TAG Entertainment

About

Entertainment and technology are rapidly converging. Video over the Web and PDAs are becoming a viable platform. Greater broadband penetration is leading to networked gaming and increased use of file sharing. Digital video production and CGI are now available on the desktop. And to support these and other advancements: a wide range of services designed to help companies in the space.

TAG Entertainment Society helps companies embrace convergence, learn about the latest trends, and find investors interested in helping them grow. Anyone looking to create content, deliver or consume online entertainment will find membership in TAG Entertainment very helpful. We discuss emerging technologies, new business models, bilateral investments and distribution opportunities.

Visit TAG Entertainment's community group page here!

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 Interested? Join our mailing list - make sure to check off the Entertainment affinity group. 

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 Connect with TAG Entertainment!

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Who should attend?

Anyone looking to create content, deliver, or consume online entertainment as part of their business model.
Here are just a few of our audience members:

• Music Producers
• Digital Video Producers
• Animators
• Film Producers
• Web Producers
• Electronic and Web Game Makers
• Entertainment Distributors (Music, Films, Games, Books, etc.)
• Support Service Providers
• Investors in any of these fields

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2012 Calendar:

Upcoming Events:

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Watchitoo Enables Companies to Leverage Social Media Tools to Enhance the User Experience and Improve Their Brand

Thursday, February 23rd 5:30pm - 7:30pm
Register Online

Watchitoo is the first multistreaming video collaboration platform fully embeddable on any site — ideal for those who want to engage their audiences and online communities in dynamic, brand-boosting ways. With no software to download, hundreds of thousands of participants can instantly gather and interact around rich media in real time.

Social Interactive TV is one on the areas where Watchitoo plays. You’re a major TV network and each new show you promote walks the line between cutting-edge and cancellation. You need fan-facing solutions that allow viewers to consume your content in paradigm shifting ways. With a fully embeddable collaboration platform you can skin to match your brand, Watchitoo offers a broadcast-quality viewing experience to keeps hundreds of thousands of fans on your site longer, chatting, tweeting and Facebooking for instant word of mouth.

Enhancing the user experience for live events is another great area to engage Watchitoo.  As a brand sponsor of the U.S. Open, you host a live chat with the finalists, skinning our platform and embedding it on your company’s Facebook page to gather hundreds of thousands of tennis lovers around your brand. Fans interact from across the globe in real time, providing their own play by play via text chat while the athletes take audience questions. Celeb-hosted or user-driven, live events on Watchitoo engage your audience like never before.

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Crowd Funding, A New Phenomenon in Entertainment Funding

Thursday, March 8th 5:30pm - 7:30pm

The Economic Development Landscape in Georgia Entertainment

Thursday, April 12th 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Gaming Update

Thursday, May 10th 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Entertainment Technologies Crossing International Boundaries.  Time Zones and Continents

Thursday, September 13th 5:30pm - 7:30pm

3D Without Glasses!  Stereoscopic 3D:  Come See It In Action!

Thursday, November 8th 5:30pm - 7:30pm

Turner Studios Tours and Panel Discussion

Thursday, December 6th 5:30pm - 7:30pm

 

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Past Events

The Music Industry: Then and Now

Wednesday, January 25th    5:30pm - 7:30pm

Moderator:
Rhubarb Jones    
Former Radio DJ/ Atlanta Morning Show Eagle 106.7, Educator in Mass Communications at Kennesaw State Univ.

Panelists:

Daddy-O                 
Music Producer, Original member of Stetsasonic

Lauren Gibson           
Today the Moon Tomorrow the Sun, Bandmember

Simon Horrocks       
Affix Music, Co-Founder

Jimmy LeFavour       
Chairman, Georgia Music Industry Association, President/Edgewater Records, Lecturer/School of Audio Engineering.

J. Martin Lett       
Entertainment Attorney/Managing Partner, Register Lett LLP, Chairman- Entertainment Law Section of State Bar of Georgia.

Synopsis:

There is no doubt that the music industry has changed with the advent of new technologies.  A once powerful network of labels, distributors, and publishers were who we looked to for the latest and greatest in new music.  And, we bought our music in record stores.  So, what happened?  Why is it that we now look to technology giants like Apple and Pandora for our music and inspiration?  How has electronic distribution, social media, and the interconnectedness of the Internet changed the industry?
 
Please join us for a panel discussion where we will feature individuals from across the industry to discuss these dramatic changes in the music industry landscape and how we as media companies and professionals can learn from the past to build a more enriched experience for audiences for all types in the future.

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Mastering the Wizardry of Content Distribution

Date:  Wednesday, December 7, 2011

5:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Location:  Turner Studios
1000 Techwood Drive, Atlanta, GA

Includes guided tours of Turner Studios

Event Overview:
Technology is the enabler but it is the consumer’s insatiable thirst for a larger variety of content that is driving the entertainment industry to look for new and creative ways to deliver the content to the consumer on the device of their choice.   Just a few years ago we all watched the same programs on three channels.  Today there are hundreds of channels and choices for the consumer.  The program developers are also moving into new frontiers. 

Reality TV has taken the industry by storm.  Housewives, alligator hunters and pawn shop owners are overnight celebrities.  The industry is also moving more toward local programming.  High school sports and club sports from high school bass fishing to Lacrosse are being televised for local audiences. 

How does all this content mysteriously appear on your TV, laptop tablet or phone? The real entertainment industry technology heroes have a great story to tell about the creation, the network and the delivery of the content.  Come listen to our panel of industry experts give you a peek behind the magic curtain!

Panelists:
Sandhi Kozsuch, VP, Mobile Broadcasting, Cox Enterprises
Cox  Enterprises has joined a consortium of TV broadcast networks including Scripps-Howard and Gannett to develop a new over the top delivery technology that will utilize their RF broadcast spectrum to deliver broadcast video content to mobile phones and tablets. During a long career in broadcast TV, Sandhi was previously General Manager of WSOC-TV, the Cox Television broadcast station in Charlotte, North Carolina.

David Rudolph, CEO, PlayOn! Sports
PlayOn! Sports is the nation's premiere high school sports media company - the largest rights holder, producer, distributor, and aggregator of high school content distributed across television, Internet, and streaming enabled devices. Prior to acquiring PlayOn! Sports from Turner Broadcasting, David was the Founder and General Manager of Turner South.

Eric Weston, Director, Concurrent
Concurrent, which has been a leader in shipping VOD servers to cable operators worldwide, and to a growing number of telco IPTV operators, leads the total VOD and streaming content server market.

William Chapman, VP Creative Development/Emerging Technologies, Turner Studios
Turner Studios is the full service broadcast production division of Turner Entertainment Group, providing facilities and resources worldwide for all the Turner Entertainment Networks.  Bill partners with the different sports, news and entertainment divisions developing programming and business strategies targeted to new technology and distinct audience/user experiences.  This also involves the development of unique production and distribution techniques, bringing together the right technology and creative partners within Turner Broadcasting, while establishing relationships and business opportunities with new technology partners in the industry.

Moderator:
George DeGolian, VP North American Operations, Digital Dreams Post

George deGolian is a veteran entertainment and technology executive with an extensive background producing and distributing content through a variety of distribution channels including motion picture, television, radio, internet, hand held and tablets. He is currently VP of North American Operations and Executive Producer at Digital Dreams Post, an International post-production and creative services company producing content for clients all over the world.

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Featured Speaker: Brian Shield, EVP and CIO, The Weather Channel

(Co-Sponsored with TAG North Metro Series)

Date:  Thursday, November 17, 2011
11:30 AM - 1:30 PM
Location:  Pampas Steakhouse, Alpharetta, GA.
Register Here

Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer, The Weather Channel, Inc.

Brian P. Shield is executive vice president and chief information officer of The Weather Channel, Inc., a position he has held since joining the company in 1998.

As head of the Information Technology (IT) organization, Shield oversees all technology infrastructure, internal systems, weather forecasting, broadcast and software engineering, and implementation of industry leading technology products and services. He is responsible for setting the strategic vision, technical direction, and financial planning on behalf of the IT organization.

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Nirvanix Enterprise Cloud Storage Services for Media & Entertainment

Date:  Wednesday, November 2, 2011
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Location: Defoor Centre

Event Overview:

The media & entertainment industry is now a digital business. Film, video, and music producers, television and radio broadcasters, magazine and book publishers, and advertising agencies create and distribute their new content digitally and are digitizing existing content. The resulting rapid growth, estimated at 50% per year, in very large media files—digital images, HD video, and audio—is such that today 85% of total storage capacity consists of unstructured data. Storing, sharing, backing up, and archiving petabytes of digital files at onsite data centers is no longer financially viable. IT managers are faced with the increasingly costly purchase/upgrade/migrate data cycle of storage systems and tape silos and staff to manage them, in addition to the rising space, cooling, and power expenses. 
 
With superior economics and on-demand flexibility, cloud storage offers an attractive alternative to onsite storage systems and tape silos. Nirvanix, the leader in enterprise cloud storage services, delivers its battle-hardened, second generation of innovative technology, enabling media & entertainment organizations to immediately start taking advantage of:
 
•  Usage-based pricing—Lower CapEx immediately
•  Elastic, on-demand storage: expand or shrink storage pool as required—No physical storage systems to buy and manage; No idle storage
•  Global network and Cloud File System with a true global namespace that enables file access, sharing, distribution and collaborative workflows anywhere in the world
•  Guaranteed enterprise QoS—No excuses SLAs with up to five nines of data availability; Offsite backup and policy-based redundancy
•  Multi-level security—Protect files against illegal copying and piracy
•  A “pay on image ingest” model; one flat monthly rate for unlimited uploads, downloads, bandwidth and replication—No maintenance fees; No tech refresh fees, No more migrations

Over 1,200 global customers from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies, including many media & entertaining organizations are already enjoying these benefits with Nirvanix. For industry and application-specific ease of use, the Nirvanix Cloud Storage Network™ is integrated with leading digital media archive solutions such as Atempo's Digital Archive and Front Porch Digital's DIVA Solutions archiving and distribution software. Visit www.nirvanix.com for more information on our cloud storage services for the media & entertainment industry.


Speaker Bio:

David Bailey, North American Director of Systems Engineering, Nirvanix

David has a strong background in storage and computer systems and their use and integration in the media and entertainment industry.  His focus for the last couple of years is the use of cloud storage systems, and how they can be used in the media and entertainment industry for backup, long term archive and collaboration uses.

David has been an engineer in developing, deploying and integrating storage systems for the last 25 years at companies such as Isilon Systems, IBM, EMC, Silicon Graphics and the US National Laboratory System.

Thank you to our event sponsors:

 

Nirvanix     www.nirvanix.com

 

IBM     www.ibm.com

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Facilitating a Bridge between the Arts and IT

Date: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 
5:30 PM – 7:30 PM
Location: Woodruff Arts Center
Memorial Arts Building 
Registration & Pre-Event Refreshments: Event Room, Balcony Level
Event Presentation: 3rd Floor, Circle Room

Itinerary:
5:30 PM Social Networking /Refreshments/Demo of Virtual Campus
6:15 – 7:30 PM Moderated Panel Discussion with members from Woodruff and Industry

Overview: 
Assimilate Atlanta’s technology community to the unique technological needs of its world
class Fine Arts infrastructure and foster a rich growth environment.

Moderator:
Dr. Benn Konsynski, Professor of Information Systems & Operations Management,
Goizueta Business School, Emory

Panelists: 
Dawn R. Carlyle, IT Director – Woodruff Arts Center
Shoshana Goshen-Harper PMP, Sr. Applications Manager – Woodruff Arts Center
Todd Pollock, Jabian Consulting Senior Manager
Todd Slagle, Mobile Brand Strategy Global Connections, The Coca-Cola Company
Jessica White, IBM, Media & Entertainment Business Value Analyst
Dr. Kay Beck, GSU Dir. Digital Arts and Entertainment Lab

Panelist Bios:

Kay Beck (Ph.D., Emory University, 1973) is an Associate Professor and Director of the Digital Arts and Entertainment Laboratory (DAEL), a core facility that facilities collaborative work between film/video producers, graphic designers, computer scientists, performing artists and others interested in cutting edge digital content. In the last decade, DAEL has attracted more than $3 million dollars of external funding for digital content initiatives. Under her direction, DAEL has collaborated with digital media professionals at Turner Broadcasting, Coca-Cola, Riverwood Studies, and Crawford Communications, among others. The laboratory has also incubated a number of new businesses in various aspects of digital content initiation, has produced pilots for upcoming television shows, and has conducted audience response tests for 35mm, HDTV, and other forms of digital video. Most recently, she has developed a collaborative relationship between DAEL and Robert Townsend, the producer of the Black Family Channel. Beck is active in the cultivation of enhanced media content in the State of Georgia. Under the guidance of both Democratic and Republican governors, she has served on the executive committee of the Georgia Film Board. She has also served on the Advisory Board of Image (Georgia’s independent media organization) and on the Regional Advisory Panel for the Urban Communications Group. Research Areas: New media; digital production; film history and theory. Degree Track Affiliations: Ph.D. (Moving Image Studies), M.A. (Film & Video). 

Todd Slagle Bio: Experiencing more than 15 years within the wireless telecommunications arena, Todd Slagle became involved with one of the industries first Mobile Apps  in 2006 with the exclusive marketing launch of MySpace Mobile. Working for Cingular Wireless and subsequently AT&T Mobility, Todd also managed the mobile activation of multiple sponsorships within Youth Segment Marketing Team, as well as successfully developing consumer interfaces for User Generated Content, and Social Networks.  He has also worked within the Hispanic and B2B Segments for Cingular Wireless.  During 2007-2008, Todd served as Director of Promotions for FunMobility, later starting up his Contract/Consulting Business in 2008 focusing on Mobile Applications including Business Development, Life Cycle Management and Merchandising of Apps on AT&T's AppCenter, and Android's Carrier Shelf.  Todd began working with The Coca-Cola Company  in August 2011, managing the Global Implementation of various platforms; ranging from SMS, Mobile Web, and Mobile Applications. Todd has also been employed by BellSouth International, BellSouth Mobile Data, and Quientessent Communications.  

Dawn Carlyle joined the Woodruff Arts Center as the Information Technology Director in November 2008.  Key projects underway include the redesign of the enterprise eCommerce platform, the implementation of the Atlanta Tessitura Consortium, and the upgrade of the Woodruff’s core infrastructure, including the data center and network. Prior to her employment with the Woodruff Arts Center, Dawn worked for HD Supply as their Vice President of Information Technology, within the Facility Maintenance business unit.  Before HD Supply, Dawn spent 12 years working for General Electric, beginning her career in GE’s Information Management Leadership Program.  During Dawn’s tenure with GE, she held various positions of increasing responsibility, from business analyst to IT manager, and earned her Six Sigma Black Belt Certification.  Areas of focus while with GE included application/ecommerce development, project management office development and operations, plus Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) deployments. 
Dawn holds a Bachelors Degree in Information Technology and a Masters Degree in Information Resource Management from Syracuse University in Syracuse, NY.

Shoshana Goshen-Harper has been the Sr. Applications Manager at the Woodruff Arts Center since January 2009.  In this role she owns the day to day support and maintenance of all key applications utilized across the Woodruff arts center campus.  She has focused on the implementation of several key projects (Enterprise wide eCommerce shopping cart, GA Tech Student card, text ticketing etc) as well as applications team tools, processes and procedures. Prior to her time at the Woodruff Arts Center, Shoshana was employed by Imerys as its Applications Development and Support manager focusing on key Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) and Business Intelligence.  Prior to Imerys Shoshana was employed by BlueCube Software, Inc (formerly Radiant Systems) as a Product Development Manager and a Strategic Account Manager focusing on the “back of office software solutions” product line. Shoshana holds a Bachelors Degree in Computer Information Science from The Ohio State University and is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP).  She is also currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Management of Technology from the Georgia Institute of Technology (anticipated graduation December, 2012).

Benn R. Konsynski arrived at Goizueta Business School following six years on the faculty at the Harvard Business School where he taught in the MBA program and several executive programs. Prior to arriving at HBS, he was a professor at the University of Arizona where he was a co-founder of the university's multi-million dollar group decision support laboratory. He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Purdue University. He has published in such diverse journals as Communications of the ACM, Harvard Business Review, IEEE Transactions on Communications, MIS Quarterly, Journal of MIS, Data Communications, Decision Sciences, Decision Support Systems,
Information Systems, and IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

Todd Pollock is an Atlanta-based IT consultant and technology enthusiast and a Senior Manager at Jabian Consulting. He was the second consultant to join Jabian Consulting, one of Atlanta's fastest growing private consulting companies. At Jabian, Todd has helped a variety of companies implement Business Analysis processes using Jabian's established methodologies. Todd's has 10+ years of BA experience. Todd has been leading Innovation Councils at Jabian clients for almost five years, guiding fellow consultants and clients through innovation sessions which have produced over fifty mature innovation concepts. Todd holds a masters degree from the University of Florida and started his career with Accenture. He is married with three boys and is very active in youth education at the Church of the Apostles in Buckhead. Jabian Consulting is an Atlanta based IT and management consultancy that applies senior level consulting specialists to our client’s top priority projects. Jabian focuses on creating and implementing strategies, enhancing business processes, developing human capital, and better aligning technology to help our clients drive business value by increasing revenue and decreasing operational costs.

Jessica White has been with IBM for the past 10 years and has an extensive background in the media space focusing on the music industry and digital mediums. During her tenure at IBM she has held various roles within the Media & Entertainment industry with her most recent being Global Business Value Assessment Consultant where Jessica has worldwide responsibility for analyzing client needs and solutions to develop a return on investment strategy for clients across the M&E spectrum, including broadcast, information providers, advertisers, and newsrooms. Jessica has been in key business roles in many of the top Music companies in the world, including Warner Electra Atlantic, Sony Distribution, Columbia Records, ABC Disney, and BMG. With skills in both working the board as an on air radio talent as well as in artist development, promoting new artists into the mainstream, Jessica approaches her media customers with a customer-centric outlook. "Being in technology is such an exciting career in that it allows me to enable my clients to be even better at what they do best." Jessica first made the move toward technology with the advent of the MP3 and has since expanded her scope to include building new digital platforms for content distribution, analytics, advertising optimization, and metadata management. Jessica is an Atlanta native and very active in the local arts community through the Westside Arts District, The High Museum of Art, Dashboard Co-op, and The Contemporary.

Special thanks to: Senour Reed of Jabian Consulting, Tara Perry, Denis Pichanick and Jessie Wright of the Woodruff Arts Center, Mr. Christopher W. Klaus, Audra Browning and Michael Bosarge of the Technology Association of Georgia.

  

Digital Entertainment — State of the Entertainment Industry -Trends, Challenges and Opportunities

Date: July 19, 2011
Time:  6 – 8 PM

Location:
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC
Atlantic Station
271 17th Street, NW
25th Floor - Skyline Room
Atlanta, GA 30363-1017

Agenda:
6:00pm  Social Networking
(Complimentary Refreshments provided by Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice)
6:30pm  Presentation
(Discussion lead by Moderator and Panelists)

Event Overview:
The Media and Entertainment industry is facing new opportunities and challenges as it works to meet consumer demand for access to high-quality content through multiple devices. New revenue opportunities are arising with new ways to deliver content monetizing new content capabilities and services in different segments (broadcast, film, telecom, mobile, retail), across a multitude of screens and devices (TV, PC, mobile and more new business models around Cloud Computing, providing an effective way to scale your digital infrastructure.

Key industry execs, innovators and investors will come together for a robust conversation  to discuss the state of entertainment -internet TVs, gaming consoles, indie set-tops,  connected devices—cellphones, smartphones, tablets—and cross-platform content services, portals and apps to enable Media and Entertainment companies deliver engaging and differentiated consumer experiences that lead to opportunities to generate revenue.

Moderator:
Bernard H. Coleman Jr., Esq.
Head of Sports & Entertainment practice/Atlanta
Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC

Panelists:
Kevin R. Nicholas
V.P., U.S. Business Development
Gorillabox

Kirk Topits
U.S. TelePresence Systems
Cisco

Denise Evans Elsbree
CEO & President
Trio Media Group LLC

Asante Bradford
Georgia Department of Economic Development Interactive
Entertainment & Digital Media

Len Gibson
Director and Executive Producer
Peachtree Village International Film Festival

Glenn Bolton
Professor Daddy-O
Hip-Hop Historian / Music Technologist / Social Media Strategist

 

The Impact of Mobile Technology on Entertainment Content!

Wednesday, Feb 23, 2011
5:30 PM - 7:30 PM

5:30pm Social Networking
6:15pm Presentation from our Featured Panelists

Our featured panelists will discuss how mobile devices are empowering the Entertainment Industry with a focus on some of the mobile device advancements being seen in the marketplace today.

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   Society Board

Audra Browning	Chair	audra.browning@gmail.com
George deGolian	Co-Chair	george.d@digitaldreampost.com
Frank Baia		frank.baia@globalspeak.com
John Cobb		john@lynxre.com
Lee Ramsair		leeramsaur@mindspring.com
David Lieberman		anigraphical@davidlieberman.com
Jessica White		jswhite@us.ibm.com
Michael Bosarge	TAG Liaison	michael@tagonline.org