the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXSW Film) in Austin, Texas for eight years. Along with her festival experience, Schafer has worked on several films including two from director John Sayles (Sunshine State, Limbo); two from director Robert Byington (Olympia, Shameless) and began her film production career on The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Schafer currently resides in Manhattan.
Schafer is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
Mara Schwartz
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Mara Schwartz is the President of Superior Music Publishing.
Weiman Seid
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Weiman Seid is the founder and Principal of FAT DOT, the New York-based consultancy firm founded in 2004. FAT DOT offers marketing and publicity strategy consultation for clients that include corporations, films, festivals and individuals. His clients include actor Sissy Spacek, writer/director Todd Field and a number of films, documentaries and entertainment related organizations, including "The Squid and The Whale", "Little Children", "Proof", and the Academy Award-winning "An Inconvenient Truth".
Weiman started FAT DOT following 11 years at Miramax Films, where he rose to Senior Vice President and worked on more than 150 features as well as numerous Academy Award campaigns from "In The Bedroom", "City of God", and "The Station Agent" to Dimension Films hits "Scary Movie" and "Scream 3".
Leah Selvidge
Saturday March 15th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Founded in 1997 out of sheer love and a lifelong enthusiasm for music (oh, and the desire to no longer work for the man), Other Worldly Contact Marketing & Public Relations continues to offer clients imaginative, thorough marketing and public relations consulting services. With a wide range of knowledge and expertise in marketing, public relations, and promotions, Other Worldly Contact has represented an even broader range of clients including musicians, bands, artists, and technology and consumer/retail products.
We've recently expanded to include Management and Tour Consulting for musicians.
Eric Seufert
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Eric Seufert is a quantitative marketer with a passion for blending real-world problems with large amounts of data, econometric frameworks, and analytical systems. His professional specialty lies in programmatic statistical methods and predictive forecasting for freemium products.
Eric received an undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA in Economics from University College London, where he was an Erasmus Mundus scholar. Eric joined Skype immediately out of graduate school and subsequently held marketing and strategy roles at Digital Chocolate and Wooga, where he is now the Head of Marketing.
Originally from Texas, Eric currently lives in Berlin. In his spare time, Eric enjoys traveling and writing.
Courtney Sexton
Sunday March 9th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Courtney is Senior Director of Development & Acquisitions at CNN Films.
Jason Shah
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Jason Shah is an Entrepreneur in Residence at Sherpa Foundry.
He previously was a Product Manager at Yammer, where he focused on building out new features for the leading enterprise social network which was acquired by Microsoft in 2012. Prior to Yammer, Jason founded INeedAPencil.com, which provides free online education tools to students from low-income families. After growing INeedAPencil.com to more than 50,000 students with an average score increase of 202 points, Jason sold INeedAPencil.com to CK12 in 2011.
Jason holds an AB with honors from Harvard College with degrees in sociology and computer science. He blogs regularly at blog.jasonshah.org and tweets shorter thoughts @jasonyogeshshah.
Mahmood Shaikh
Thursday March 13th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Mahmood Shaikh is an Agent at Flowerbooking Inc.
Kerrin Sheldon
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Kerrin Sheldon is an entrepreneur, filmmaker, and cofounder of the short documentary series and iPad app Humanity.TV, as well as the media agency Xeno Productions.
A self-taught filmmaker, Kerrin, along with his cofounder, launched HumanityTV by traveling through Asia for eight months and filming more than 30 short documentaries on fascinating locals. HumanityTV is now set to launch a first-of-its kind travel documentary iPad app this spring. Sheldon is also the cofounder of Xeno Productions, a video and media agency whose clients include Marriott, Budweiser, Nascar, Facebook, Renaissance Hotels, and more.
Sheldon's video and written work has been featured on The New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Fast Company, and Huffington Post.
When he isn't traveling the world shooting short documentaries for HumanityTV or clients, Sheldon can be found scuba diving, running marathons, hiking in West Virginia, or hanging out with his filmmaking wife, Elaine.
Trey Shelton
Sunday March 9th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Trey Shelton, Head of Sales at F#, runs the company's global sales organization. He has more than 15 years of experience in the music industry, including artist management and digital music advertising.Trey joined F# through the acquisition of Music Interactive, the company he founded and operated as the CEO. While with Music Interactive, he solidified relationships with leaders in digital music, including Pandora, Vevo and Shazam, and launched hundreds of campaigns with leading national brands.
Prior to Music Interactive, he co-founded TSM Entertainment, a music management company, which held a roster of four solo artists and three producers who have worked with Madonna, Destiny's Child, Blur, No Doubt, and Mario. Trey began his musical career as a marketing rep for Sony Music Nashville and music coordinating for Miramax films. Trey graduated Vanderbilt University with a B.A. in Communications.
Stephanie Shim
Wednesday March 12th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Stephanie Shim is Head of Digital at Glassnote Records.
Gerilyn Shur
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Gerilyn Shur has worked on publicity campaigns for film and theater throughout the past decade.
She currently handles and oversees national publicity for film, filmmakers and festival films at Brigade. Brigade has handled campaigns for films such as "Martha Marcy May Marlene," "Tiny Furniture," "Compliance," and "Sleepwalk With Me."
Gerilyn's notable film campaigns include "Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me," "Your Sister's Sister," "Jiro Dreams Of Sushi, " "Paul Williams Still Alive," "A Teacher, " "Trouble The Water," "Humpday" among others. She also handles publicity for filmmakers including Mark Duplass and Lynn Shelton.
Gerilyn worked previously at Barlow Hartman Public Relations (Broadway PR), The Weinstein Company and 42West Public Relations.
Gerilyn holds a Bachelor of Science in Theater Arts Management from Ithaca College.
Andy Signore
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Andy Signore is the VP of Original Programming at Defy Media, a leading digital media company formed by the 2013 merger of Alloy Digital and Break Media, programming their family of channels which include ScreenJunkies, SMOSH, AWEme and Break.com. He is the creator and director of many of the company's hit shows including "Honest Trailers","The ScreenJunkies Show", "Speakeasy with Paul F. Tompkins", and "Man at Arms" on the new AWEme channel which has amassed more than 1 million subscribers in less than a year.
An expert in developing branded entertainment, celebrity shorts and pop culture commentary, Andy has mastered viral strategy, tallying more than 350 million views of original content for which he continues to direct, produce, write and edit.
Prior to joining Defy Media, Signore worked as a producer with Disney Internet Media Group, as a member of the Original Content Development team for Disney.com, and as the Director of Digital Content & Distribution with The Collective.
Andy's work has garnered numerous accolades, including LA Weekly's "Best Online Video" Award 2009 and "Best Spoof" at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards for the viral video "United 300."
Andy graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Cinema from Columbia College.
Linda Simenksy
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
As Vice President of Children's Programming at PBS, Linda Simensky collaborates with producers, co-production partners, PBS station programmers, and distributors throughout the development, production, post-production, and broadcast phases for PBS KIDS programming. She also works closely with PBS KIDS' Digital team to build a cross-platform media experience for kids across all PBS KIDS media properties. Her efforts in transforming PBS KIDS' lineup for preschool- and school-age children over the past several years have brought PBS to the forefront of the children's media space. Since joining PBS in 2003, Linda has worked with renowned producers to develop hit shows that now reach 82% of all kids ages 2-8 in the U.S. – from CURIOUS GEORGE and THE CAT IN THE HAT KNOWS A LOT ABOUT THAT, to WILD KRATTS and WORDGIRL. She also helped bring PBS KIDS' newest series to fruition: DANIEL TIGER'S NEIGHBORHOOD and is currently working on a new multimedia PBS KIDS preschool series, PEG + CAT.
James Sinclair
Monday March 10th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Hi. I am a mix of technology, growth hacker, business acceleration and generally shiny truck and new gadgets syndrome. All combined with a love of business incubation and angel funding. A Smörgåsbord of experience and expertise in creating, developing and bringing brands to market and revitalizing those that need a little refresh.
With a background in high tech with a number of moderate exits, a current portfolio of tech incubator clients, I have defined a niche to assist companies in business growth, market acceleration and operations management across multiple verticals and a keen focus on consumer acquisition, retention and monetization. A specialty in designing business relationships that accelerate growth.
A strong mix of companies with unique and challenging problems that need to be solved all the way from product to market. My current area of interest and passion is in the social enterprise and discovery space trying to find out how people and companies can accelerate goals and make their lives more efficient.
//Guest Editor Wall St Journal
Ginger Sledge
Tuesday March 11th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
GINGER SLEDGE (Producer) has produced projects during a feature film career spanning from mid-1980's to present day. She has worked on both studio and independently financed films.
Some of Ms. Sledge's extensive feature credits include "Dark Places," "Parkland, "Bernie," "Appaloosa," "Mickey Blue Eyes," "The Only Thrill," "Little Boy Blue" and Richard Linklater's "Suburbia," "Waiting for Guffman." "The Great Buck Howard," "Lords of Dogtown," "Sideways" and "Miss Congeniality."
Additionally, Sledge's film career started in New York as a location manager on features such as "A Bronx Tale," directed by Robert De Niro; Rob Reiner's "North"; "Night and the City," directed by Irwin Winkler, and Ivan Reitman's "Ghostbusters 2.
George Smith
Saturday March 8th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
I believe that the digital revolution is as powerful a change on society as the Industrial revolution, or Agricultural revolution.
I have spent my life working in digital agencies, then in my spare time I read political philosophy and am a local politician. I sincerely believe the these two areas have much to teach each other.
Russ Somers
Friday March 7th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Russ leads Invodo's marketing team, managing product marketing and lead generation as well as driving the company's marketing communications, social media and PR initiatives.
Russ brings industry experience from a number of Internet and technology companies to Invodo. He helped develop SolarWinds' product marketing function prior to their IPO. At Hoover's Russ led product and subscription marketing. He doubled the rate of new customer acquisition with targeted product offerings and integrated Hoover's early entry into social media into the company's PR and marketing communications strategy. Earlier roles included brand management, pricing and analytics roles at Dell and Sabre Holdings.
Zachary Soreff
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Zachary is VP & Creative Director of Sawyer Studios.
Rebecca Sosa
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Rebecca oversees VOD, DVD and ancillary opportunities for A24, the studio that released Harmony Korine's SPRING BREAKERS, Sofia Coppola's THE BLING RING and James Ponsoldt's THE SPECTACULAR NOW. Prior to her at A24, Rebecca worked as the Programming Manager at FilmBuff, devising digital release strategies for films and crafting the best approach to maximize exposure and revenue to platforms around the world. She has also held various roles at WE tv, City Lights Pictures, Focus Features, ABC News 20/20 and Seventeen Magazine. Rebecca is originally from the great state of Texas and now resides in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
Carl Spence
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Carl is Artistic & Co-Director of Seattle Film Festival and Palm Springs Film Festival.
Jenni Sperandeo
Wednesday March 12th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Dangerbird Records & Publishing President, 20+ years radio promotion, artist development & management.
Mark Spier
Saturday March 15th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Mark Spier is the third generation President of Memory Lane Music Group. Mark brings with him a unique mix of skills and expertise, having worked in music publishing, technology, and finance.
Since taking leadership of the business in 2003, Memory Lane's catalog has more than doubled with additions of new music, including pop standards and contemporary hits. In his time at the company, Mark has overseen MLMG's songs covered and sampled by a staggering number of the industry's elite. And under his watch, Memory Lane has been added to the NMPA's "Top 100" music publishers list.
In addition to serving as President of MLMG, and its subsidiaries, Scion Music, and Larry Spier Music, Mark is also president of Royalty Solution's Corp, which he founded in 2009, to provide comprehensive and accurate royalty processing and accounting to record labels and music publishers.
Mark graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science, and received an MBA from Columbia University. He went on to work for IBM and then become a VP at Credit Suisse before beginning his tenure at Memory Lane. Mark lives on Long Island with his wife Lori. They spend most of their spare time shuttling their two boys, Matthew and Ben, between various sports practices.
Stacy Spikes
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Stacy is the CEO/Co-Founder of MoviePass, the nation's premier movie theater subscription service. Stacy is also the Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Urbanworld® Film Festival, the largest competitive festival of its kind, which he started in 1997. Stacy has more than a decade of additional experience in the entertainment industry including several senior marketing roles at Miramax, Sony Music, Motown Records and October Film. Stacy is currently based in Greenwich Village, NY with his wife and daughter.
Sherrilynne Starkie
Monday March 10th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
For almost 20 years, Sherrilynne has been providing communications consulting and services to blue-chip organizations in Britain, Canada and the United States. She focuses on helping clients leverage digital and social media to achieve organizational objectives.
Michael Starr
Wednesday March 12th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Michael Starr is the Senior Director of National Promotion for GLASSNOTE RECORDS, and is lucky enough to be based here in Austin.
GLASSNOTE RECORDS is the home of MUMFORD & SONS, PHOENIX, TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB, CHVRCHES, CHILDISH GAMBINO, LITTLE GREEN CARS, ROBERT DELONG, OBERHOFER, HALF MOON RUN, FLIGHT FACILITIES and more. The label is based in NY, and is led by Daniel Glass.
Michael has over 20 years of music experience. In the 90s, he ran a record store, and came up through the distribution ranks at WEA, EMD, and BMG. In the 2000's, he did promotion for Wind-up Records where he played an integral part in the success of bands like Seether, Evanescence, Drowning Pool, Finger Eleven and others.
Now in his 3rd year at Glassnote, he focuses on developing all their artists' airplay across the country.
Eric Stein
Sunday March 9th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Eric B. Stein is a leading industry professional in the new media distribution space, with over 14 years of proven success in licensing, programming, business development and strategy from both sides of the negotiation table. He has a broad, deep and relevant knowledge of new media distribution opportunities in the film, television, gaming and music space. Throughout his career Eric has worked with established content producers and distributors, playing an integral role in the transformation from traditional content distribution into the vast avenues of the new technology platforms.
Eric is currently at Warner Bros. as the Director of Programming and Acquisitions for Digital Distribution, responsible for the development of programming strategies for the ongoing management of WB owned content as well as the worldwide Third Party Acquisitions for VOD, EST, Wireless and Online Businesses. In his previous role at Warner Bros., Eric was responsible for business development, broadband client management and the licensing of digital rights for film, TV and most recently PC games In this role, Eric was instrumental in the initial development and contract negotiations of the emerging Manufacturing On Demand (MOD) and PC Downloadable Games businesses.
Prior to Warner Bros., Eric worked for Hewlett Packard in Digital Entertainment Services where he oversaw their content licensing strategy (research, negotiation, etc.) and business development for the Video Merchant Services project, which enabled traditional brick-and-mortar retailers to enter into New Media distribution by utilizing private label online stores and selling new media products to consumers online. Eric has been a consultant for numerous companies in New Media Distribution regarding licensing, business development and strategy.
Eric was an original founder of CinemaNow where he oversaw and developed all aspects of programming and content acquisition including the research and negotiation of libraries for the leading international online Video-On-Demand distribution service.
Eric has been a lecturer at USC and UCLA on the topics of Cinema, Entertainment Studies, and Performing Arts as well as guest speaker to the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA) New Technology Opportunities Committee. Eric is a Member of Coleman Research Group's Elite Executive Forum on Entertainment Industry and New Media to aid institutional investors.
Eric is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh where he received his BA in Film Studies and attended the University of London/Imperial College, London, UK.
Jon-Eric Steinbomer
Monday March 10th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Jon-Eric brings over 14 years of experience in the fields of user experience research, usability testing, and interaction design. He's worked both as a senior level consultant and an in-house member of UX design teams. In addition to serving as a principal at Progress, Jon-Eric participates actively in each project – often personally moderating sessions and delivering findings.
Drawing on his academic background in Psychology and Experimental Research Methods, Jon-Eric continually seeks to innovate in research technologies and methodologies. He has recently served as a guest lecturer at the University of Texas at Austin and has delivered talks at Austin-area Lean UX, UXPA and Agile UX special interest groups.
Mark Stephen Meadows
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Author, entrepreneur, artist, and inventor. Nearly two decades' experience with natural language analysis & processing, character design, animation, interactive narrative, and games. Books, public lectures, and patents address Avatars, Robots, Games, Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Narrative. Errant illustrator, feral adventurer, baffled father, content husband, and licensed USCG captain.
Michele Stewart
Tuesday March 11th 9:30am – 10:30am
Michele's experience varies from prosecuting domestic, PCT and foreign patent applications for Fortune 500 companies, to advising startups on a wide range of intellectual property issues, to prosecuting U.S. national stage applications for leading global companies in the medical data and identification security technologies. Michele graduated from the University of Houston Law Center where she was a Dean's Scholar, and the University of Texas with a degree in Civil Engineering where she was a National Merit Scholar and a member of the Engineering Honors Council.
Kristy Stromberg
Saturday March 8th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
A 20-year technology marketing veteran with deep experience in global brand development, product strategy and customer acquisition for consumer and business audiences, Kristy leads all aspects of Simply Hired's marketing strategy and execution. Prior to Simply Hired, Kristy served as Director of Marketing for Intuit, playing a variety of leadership roles including driving transformation in digital marketing across the organization, excellence in product marketing, and brand management for small business and consumer business units. Kristy has also served in marketing leadership positions at Yahoo! and Compaq (acquired by HP in 2001), and began her career at Booz Allen & Hamilton. She holds an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business
Mariano Suarez-Battan
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:00pm
CEO @ Mural.ly. "Google Docs for Visual People" to let design teams collect content, think visually, imagine solutions and show their ideas in these whiteboards on steroids.
Stuart Sullivan
Friday March 14th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Stuart Sullivan is the Owner of Wire Recording Studios.
Yen Tan
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Malaysian-born and Austin-based Yen Tan is a writer, director and graphic designer. His award-winning films have screened at festivals worldwide and picked up video and theatrical distributions. He appeared on the cover of The Austin Chronicle where he was profiled for his film poster designs. His latest feature, PIT STOP, premiered at Sundance 2013 and was nominated for a John Cassavetes Award at Independent Spirit Awards 2014.
Elizabeth Tashik
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Elizabeth (or Liz) is the Marketing Manager at House Party, an experience-driven social marketing platform that generates consumer recommendations, at scale, to build brands and increase sales. At House Party, Liz manages many B2B and B2C marketing projects, from paid-advertising campaigns to community management, but her focus is on email marketing.
Liz has a keen sense of how to keep users engaged and increase conversion metrics to improve email campaigns. Whether it's basic tactics — like a reengagement or welcome series — or dynamic content and advanced personalization, Liz is an expert in identifying what makes consumers act (or click, in this case).
Besides social media and email marketing, Liz's passions include traveling (she spent a few years living and working in Australia), party planning (she works for House Party, after all) and new adventures (from skydiving to exploring new cultures and cities).
Liz is excited to host a mentor session at SXSW 2014 and to talk with other media professionals about the industry and email marketing.
Learn more at http://about.houseparty.com/elizabeth-tashik/ or follow her on twitter @Liz2586.
Ben Thoma
Friday March 7th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Art Director for Advertising who tends to not leave well enough alone. Founder and organizing lead for CreativeMornings/Austin.
Gordon Thomas
Sunday March 9th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Content conquers technology. My main creative focus is short video comedy. Finally, modern technology and people's attention spans have caught up with me. Now living in Los Angeles, I write, direct, and produce Minutesworth.com, a daily web sit-com, no episode longer than a minute's worth. I started my professional career on the video side of the Austin music scene working as a camera operator on Austin City Limits and other concert shows. As an editor, I did music videos for Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, and many others. I'm constantly amazed and inspired by how people use new tools to evoke basic emotions.
Ligaya Tichy
Sunday March 9th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Ligaya is passionate about early stage startups. She joined Yelp in 2005 when the company was less than a dozen people, and during her five-year tenture, fostered communities in several US markets. She then went on to lead global community development for Airbnb during their highest growth stage.
Ligaya is currently a 500 Startups mentor, and has additionally served as mentor or advisor to consumer tech companies such as Soundcloud, Skillshare, Threadflip, and more.
Her angel investment portfolio includes companies such as True & Co., Microryza, Nomiku, Modify Industries, and Lean Machine's Javelin. She is always on the lookout for startups that can truly impact people's lives for the better.
Rick Timmins
Friday March 7th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Rick is the Board Chairman of the Central Texas Angel Network in Austin. He is a very active angel investor and works with many entrepreneurs. He serves on several public and private Boards. He is the former Assistant CFO at Cisco Systems and a former VP of Finance for Motorola.
Judy Tint
Friday March 14th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Judy Tint has over 25 years of experience as an attorney, consultant and producer in the entertainment industry. A graduate of Columbia Law School and Rutgers College, Judy specializes in music-related matters, and represents a broad variety of recording artists, songwriters, producers, independent labels, radio personalities, and other music-makers, from newcomers to legends. She is an Adjunct Professor in the NYU Music Business Program and a member of the Board of Governors of The Recording Academy's New York Chapter, and has lectured extensively on various topics in the entertainment field, for organizations including South by Southwest, Practicing Law Institute, Women in Music, The New Music Seminar, CMJ Music Marathon, Columbia Law School, North by Northwest, and Grammy In The Schools. She has appeared frequently as an advocate for artists' rights, and serves as Chair of the Music and Personal Apperances Division of the American Bar Association's Forum on the Entertainment and Sports Industries.
Judy has served as a consultant and producer in connection with numerous entertainment projects, and has devoted her time and energy to a variety of benefits and other charitable endeavors. She is a longtime member of the Board of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, and was Executive Producer of the critically-acclaimed Capitol Records release, "The Rites of Rhythm and Blues". She serves on the Board of Directors of WhyHunger, and held a two-year appointment at the United Nations, where she produced special events and oversaw the management and recruitment of UNICEF's Goodwill Ambassadors and celebrity spokespersons. She created and produced a concert series at Lincoln Center with best-selling author/lecturer Marianne Williamson, promoted and hosted the long-standing China Club "Pro-Jam" (featuring appearances by countless celebrity guests), and developed and produced (with musical director Paul Shaffer) the live entertainment program at "Sullivan's" in New York's landmark Ed Sullivan Theater. Other organizations which Judy has helped support include The Starlight Foundation, The Nordoff-Robbins Foundation for Music Therapy, Feeding America, The Foodbank for New York City, the Oregon Foodbank, and The Community Foodbank of New Jersey.
While she has no intention of quitting her day job, Judy also performs semi-regularly as a vocalist and percussionist, and has made numerous appearances with her longtime clients, The Four Tops. She is a firm believer in the power of music to change the world.
Rena Tom
Friday March 7th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
I am the founder of Makeshift Society, a coworking space for creative freelancers in San Francisco and Brooklyn. I am also a strategist and matchmaker for independent business owners, designers and developers, guiding them through the intricacies of small-batch manufacturing and boutique retail. And, in my spare time, I am Market Editor at Anthology Magazine and a columnist for UPPERCASE Magazine.
Stephanie Trepanier
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Stephanie founded the Frontières International Co-Production Market, within the Fantasia International Film Festival, in 2012. It is the first co-production market to focus on genre film for North-American and European film projects. After two editions in Montreal, it is now expanding as a circuit with an edition in Brussels in April 2014.
She has been involved with Fantasia, North-America's largest genre film festival, since 2005, alternatively as a Publicist, New Media Director, Hospitality Director, International Programmer and now Market Director, having major input in the festival's development over the years.
She is also the founder of Evokative Films, a boutique film distribution company that independently released International independent films across Canada from 2008 to 2012, which has evolved into international sales consultation and production development.
Peter Trinh
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Peter Trinh is an agent in the international and independent film department of ICM Partners, a talent and literary agency representing clients in the fields of motion pictures, television, publishing, music, theater, corporate branding and digital media. ICM Partners, a privately held corporation, is one of the predominant agencies in the United States and Europe, with its principal offices in Los Angeles, New York and London.
In his role at ICM Partners, Mr. Trinh, on top of being on teams for various clients throughout the agency, packages creative and financial elements to films and negotiates the distribution deals for independent films. Mr. Trinh has been involved in brokering various distribution deals throughout his career including the critically acclaimed CRAZY HEART, starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, EVERYTHING MUST GO, starring Will Ferrell, Australian AACTA winner RED DOG, starring Josh Lucas, STRUCK BY LIGHTNING, starring Chris Colfer, Allison Janney, Christina Hendricks and Rebel Wilson, and CURFEW, based off the Academy Award winning short of the same name. Mr. Trinh also has worked to build the agency's roster of production and finance companies, signing Conroy Chan and Josie Ho's Hong Kong based 852 Films, with the goal of structuring strategic media investments, as well as production deals.
Mr. Trinh joined the agency's trainee program in 2004 and holds degrees in business economics and physiological sciences from UCLA. He was named by
Variety as one of "Hollywood's New Leaders" in 2012 and Fade In Magazine's
"The Top 100 People in Hollywood You Need to Know 2013."
Jan Triplett
Monday March 10th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Jan Triplett is a sales and marketing strategist. She has helped owners successfully launch and grow businesses with products and services from A-Z (accounting products to zoos). She has been a speaker for SXSW on networking, has a degree in RTF, and was a host for KUT's "Next 200 Years" nationally syndicated radio program. She is a regular speaker for ProductCamp, an Austin Business Journal "Ask the Experts", and a guest blogger for The Business Bank of Texas. She hosts First Looks Forum mentoring night in alliance with Texas Entrepreneurs Network, B2B Meetup & Bloggers United. She is an author of print and ebooks including Thinking Big, Staying Small.
Basil Tsiokos
Sunday March 9th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Basil Tsiokos is a consultant to documentary filmmakers and festivals, Programming Associate for the Sundance Film Festival, Film Program Director for the Nantucket Film Festival, and Senior Programmer for DOC NYC. He is a regular contributor to Indiewire, where he curates Hulu's Documentaries page. Basil teaches a course at Pratt on film festivals and oversees Wallabout, a student short film festival. He was the Artistic and Executive Director of NewFest: The NY LGBT Film Festival between 1996-2008. Basil writes about documentaries daily at what (not) to doc and via Twitter @1basil1. He holds a Masters degree from New York University and two undergraduate degrees from Stanford University.
Alexia Tsostis
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 4:30pm
Alexia Tsotsis is the co-editor of TechCrunch. She attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, CA, majoring in Writing and Painting, and moved to New York City shortly after graduation to work in the media industry.
After four years of living in New York and attending courses at New York University, she returned to Los Angeles in order to continue her career in new media, first as LA Weekly's Internet culture reporter, and then as SF Weekly's web editor.
Before she joined TechCrunch, Tsotsis ran the SFweekly.com website from San Francisco, staying on top of memes, the tech scene and human behavior in the digital age.
At TechCrunch, Tsotsis covers early stage startups, and has had the opportunity to interview everyone from Groupon's Andrew Mason to former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. In 2012, Tsotsis made the Forbes "30 Under 30: Rising Stars of Media" list. Her Twitter bio reads, "Breaks news, hearts.
Jessica Tunon
Monday March 10th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
I am an adaptable self-disciplined resourceful project manager and connector with a 15+ career in financial services. Have the ability to build a bridge that connects vision and strategy within people and budgets. Offer a unique combination of creativity and analytical skill with the ability to assess both vantage points to create innovative and cost-effective solutions for internal and external clients while keeping within the company's mission. Passionate to develop a successful new career by pursuing the Certified Associate in Project Management Certification and social good experience organizing bootstrapped grassroots efforts simultaneously from conceptual phase to completion under tight deadlines. Excited about innovation, social good, learning, budgeting, shareable economy, livability and research.
I am looking to connect and build significant value in the community by working with other passionate individuals and organizations that are committed to push our society forward in a line of environmental action, innovation, collaboration and social responsibility. My organizational skills combined with a heart for our future allows me to not only serve as a community organizer but a relentless visionary on the environment and our quality of life.
Peter Van Steemburg
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Peter Van Steemburg is the VP of Acquisitions at Magnolia Pictures and Magnet Releasing. Prior to Magnolia, Peter assisted in International Distribution and Operations for Miramax Films and worked for the Film Finance department at Cinetic Media, run by John Sloss. While at Magnolia he participated in the negotiation of such films as Drinking Buddies, The Hunter, Goon, Big Bad Wolves, and most recently, the upcoming Nymphomaniac, amongst others. He is a regular attendee to festivals and markets worldwide scouting for material. Peter graduated from Williams College with a B.A. in Art History.
Agnes Varnum
Tuesday March 11th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Agnes Varnum produces events for the nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet, The Texas Tribune. She joined the Tribune after five years in marketing at the Austin Film Society. Before moving to Texas, Agnes held positions with Icarus Films, the Center for Social Media at American University, as a freelance writer for Indiewire.com, Documentary magazine and had a successful 3-year run with her doc blog, Doc It Out. She has worked in various roles with AFI Fest, Independent Film Week, Silverdocs, Newport International Film Festival, AOL True Stories (now Snag Films) and SXSW.
Cesar Vazquez
Friday March 7th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Cesar Vazquez is the founder and CEO of CCAN Ventures, LLC –digital firm that develops solutions targeted mainly to the US Latino market. Cesar oversees CCAN's overall strategy, ensuring the firm's stays at the vanguard of all relevant trends related to Latinos. His experiences as a business lawyer, entrepreneur, negotiator and real estate developer, provide a perspective that can only be described as unique. Among his ventures, he has founded Buydéga.com, a Latino based e-commerce website.
A promoter of innovation and entrepreneurs everywhere –He wants to be a definitive connector among the Latino technology community.
Marta Voda
Saturday March 8th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Marta Voda is a Recruiter and HR professional with Viacom Media Networks in Santa Monica, CA. Marta supports the Global Digital Media groups for MTV, VH1, and Nickelodeon in New York and Los Angeles. She has over 15 years of experience in coaching and partnering with managers to build high-performing teams through recruitment, performance management and retention. Highlights of her career include various high-profile initiatives from capital manufacturing projects to online media start-ups.
Marta started her career as a "Headhunter" with Robert Half International, she then moved in-house to work for The Clorox Company and Baxter BioScience. Her entrepreneurial spirit led her to create a successful Executive Search and HR Consulting practice, catering to notable clients such as: Classmates.com, Stardoll.com, Square Enix and Activision.
Marta is often the go to person for tips on resumes, interviews, and introductions. Lately, she spends her days scoping out the best and the brightest mobile, social, web and video experts to lead Viacom's emerging platform initiatives. Outside of work, Marta is a mentor and marathoner for Team In Training, supporting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Marta studied Organizational Behavior at the University of San Francisco, and resides in Los Angeles with her two daughters.
Lois Vossen
Monday March 10th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Lois Vossen is the Founding and Senior Series Producer of Independent Lens. She is responsible for curating the series and works with filmmakers on content, editorial, and broadcast issues. She scripts and directs the Independent Lens host introductions, and works closely with the marketing team on promoting and branding the series.
Independent Lens has received 7 Emmy Awards including 2 Primetime Emmys, 10 Peabody Awards, 5 duPont Awards, 7 Academy Award nominations, and received the 2013 IDA Best Continuing Series Award.
Previously, Vossen was Associate Managing Director of the Sundance Film Festival and the Sundance Labs. She has served on the jury at SXSW, DOC New Zealand, Toronto International Film Festival, and New Orleans Film Festival, among others.
Rachel W. Miller
Saturday March 8th 9:30am – 10:30am
By day, I'm a content and community manager for Theatrics.com. I copy edit, work for better user engagement, handle our social media channels, am on the front lines of customer support, and manage the community.
By early morning and night, I am a freelance writer. I am a panelist for U by Kotex real answers and my writing has appeared on Yahoo! Shine, SHAPE.com, Birchbox, and many other websites. I also write my own personal blog, The House Always Wins, about home, health, work, play, and being a grown-ass adult.
Vincent WIlburn Jr
Friday March 14th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Vince Wilburn, Jr., nephew of late jazz icon Miles Davis, oversees Miles Davis Properties, LLC, along with Erin Davis (son of Miles) and Cheryl Davis (daughter of Miles). Wilburn, Jr. is a highly accomplished drummer and producer, who has both toured and recorded with Miles on many legendary recordings from 1984 through 1987, including: The GRAMMY-Award winning album "AURA" -- which he co-produced; "Decoy" - which he also co-produced; "You're Under Arrest", and the 2008 GRAMMY nominated "Miles From India" – which hit #8 on the Billboard jazz charts. Wilburn, Jr. also toured internationally with the All-Star "Miles From India" ensemble to sell-out crowds.
More recently, Wilburn, Jr. performed with the Miles Electric Band at a sold-out Hollywood Bowl event in June 2012, to celebrate the launch of the USPS and La Post (France) issued Miles Davis/Edith Piaf Forever stamps. The stamp has sold more than 23 million units to date, and is by far the top selling celebrity stamp of 2012.
In 1989, he founded Nefdrum Productions and has been busy with numerous projects, featuring all-star performances by music icons Billy Preston, Ray Parker, Jr., Darryl Jones, Charley Drayton, Ivan Neville, Wah Wah Watson, Freddie Washington, Randy Hall and Phil Upchurch among others.
He is currently assembling a full length hip-hop, remix tribute to honor the classic recordings of Miles Davis. This was influenced by the great success of a re-mix EP that he co-produced with Nas and Santana called "Evolution of the Groove." He serves as Executive Producer of the forthcoming Miles Davis motion picture starring Don Cheadle, which will be directed by Antoine Fuqua, and Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter will score the film. Wilburn, Jr. is also an active member of NARAS,
Brian Wallace
Tuesday March 11th 9:30am – 10:30am
Brian Wallace is the founder of NowSourcing, Inc., a infographic design and social media agency since 2005 serving everyone from startups to the Fortune 500 and everything in between. Prior to founding NowSourcing, Brian worked in a variety of technical and marketing environments being a Chief Technology Officer for a noted media company. Brian holds an MBA and MS in Information Systems and resides in Louisville, KY with his wife and children. He started the group social media blog, Collective Thoughts and appears as a guest author on Mashable and is the online marketing Louisville reporter for Examiner.com.
Martin Waxman
Saturday March 8th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
I'm a Toronto digital/social media/communications guy, EVP of Thornley Fallis and co-founder of three agencies. I blog at http://www.martinwaxman.com/myPALETTE, host the Inside PR podcast and can be found on Twitter @martinwaxman.
I advise clients on how to develop a strategic approach to content, publishing and new PR. I'm the lead instructor in a Digital Strategy and Communications Management Certificate at University of Toronto SCS.
I serve on the South by Southwest Advisory Board and am the secretary-treasurer of PRSA Counselors Academy's executive committee and past-president of CPRS Toronto; a published novelist/story writer (The Promised Land, Everything in Winnipeg Begins in a Car); ex journalist standup MC and ad guy; and former Winnipegger.
Jason Wehling
Tuesday March 11th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Jason works with Austin-based creative content company, Arts+Labor, where he serves as a producer, editor and director. His nonfiction work includes Alan Berg's PBS-featured doc, "A Place to Dance" and his 2011 feature, "Outside Industry: The Story of SXSW"; as well as director Jonny Mars' ESPN-featured "America's Parking Lot" and Al Reinert's SXSW 2013 Audience Award-winning "An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story". On the narrative side, Jason's credits include Chris Eska's Independent Spirit Award-winning feature, "August Evening" and his recent follow-up, "The Retrieval"; as well as Paul Gordon's SXSW standout, "The Happy Poet"; Kyle Henry's Sundance and Cannes-featured omnibus of short films, "Fourplay"; and Spencer Parsons' recent horror film, "Saturday Morning Massacre".
From 2002–2005, Jason served on the programming team at PBS national headquarters where focused on the Independent Lens series.
Howie Weinberg
Wednesday March 12th 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Howie Weinberg is the Owner/Chief Engineer at Howie Weinberg Mastering
Suzanne Weinert
Tuesday March 11th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Suzanne Weinert began her career as the VP of Shoelace Productions participating in the development and production of over 14 narrative features and documentaries. She is the writer/producer of "Exterminators" starring Heather Graham and Jennifer Coolidge which premiered opening night of the SXSW film festival in 2009. She is the producer of "The Legend of Hell's Gate" starring Henry Thomas, Eric Balfour, Jenna Dewan and Summer Glau (2011) as well of the Executive Producer of "Hellion" starring Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis (shooting Summer 2013.) She is a faculty member of both Fordham University and The School of Visual Arts in NYC and serves on the Board of the Austin Film Society. She divides her time between NYC and Austin, TX.
Andy Whittaker
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Andy is the Founder of Dogwoof, establishing it as the only film distributor specializing in Theatrical documentary releases, exploiting all rights on all platforms, globally.
Dogwoof now has a USA office as well as London, and is expanding its activities in digital, film. Films include Undefeated, Act of Killing, Dinosaur 13 and Blackfish. and 2014 is our 10th anniversary.
Hailey Wierengo
Saturday March 8th 11:00am – 12:30pm
Hailey Wierengo is an agent in the Independent Film Group at leading talent and literary UTA, where she focuses on the packaging, financing and sales of independent film. In this capacity she has worked on titles including Mike Mills' BEGINNERS, Miranda July's THE FUTURE, Jesse Peretz's OUR IDIOT BROTHER, Lynn Shelton's YOUR SISTER'S SISTER and Lee Tolan Kreiger's CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER.
Wierengo joined UTA's agent training program in 2008 and was promoted to agent in 2011. Raised in Chicago, Wierengo attended the University of Michigan where she studied Film and Media Studies and Art History. Wierengo went on to intern at Bob Berney's distribution company Picturehouse in New York, where she contributed to the release of LA VIE EN ROSE starring Marion Cotillard.
Wierengo lives in Los Angeles.
Kelly Williams
Tuesday March 11th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
Kelly Williams is an independent producer and film programmer. A graduate of the film program at UT Austin, Kelly has collaborated with producing partner Jonathan Duffy to produce two feature films. The first was Yen Tan's feature PIT STOP that premiered at Sundance in 2013 and was nominated for the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards' John Cassavetes Award. The second is Kat Candler's 2014 Sundance Film Festival selection HELLION starring Aaron Paul and Juliette Lewis. Hellion is a recipient of a San Francisco Film Society/ Kenneth Rainin Foundation Filmmaking Grant.
Based in Austin, Williams is a 2012 Sundance Institute Creative Producing Fellow and producer of the indie features Cinema Six and Pictures of Superheroes as well as Kat Candler's previous short films Hellion (Sundance 2012) and Black Metal (Sundance 2013). As a film festival programmer, he was awarded the 2007 International Film Festival Summit Excellence Award.
Kevin Wommack
Friday March 14th 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Kevin Wommack is the Owner of Playing in Traffic Records.
Mike Woolf
Tuesday March 11th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Mike is a Filmmaker/Producer at Beef & Pie Productions.
Nazli Yuzak
Friday March 7th 5:00pm – 6:00pm
Nazli Yuzak is a digital marketing leader with a passion to make things happen! Her expertise is in building digital technology solutions to drive business results. She is experienced in: Digital Marketing Strategy, Website Optimization, Website Analytics and Insights, Website Development & Best Practices, Marketing Technologies In addition to her core role Nazli is the US Regional Lead for Marketing Talent & Capabilities team. She is very invested in professional development and loves to help others to realize their potential. Nazli holds a Master of Business Administration degree in International Marketing and Management of Global Information Technology. She is fluent in German and Turkish; and practices Latin dancing any chance she gets.
Christian Zak
Tuesday March 11th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Christian is Vice President of Production at Technicolor.
Landon Zakheim
Sunday March 9th 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Landon Zakheim is a Short Film Programmer for the Sundance Film Festival, a Programmer for AFI FEST and an Associate Programmer for Los Angeles Film Festival. His two short films played SXSW in 2010 and 2012 respectively before going to play festivals all over the world. In his spare time, Landon enjoys sending mixed messages. Or does he?
Nathan Zellner
Monday March 10th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Nathan Zellner makes movies with his brother David. They have written, produced, directed and edited numerous films and music videos that have screened at festivals worldwide. This includes five shorts (FLOTSAM/JETSAM, REDEMPTITUDE, AFTERMATH ON MEADOWLARK LANE, FIDDLESTIXX, and SASQUATCH BIRTH JOURNAL 2) which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival ('05-'11).
Their feature GOLIATH premiered at Sundance 2008, followed by KID-THING, a fable-like drama starring Sydney Aguirre and Susan Tyrell, in Sundance 2012. This let to an extensive festival run, including an international premiere at the 62nd Berlinale and a retrospective of the Zellner Brothers' work at BAFICI 2012. KID-THING, which received a 2012 Gotham Award nomination, was distributed theatrically around the world and domestically in the US by Factory 25. The Zellners' latest film KUMIKO, THE TREASURE HUNTER(2014) starring Rinko Kikuchi screened at Berlinale and Sundance, where it won a Special Jury Prize for Best Score.
Much of their work can be viewed a zellnerbros.com
Inge de Leeuw
Sunday March 9th 3:30pm – 5:00pm
Inge de Leeuw studied Cultural Studies and Film & Television Studies in the Netherlands. She started working at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) in 2006 which she combined with working in film production.
Inge de Leeuw is selecting films for the IFFR from North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand and is in the selection committee of the Tiger Awards Competition.
For IFFR she curated several thematic programmes about the relationship between film and popular culture (fashion, television, augmented reality)
Besides IFFR Inge de Leeuw is also writing about film and related media.
Martijn te Pas
Sunday March 9th 2:00pm – 3:30pm
As the coordinator of the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA, www.idfa.nl) program department I am responsible for overseeing all research activities, processing and viewing film festival entries and I select the short films, music films and compile the IDFA Competition for Student Documentary. I have been working for IDFA since 2000.
Every year since 1988, more than 300 international documentaries are screened at IDFA for a huge number of film lovers and professionals. IDFA is unique for its international film program, the variety of genres, its committed program and the many European and world premieres featured each year.
Aside from the festival, IDFA consists of three other components: the IDFA Bertha Fund, the FORUM and the market Docs for Sale (Online).