SoCin Toronto

Randy Ahn

Randy serves as Senior Vice President of Strategic Programs at July Systems, a leading Mobile Internet and Advertising solution provider, with clients including NBC, CBS, Turner Broadcasting Company, Viacom, NBA, PGA Tour, and NASCAR. Randy has been at the forefront of mobile, media and sports entertainment since 2002, being one of the founding members of CBS mobile. He is the former head of CBS Mobile Entertainment and Sports verticals, involved in the development and creation of more than twenty of CBS’s flagship mobile service brands. He is recognized with two Emmy Awards for innovative work on NCAA March Madness On Demand. http://www.prweb.com/releases/julysystems/randy-ahn/prweb3968174.htm

Steve Beer, Esq.

Steven C Beer has served as counsel to numerous award-winning writers, directors, and producers, as well as industry leading film production, film finance, and film distribution companies. Additionally, Steven has served as counsel to numerous multi-platinum musical artists and has worked with high-profile production companies and record labels. Steven is the founder of R&B FM, LLC, a film production company focusing on producing music-oriented films. Before joining Greenberg Traurig, he established the entertainment and media law firm of Rudolph & Beer, LLP with Laurence H. Rudolph in 1993. http://www.gtlaw.com/People/StevenCBeer

Bill Binenstock

Bill Binenstock is the Vice President and Manager of CBS Interactive’s Entertainment and Lifestyle brands: TV.com, CHOW.com, TheInsider.com & UrbanBaby.com. Mr. Binenstock has been an operational and strategic leader within CBS Interactive since its creation and has a long history of online product innovation in the sports, advertising, entertainment, and media spaces. Prior to his current position, he was the manager of CBS.com, where he spearheaded a number of firsts including online-to-on-air implementations for The Grammys, How I Met Your Mother Desktop application, Big Brother live voting, CSI Crossover Trilogy application, and the Academy of Country Music Awards voting. He has been a principle designer or strategic leader on groundbreaking projects such as CBS Sports’ March Madness on Demand, the CBS Audience Network, CBSGames.com, CBS Sports Fantasy, and CBS Sports’ Member Content Community. Mr. Binenstock was one of the founding members of InterZine Productions, an AOL Greenhouse project. There, he helped design and build various iterations of InterZine’s primary website, iGolf, and was the product manager for iGolf’s Player’s Club – one of the web’s first virtual communities. Mr. Binenstock is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a degree in English literature. He also possesses a post-graduate certification in secondary education.

Daniel Dales

Daniel Dales is President and Co-CEO of Smokebomb Entertainment, the digital media division of Shaftesbury Films, with responsibility for the development and production of original online series and companion web experiences for Shaftesbury’s broadcast slate of properties. Since launching Smokebomb Entertainment in January 2008, Daniel and the Smokebomb team have produced several convergent online projects for Shaftesbury, including The Listener (CTV), Murdoch Mysteries (Citytv), Overruled! (Family Channel), Baxter (Family Channel) and Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures (TMN, Movie Central). Daniel is also actively involved in developing and creating Smokebomb’s slate of original online series, spanning several different genres, slated to launch in 2010.

Prior to launching Smokebomb, Daniel was an award-winning producer of commercials, music videos, documentaries and corporate videos for high profile clients in the advertising and entertainment industries, including Sony Pictures Entertainment, Motorola, BMW, Axe, Subway, Breakthrough Entertainment and Dundee Wealth Management.

Pat Kaufman

Pat Swinney Kaufman serves as Executive Director of the New York State Governor’s Office for Motion Picture and Television Development and as Deputy Commissioner of Empire State Development. She is responsible for facilitating filming in and marketing the State of New York as a location for film, television and commercial production. Ms. Kaufman runs the New York State Film Production Credit program which has been responsible for attracting $8.5 Billion in production to New York in the last 5 years.

During Ms. Kaufman’s tenure film and television production in New York has grown to record levels. In 2008, she was instrumental in tripling the New York State Film Production Credit program, 4 years after shepherding the legislation which created the program. The program just received multi-year funding of $420 per year for five years and added a post production incentive for productions not shot in New York. In 2008 she implemented the Commercial Production Incentive program. Additionally, she has been instrumental in the implementation of New York’s Child Performer laws, investment tax credits for soundstages and revamping the sales tax breaks for production.

Ms. Kaufman was elected President of the Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) and served from 2003-2007. AFCI, the professional and training organization for film commissioners around the world, has a membership of over 300 international film commissioners. Under her guidance the Association implemented a strategic plan that expanded the AFCI’s international membership. Ms. Kaufman oversaw the transformation of the Association’s magazine and website and the expansion of its annual conference of industry panels and professional training, as well as launching the Association’s new international certification program for film commissioners.

Ms. Kaufman also serves on the board of the Hamptons International Film Festival and is an ex officio board member of the New York Production Alliance. In 2005, Variety named Ms. Kaufman to their Women’s Impact List: 50 Who are Changing the Game. In 2009, AFCI presented her with the Arthur M. Loew Crystal Vision Award.

James Milward

James Milward has a degree in Economics and a postgraduate degree in Interactive Art and Entertainment from the New Media Lab at the Canadian Film Centre. James has worked extensively in TV commercial production and documentary film, prior to defecting to the dark arts of interactive, thirsting for a bigger creative canvas.

James founded interactive boutique Secret Location in 2007. Encompassing online, mobile, animation and transmedia storytelling, Secret Location has subsequently built numerous award-winning large-scale digital entertainment and brand projects. In just under 3 years, Secret Location has grown to a team of 15 and is currently working on 2 original online shows for Nickelodeon’s Teen Network, as well as producing over 10 integrated campaigns for large brands and TV shows in Canada and the US.

James has become a regular speaker at international conferences around the world including: SXSW Interactive, Flash in the Can, UPTO3, Next Media, The Banff World Television Festival, Reel Screen, the Boards Summit, Cross Media TO and now SoCin Toronto. James also serves on the digital advisory board of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.

Siobhan O’Flynn (Moderator)

“Stories are in our bones, old as the first fire and first cave paintings. And though the way we tell stories is changing, the roots of storytelling stay with us when we create in a digital realm.” Siobhan is an Assistant Professor in the Canadian Studies and English Departments of the University of Toronto and is on faculty at the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab. She advises on the design of digital narratives: transmedia, crossmedia, physical installations, interactive films & recently an interactive graphic novel. She has advised on over interactive 65 digital works, many of which have gone on to win awards in Canada & abroad (Pax Warrior, [murmur], Painting the Myth). In 2006/07, she was the narrative design consultant on Late Fragment, a feature film/dvd that premiered at Cannes. Having joined the Canadian Film Centre’s Media Lab in 2001, Siobhan continues to have the ongoing opportunity to critically engage with the development of emergent forms in digital media and I have mentored in the Digital Development Lab multiple times and in the Melting Silos Program for the Development of Transmedia Content, both in Vancouver. She is on the advisory board for Hana Iverson’s Neighborhood Narratives, a series of locative media projects linking Philadelphia, Tokyo, London, and Rome, and the advisory boards for Next Media and Jigsee.com. She previously played a major role in the Toronto alternative music scene, being one of the first grrrl djs (long before the invention of the term). Siobhan is the co-founder, dj and installation artist of the legendary Pariah and was also co-creator of the clothing and accessory line, Grrrl Gear. On alternate evenings, she carved a path through Toronto’s cooking community, working in many top restaurants, her favourite being a year at Centro. 1001tales.posterous.com

Ramona Pringle

Ramona Pringle is an interactive media producer, digital reporter & actor. As Interactive Media Producer for PBS FRONTLINE’s Digital Nation, Ramona developed and produced new participatory interactive media and videos, including “Your Stories”. Ramona has developed several video installations and multiplatform projects with the PeakMedia Collective & Research Lab including Ballerina Remix, exhibited at the New York Hall of Science. She is currently producing “Emotional Perception in the Interactive Cinematic Experience” and researching “Avatar Secrets to Real Life and Love”. Ramona hosted CBC’s The X and has worked as an actor on numerous series and feature films including Shoot ‘Em Up and Model Behavior. Ramona teaches in the New Media department at Ryerson University and has taught directing and acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has a Masters Degree in Interactive Media from NYU’s Interactive Telecommunications Department and a BFA Hons in Film and Video from York University.

Frank Radice (Moderator)

Frank J. Radice presently serves as the Expert in Residence at Definition 6, and the Creative Advisor for Thought Development and ON-AIR Pro™. He is also the Managing Partner of the Promotion, Marketing, Media, and consulting firm, VIDA F.R. Company in New York, Los Angeles, and London. Frank is the former President and Chief Marketing Officer of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). He serves on the Board of Governors of the New York Festivals, and on the advisory boards of World Wide Fan Clubs and The Broadway Walk of Stars. Most recently Frank oversaw the deal between NATAS and Associated Television International which brought the Daytime Emmy Awards to the CW Network.

He was the Executive Vice President of Advertising and Promotion for The NBC Agencyin New York from 2002 to 2008, responsible for promoting a wide variety of NBC Universal content including all NBC News and MSNBC cable programs, “Saturday Night Live,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “Last Call with Carson Daly,” and a number of Universal Media syndicated programs and NBC Universal specials. Frank was also the co-executive producer of “NBC In-Flight,” and “NBC on TED” for United Airlines. He received the TV Week Magazine/PROMAX “Campaign of Distinction” award in 2007, he was inducted into the PROMAX “Hall of Fame” in 2004, and named a “Brand Builder of the Year” by Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News Magazines in 2003. Frank is also named in the 60th Diamond Anniversary Edition of “Who’s Who in America,” and is a Daytime Emmy nominee for 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the category of Original Song Composition, as well as an Emmy Nominee in 2008 in the category of News Promotional Announcement. He has 38 years experience in media, marketing, promotion, and production.

Jarrett Sherman

Jarrett Sherman is President and Co-CEO of Smokebomb Entertainment, the digital media division of Shaftesbury Films, with responsibility for the development and production of original online series and companion web experiences for Shaftesbury’s broadcast slate of properties. Since launching Smokebomb Entertainment in January 2008, Jarrett and the Smokebomb team have produced several convergent online projects for Shaftesbury, including The Listener (CTV), Murdoch Mysteries (Citytv), Overruled! (Family Channel), Baxter (Family Channel) and Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures (TMN, Movie Central). Jarrett is also actively involved in developing and creating Smokebomb’s slate of original online series, spanning several different genres, slated to launch in 2010.

Prior to launching Smokebomb, Jarrett spent five years creative producing and directing the Crawlspace, TVOKids’ live daily programming block. Following TVOKids, Jarrett launched Miracle Pictures, a production company dedicated to creating compelling original multiplatform digital content. Jarrett wrote, produced and directed 40+ award-winning podcasts for Shaftesbury’s hit Disney/Family series “Life With Derek” and has directed and produced online video content for major brands including Motorola, Toyota, Spinmaster, and Hellman’s, in addition to directing series and composing original music for television.

Tony Walsh

Tony Walsh has over 15 years of experience as a freelance creative in Toronto’s interactive industry, where he contributed to such award-winning projects as the Fallen Alternate Reality Game (writer/designer) and Regenesis Extended Reality (writer/designer). In 2008, Walsh founded Phantom Compass, an independent game production company. With Phantom Compass, Walsh co-wrote the interactive component of BBC Three series “Spooks: Code 9,” created an Alternate Reality Game in support of Hollywood B-movie “Bangkok Dangerous,” co-produced a suite of games for a CBC TV series and produced a major browser-based educational game in association with TVOntario.

Noted as a thought leader at the intersection of games and culture, Walsh shares his experience with organizations and institutions around the world. He is the co-founder of StoryLabs, an international training organization aimed at advancing transmedia and multi-platform storytelling. He has developed and taught game design courses for George Brown College and Centennial College in Canada. He has coached film, television, and interactive producers for the CBC (Canada), AFTRS (Australia), and for BAVC (USA). He is an advisory board member for Screenburn at SXSW (USA) and two Canadian colleges. http://www.phantomcompass.com

SoCin NYC Speakers

Brian August, Watchitoo, Director of Media and Content

Brian August is the Director of Media and Content at Watchitoo, a two way multiple live streaming platform that allows users to collaborate in real time, while viewing a broad array of rich media content. Previously, Brian was the President of Webster Hall Digital Media and the creator of Event Horizons, a unique conference that explored the frontier of how video, mobile and social tools can be seamlessly integrated into live events. Brian also co-founded Plentitube, an online agency that connects television networks with the best original content on the web, creating an agile and innovative new programming paradigm. A digital media attorney with more then 20 years of experience, Brian has had a array of legal and strategic business roles with numerous internet technology start-ups.

Eric Berger, EVP, Sony Crackle
Eric Berger is the senior vice president of digital networks at Sony Pictures Television where he oversees Crackle, Sony Pictures Entertainment’s premium online video network. Mr. Berger joined the company in 2006 as vice president, mobile entertainment. He guided SPT’s mobile games division from 17th to 5th place in the market, and he successfully launched video services on all available mobile operators including Verizon, Sprint and AT&T. Prior to Sony Pictures, Mr. Berger was Vice President of Strategic Planning at Time Warner Inc. (AOL, HBO, Turner Broadcasting, Time Inc., Time Warner Cable, and Warner Bros.) where he was responsible for wireless initiatives and the creation of new digital growth businesses. His efforts included shaping the company’s overall mobile strategy, including driving investment, acquisition and business development.

Crackle, Inc., a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company, is a multi-platform next-generation video entertainment network that distributes digital content including original short form series and full-length traditional programming from Sony Pictures’ vast library of television series and feature films. Crackle is one of the fastest growing entertainment destinations on the Internet today, offering audiences quality programming in a variety of genres, including comedy, action, sci-fi, horror, music and reality. Crackle reaches a global audience through its impressive online and mobile distribution network.

Adam Broitman, Circ.us, Partner, Chief Ringleader

Adam Broitman is Partner and Chief Ringleader at Circ.us, an NYC based creative communications firm that helps brands and their agencies tell stories through innovation and participation. Adam is a recognized expert in all aspects of the ever-changing digital media+marketing and advertising landscape. A thought leader in the marketing industry, Adam is known for devising cutting edge marketing strategies for clients ranging from Kraft, Cisco, The New York Times and Panasonic to LVMH, The Energy Project and A&E.

Itzic Cohen, CEO, ClipSync

Itzik Cohen is the Founder and CEO of ClipSync. Based in Silicon Valley, California, ClipSync was co-founded by former WebEx veteran Itzik Cohen to research, create, and implement a Social TV platform that makes TV viewing and advertising content highly interactive, engaging and more fun. Mr. Cohen was centrally involved with funding and IPO at WebEx Communications, the Web Meeting Applications Company Acquired by Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO). Prior to WebEx, he was Director of Business Development at NetManage Inc., where he led the Advanced Technology team focusing on collaborative technologies.

ClipSync is leading the re-emergence of TV as a social activity – the Social TV revolution. Viewers can create, share, comment and react to content in real time, only in a time and place of their choosing. Viewers now have control of their content and the benefit of social interaction. This phenomenon is connecting people, content and advertisers like never before, with ClipSync leading the revolution. The ClipSync Interaction Platform lets publishers leverage their content and viewers by providing innovative real-time social applications with rich media advertising. ClipSync provides a suite of rich media ad products to expand publishers’ offerings and to address marketers’ needs for ad products with greater viewer engagement.

Lin Dai, VP, Programming and Production/Alloy Digital

As VP, Programming and Production for Alloy Digital, a division of Alloy Media + Marketing, Lin oversees and guides programming strategy, original content development and distribution for AlloyTV, a premium, multi-platform digital entertainment network, featuring webisodic programming and exclusive video content. He is also responsible for strategic marketing initiatives for the top ranked Alloy Digital Network, which reaches a robust audience of fifty million millennials and for Alloy\s entertainment properties, that include such popular teen books, TV shows, film, and web programs as Gossip Girl, Vampire Diaries, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and Private.

Lin’s digital expertise spans more than a decade. In 1999, he founded Kiwibox.com, the first social networking destination and online magazine for teens. Leading business development and marketing, he grew the website to more than two million members worldwide, and was successfully acquired in 2007. His career also includes experience managing entertainment and production projects for such companies such as Bad Boy Records, Universal Records, MTV, and Fuse.

Lin Dai graduated with honors from the prestigious School of Industrial Management, now Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University. His pioneering work on Intel’s Planning and Logistics Intranet project eventually led to the launch of Unique Net Solutions, Inc. The company’s revolutionary work was recognized when Lin Dai was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year award by Carnegie Mellon University.

Mark Friedlander, SAG, Head of Emerging Media

Mark Friedlander is the National Director of New Media for Screen Actors Guild, the nation’s largest labor union representing working actors. As head of the National New Media Department, he advises senior staff regarding the Guild’s Interactive and New Media contracts, and provides guidance on all issues relating to new media. Friedlander also serves as consultant to the member-led Interactive, New Technology and New Media Committes, and oversees the Guild’s ongoing efforts to monitor emerging technology trends in the entertainment industry. Mr. Friedlander earned a BA in Political Science from USC, A JD from California Western School of Law, as well as a Masters of Laws in Entertainment and Media Law from Southwestern University. He also attended Donald E. Bierderman Entertainment and Media Law Institute at Cambridge University.

Bill Hartnett, Senior Vice President, NBC News Marketing

Bill Hartnett is the Senior Vice President of NBC News Marketing. Hartnett oversees brand strategy, creative services and digital marketing for all NBC News properties, including“Today,”“NBC Nightly News,”“Dateline NBC,” and “Meet the Press”

Previously, Hartnett served as Senior Vice President of The NBC Agency, East Coast. In this capacity he managed the daily operation of both NBC News & MSNBC marketing and on-air promotion. He also supervised promotion for “Saturday Night Live” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” for NBC Entertainment.

Christopher Horton, Cinematic Media, Head of Acquisitions

Christopher Horton currently serves as the head of acquisitions for Cinetic Rights Management, and has been with its sister company Cinetic Media in various roles since 2002. CRM was formed in late 2007 with a focus on licensing digital rights for filmed content. Through the CRM’s FilmBuff brand, the company has quickly become one of the leading film distributors on cable VOD and broadband portals, domestically and abroad. New releases in 2010 include titles such as Chris Smith’s “Collapse”, Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and SXSW day-and-date releases “Erasing David” and “Crying with Laughter”. Prior to joining Cinetic, Mr. Horton worked in the Business Affairs department of Miramax Films. He received degrees in film studies and psychology from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Lloyd Kaufman, Tromo Studios, Acclaimed Producer, Director

“Without Lloyd Kaufman, there probably never would have been There’s Something About Mary or Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo.” – Michael H. Klienschrodt, film critic – New Orleans Times

Whether or not he would accept the fame (or blame) for these raunchy, mainstream blockbusters, there can be no doubt that what Kaufman has achieved is enormous. In 30 years, Kaufman, along with Yale friend and partner Michael Herz, has built Troma Studios up from a young company struggling to find its voice in a field crowded with competitors to legendary status as a lone survivor, a bastion of true independence, and the world’s greatest concentration of camp. Among Troma Entertainment’s library of over 1,000 movies are the early performances of such stars as Kevin Costner, Billy Bob Thornton, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert DeNiro, Dennis Hopper, Dustin Hoffman, Fergie (Black Eyed Peas) and countless others! As a filmmaker, Lloyd Kaufman has accumulated a remarkable list of credits, as well as a more extraordinary list of debits to loan sharks and pawn shops across New York.

Mark Lipsky, Founder, Insight Cinema

“The 21st century meltdown of old media strategies presents compelling opportunities for those of us willing to embrace new technology. The internet affords us the reach and revenue prospects of any network or cable channel and the sooner we recognize and rally around that fact, the sooner we’ll emerge from the debilitating funk that threatens to envelop us. The outlook for world cinema in the US marketplace is especially bright. There’s so much to be excited about.” – Mark Lipsky

Mr. Lipsky is following this vision in creating Insight Cinema. It is dedicated toward inciting, enabling and empowering filmmakers around the globe. IC’s blog proclaims “[t]he future for independent filmmaking, like the future for virtually everything else, lies in the power and reach of the internet. There will always be a place for brick-and-mortar cinemas and for off-line film festivals. But – and I can’t stress this point passionately enough – the audience and the tools to reach them are online. Period. Live with it. Embrace it and the world is virtually at your beck and call. Reject or fear it at your peril.”

Ryan Osborn, Producer, NBC’s Today Show

Ryan Osborn is a producer at NBC’s Today Show, and he gets social media. As he works in a broadcast newsroom, Ryan faces a completely different set of challenges than what most newspaper folks face.

Frank Radice, Definition 6

Frank J. Radice presently serves as the Expert in Residence at Definition 6, and the Creative Advisor for Thought Development and ON-AIR Pro™. He is also the Managing Partner of the Promotion, Marketing, Media, and consulting firm, VIDA F.R. Company in New York, Los Angeles, and London. Frank is the former President and Chief Marketing Officer of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (NATAS). He serves on the Board of Governors of the New York Festivals, and on the advisory boards of World Wide Fan Clubs and The Broadway Walk of Stars. Most recently Frank oversaw the deal between NATAS and Associated Television International which brought the Daytime Emmy Awards to the CW Network.

He was the Executive Vice President of Advertising and Promotion for The NBC Agencyin New York from 2002 to 2008, responsible for promoting a wide variety of NBC Universal content including all NBC News and MSNBC cable programs, “Saturday Night Live,” “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” “Last Call with Carson Daly,” and a number of Universal Media syndicated programs and NBC Universal specials. Frank was also the co-executive producer of “NBC In-Flight,” and “NBC on TED” for United Airlines. He received the TV Week Magazine/PROMAX “Campaign of Distinction” award in 2007, he was inducted into the PROMAX “Hall of Fame” in 2004, and named a “Brand Builder of the Year” by Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News Magazines in 2003. Frank is also named in the 60th Diamond Anniversary Edition of “Who’s Who in America,” and is a Daytime Emmy nominee for 2006, 2007 and 2008 in the category of Original Song Composition, as well as an Emmy Nominee in 2008 in the category of News Promotional Announcement. He has 38 years experience in media, marketing, promotion, and production.

Fred Sibert, Frederator Studios, Next New Networks

Fred Seibert makes original cartoons and television networks. In 1998 former Hanna-Barbera Cartoons president Fred Seibert formed Frederator Studios, an independent television production company. He is the executive producer of six animated series on Nickelodeon’s networks including The Fairly Oddparents, Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!, and Random! Cartoons and is developing animated feature films at Sony Pictures Animation and Paramount Pictures. He is the founder of Channel Frederator, Cartoon Central on the Internet, and the Creative Director of Next New Networks.