Dale is a thought leader on the future of media consumption in an interactive and “many-screen” world of increasingly rich media interfaces. With an extensive background in Broadcast Design and branding, he was creative director of on-air design and branding for the three CBS Sports Winter Olympics broadcasts in the 1990s. Having his roots in the rich media approach to design in TV and film, he has pioneered a unique spatial approach to designing navigation systems for Interactive TV and connected screens. The work begins to blur the line between television, games and web, a concept he calls "New Television."

Dale was a part of the research team that developed the visionary gestural interfaces that first appeared in the film Minority Report, and is now leading development work in the rapidly emerging world of gestural navigation for screens at a distance. Screens have always defined unique spaces, and, particularly with advancements in stereo 3D projection and advanced AR, information can occupy these spaces. Spatial context is becoming increasingly important in design that is no longer flat: space and place are the new frontiers of design. 

Dale has an MFA from California Institute of the Arts, where in 1981 he taught the first course in Motion Graphics offered to designers in the United States. He served on the founding advisory board of the digital content direction at the American Film Institute, and was an active participant in the development of advanced prototypes for Enhanced TV at AFI for many years. Dale received one of the first ITVT Interactive TV Leadership Awards and has won four Emmy awards.

Dale was co-founder of interactive agency Schematic, which recently merged with three other agencies to become global powerhouse Possible Worldwide where he currently serves as Chief Interaction Officer. 

Adrian Sexton is Co-Founder & CEO of New Medici LLC, a media strategy + lifestyle innovation network.

As former digital head of two media companies, Lionsgate and Participant Media, and co-founding partner of TAG Strategic consultancy, Sexton brings a hybrid background in operational digital strategy, product development, social and viral marketing and distribution.

Sexton and his team’s passion is building audiences and platforms in untapped areas across digital and traditional platforms. New Medici clients include digital studios, live event and branded entertainment agencies, social media applications and DIY platforms, and film distributors.

Before New Medici, Sexton was Executive Vice President, running digital at Participant Media. He was responsible for managing the company’s expansion into global media, digital distribution and marketing. He architected TakePart.com, a social marketing and entertainment portal. Traffic across the site and acquired sites grew 1000% year over year during Sexton’s tenure. Sexton recently worked on such Participant films as Food Inc., The Soloist, Charlie Wilson’s War, The Kite Runner, and the Academy Award®-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.

Sexton came to Participant from TAG Strategic, a digital media and entertainment agency he co-founded with EMI veteran Ted Cohen. TAG’s diverse client roster has included Qualcomm, Sandisk, Participant, Eyespot, Lionsgate, LimeWire and LivePlanet.

Before forming TAG, Sexton headed Digital Media as Vice President at Lionsgate, where he oversaw the day-to-day operations, production, media planning and business development for digital and mobile properties. His duties encompassed theatrical, home entertainment, television, international and physical studios. He oversaw the digital campaigns for such movies as Best Picture Academy Award®-winning Crash, Monster’s Ball, Fahrenheit 9/11, and the SAW and Tyler Perry franchises; as well as digital cinema initiatives with BMW Films and Microsoft.

Sexton identified multiple-platform marketing, distribution and sales opportunities for the studio’s 8000+ title film library in such high-growth markets as broadband, mobile, digital cinema, peer-to-peer and IPTV. Lionsgate’s market capitalization rose from $60 million to $1.2 billion during Sexton’s tenure; and, he was part of the team which secured the $350 million credit facility to acquire Artisan Entertainment.

Prior to Lionsgate, Sexton was the New Media Director at Mediapact Capital, a $500M media management and investment capital firm which took over management of Lionsgate. His professional experience also includes work in television at Sony Pictures Entertainment, production and development at HBO Pictures, 20th Century Fox and Saban Entertainment.

A frequent media presenter, Sexton delivered a media and entertainment keynote at the 2009 X Media Lab in Auckland, the studio keynote at the Opening Forum of the 60th Anniversary of the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, as well as keynotes at the 2007 Digital Hollywood, 2006 Intel Viiv launch in Tokyo and 2006 Forrester conference in São Paulo. In addition, New Medici won the 2009 British Airways/Harvard Business Review Face of Opportunity award.

Sexton has served as an arts advisory member of non-profits American Democracy Institute, Games For Change and the Los Angeles Film Festival. Additionally, he is on the Interactive Media Peer Group Awards Committee for the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, and a New Media Council member of the Producers Guild of America.

Susan Bonds is a pioneer of transmedia storytelling and driving force behind42 Entertainment’s critically acclaimed interactive experiences: genre-defining participatory and cross-platform entertainment often described as “alternative reality” games (ARGs). 

These rich worlds extend beyond film screens, game consoles, television shows, book pages, and music albums, allowing audiences to “live” the story in unforgettable ways that intersect when, where, and how they live.  More than any other form of interactive media, these ARGs create strong, passionate global communities and galvanize them into a powerful hive mind of collective intelligence.  As President and CEO, Susan builds and directs the teams that design, create, and execute 42’s diverse and innovative projects. 

In 2008, 42 Entertainment created the groundbreaking ARG, Why So Serious?, for Warner Bros.’ The Dark Knight, the third-highest grossing movie of all time.  More than 10-million people around the world participated in this 3600 immersive experience as citizens of Gotham City came to life through a variety of mediums and platforms.  Why So Serious? won the Cyber Grand Prix at the 2009 Cannes Lions, the Art Director’s Club Hybrid Award; and the Webby Integrated Campaign Award.  In 2007, 42 Entertainment took the music world by storm, working with Nine Inch Nails to produce Year Zero, a first-of-its-kind concept album that combined music with multi-platform, transmedia storytelling.  This ARG also won the Cyber Grand Prix in 2008.  Past 42 Entertainment campaigns include: ilovebees, the 2004 ARG used to launch Microsoft’s wildly popular X-Box game Halo 2; Project Abraham, for the 2008 launch of Sony Playstation’s Resistance 2; and, The Vanishing Point, a 2007 global puzzle experience to promote Windows Vista.  42 Entertainment is currently working with Disney on an “alternate reality” adventure for the upcoming 2010 film Tron Legacy.

Before founding 42 Entertainment, Susan was Chief Design and Production Officer for Cyan Worlds, a company best known for creating the worlds of Myst and Riven, two of the best-selling PC games of all time, where she produced a Massively Multiplayer Online game, URU: Ages Beyond Myst, and realMyst, the popular PC game in real time 3D. 

For ten years, Susan was Creative Director and Senior Show Producer for Walt Disney Imagineering, where she directed the design, development, and construction of major attractions, themed architecture, internet entertainment projects, and proprietary new ride systems.  Her portfolio included such blockbuster “E-Ticket” attractions as the Indiana Jones Adventure,Alien Encounters, and Mission: SPACE.  Susan produced the signature exterior design of the ABC Times Square Studios in New York, seen every day on Good Morning America, and led the Disney Concept Studio charged with creating innovative ideas for the company.

Susan has an Engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, an MBA from Georgia State University, and is a member of the Producer’s Guild of America.

Richard Cardran is a media strategist and technologist who was recognised in the October 2006 Hollywood Reporter/Producers Guild of America's year end "Digital 50" as well as Streaming Magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People in Streaming."

Richard has garnered two Emmy Awards for "Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television" and "Outstanding Achievement in Advanced Media Technology" through his pioneering vision and efforts surrounding the paradigm shift in TV broadcasting to new TV2.0 strategies.

Richard co-founded and in 2006 sold Zetools, Inc. a digital media software and services company - now the global advanced media and broadband television unit of TANDBERG Television, Part of the Ericsson group.

Mr. Cardran has implemented leading edge strategy and projects for Microsoft, Intel, AOL, Viacom, Disney, Universal McCann, Real Networks and Panasonic as well as MTV, TV Land, Bloomberg, ABC, HDnet, Capitol Records, IFILM, Comedy Central, The American Film Institute, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and many others.

Richard is also a published writer and sought after speaker for events by The American Film Institute, Microsoft, Kagan Research, Streaming Media, Digital Hollywood, CASBAA, NAB and others.

Juliette Powell is a media entrepreneur, a community catalyst and the author of 33 Million People in the Room : How to create, Influence and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking, (January 2009, Financial Times Press).

Drawing on first hand experience as a social media expert and co-founder of The Gathering Think Tank, an innovation forum that connects technology, media, entertainment, and business communities, Powell writes about the patterns and practices of successful business leaders who bank on social networking to win. Powell’s background includes a decade of experience in broadcast television as well as in interactive/new media content and formats, and a lifelong interest in people and community-building. With her deep knowledge of the people and technologies at the forefront of social media, Powell has gained a solid reputation for discovering the latest developments and distilling their social and business implications. Her consulting services have been employed by corporate, government and new media organizations, including Red Bull, Mozilla, Microsoft, Compaq, Trump International, the United Nations, the Department of Justice, Paltalk, Rocketboom and Nokia.

Powell has also assisted in the production of the world-renowned TED Conference. and began her career as a television producer – interviewer and Founder of Powell International Entertainment, Inc. (PIE, Inc.), an integrated media production and development company that produces cross-platform content with newsmakers such as Nelson Mandela, Prince Charles, Sir Richard Branson, Steven Spielberg, and Tom Cruise.

Clients include The Biography Channel, Women's Entertainment Television, E! Entertainment Television, Cirque du Soleil, and Bravo. Most recently, Powell was commissioned to create Canada’s first cross-platform interactive show designed for TV, Internet, radio, and mobile applications. Capitalizing on her expertise in social media, Powell is currently working on the ‘whyTV’ global initiative with Nokia.

A popular guest speaker, Powell has been featured at MIT’s Innovation Forum, NYU’s Interactive Technology Program, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) and the Producer’s Guild of America New Media Council.

While most kids were grappling with the realities of growing up, Vishal took a head start and started his first company – FACT, soon after finishing school at the ripe young age of 16.

In 1999, he founded Indiagames, then a five member team. Today he leads a global operation with over 300 employees and offices in Mumbai, Beijing, London and Los Angeles.  Indiagames is an award winning multi-platform games company, developing games for wireless, console and online gaming platforms, and works with top game publishers, handset manufacturers, Hollywood studios and mobile operators across the globe.

Vishal is recognized as being instrumental in starting and growing the Gaming Industry in India.

Vishal was part of The Nokia Advisory Council for Games and actively advises Nokia on wireless and gaming technologies and is a much sought after speaker at gaming and wireless technology conferences. Indiagames under Vishal’s leadership was featured amongst Red Herring Asia’s Top 100 companies in 2005.   

Amongst his other achievements and industry recognitions include being featured among the top 40 Indian entrepreneurs by Business Today magazine in 2001; an E&Y Indian Entrepreneur of the year award nomination in 2004 and most recently being listed among the top 50 executives in the mobile content space by the UK based Mobile Entertainment Magazine. This list featured the likes of Steve Jobs of Apple. Vishal also features among the 20 Fab Indians to watch out for in 2006 by The Week magazine.

Rajat Paharia is the founder and Chief Product Officer of Bunchball.  Bunchball's Nitro platform incents and motivates user behavior online.

Nitro distills concepts from behavioural economics and game design into a web service that major media companies, social networks, ISPs, and others are using to drive user behaviour and increase engagement on their web sites.

Rajat's skill set combines a unique understanding of technology and design that stems from a four year career at design firm IDEO where he was co-director of the Software Experiences Practice. While there he worked with clients including AT&T Wireless, Avaya, Microsoft, McDonald's, HP and Philips. Prior to IDEO, Rajat worked at Philips Consumer Electronics, IBM Research and ViewStar. He has a Masters degree in Computer Science from Stanford University, with a focus on Human Computer Interaction, and an undergraduate degree from the University of California Berkeley.

Doug Whatley is CEO and Founder of BreakAway, one of the world’s leading developers of entertainment games and game-based technology products.

Doug has over 20 years of successful game development and management experience in the interactive entertainment industry. He began his career at America Online where he was instrumental in helping to create the AOL client/server infrastructure. After that, he held senior-level management positions at MicroProse, ABC Sports, and Disney where he worked on critically acclaimed software titles such as Darklands, Gunship 2000, Sid Meier's Civilization, and ABC's Monday Night Football.

Since founding BreakAway, Doug has positioned the company as a global leader in developing and applying game technology to solve real world problems in the military, healthcare, homeland security and corporate arenas.

Doug was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for 2004 and was recognized as a Top 10 Cutting Edge Designer by Business Week in 2006. In recognition for their sustained growth, BreakAway has been named to Deloitte's prestigious Technology Fast 50 Program for three consecutive y

Following training as a documentary TV producer-director with the BBC, Hugh Mason founded and grew a multiple-award-winning broadcast TV production company.

Finding himself as interested in the business side of running a creative company as he had previously been making films, Hugh co-founded Pembridge Partners in 2001. Instead of making complex stories about science accessible to non-specialist audiences, Hugh now applies his strategy, ideas and communication skills to help Creative Industries Small-and Medium-sized Enterprises to visualize their futures, set a path for growth and plan their way to success.

Pembridge Partners LLP provides finance and advice exclusively to creative industries SMEs to help their owners build and realize value. Pembridge has raised or invested directly over NZ$60m, since start-up, engaging with over 1,800 SMEs in the UK, Singapore and Netherlands. Hugh specializes in building wealth in the creative sector through public sector programmes, He also is an expert in TV/Film, Design and Online business support.

 

Parmesh Shahani's first book - Gay Bombay: Globalization, Love and (Be)Longing in Contemporary India (New Delhi, London, Los Angeles, Singapore: Sage Publications) was released in April 2008. He is based in Mumbai where he serves as an Editor-at-Large forVerve magazine.

He is also affiliated with the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium, a think tank that explores how corporations can understand and profit from the changing media landscape. In the past, he has founded Freshlimesoda.com, India's first online youth magazine, and worked across the Indian media and corporate landscapes in digital media, venture capital and innovation at organizations like Elle, the Times of India group, Sony Entertainment Televisionand Mahindra.

Andrew Hamilton was the founding CEO of The ICEHOUSE in 2001.

The ICEHOUSE is a business growth centre that creates learning environments for entrepreneurial firms to enable them to significantly grow their companies.

It is a charitable trust founded in New Zealand by the University of Auckland Business School and some well known New Zealand and International Companies – BNZ, The Boston Consulting Group, Ernst & Young, HP, Microsoft, Minter Ellison & Telecom. Since 2001, we have worked with 65 start-ups and just under 2,000 established entrepreneurial firms. We have raised $35m for these start-ups and our owner managers are growing their EBIT on average 31% per annum.

As part of his role at the ICEHOUSE, Andrew serves as Chair of the Angel Association in NZ; Board member of ICE Angels; Board Member, ANZATEC – the Australian New Zealand Technology Forum; Deputy Chair, the Auckland Metro Project; Director, Start-Up Media; and he is an Investment Committee member for the ICEHOUSE Start-Up Fund.

Prior to joining the ICEHOUSE, Andrew was CEO and Director of Inventure, Fletcher Building’s venture capital arm which he established in 1998 and before that he did a range of different things from lawyer, to Executive Assistant, Retailer of a Lawn Mower Business & Sales & Marketing Manager for Kiwi Icon Masport.

Mike McGraw has been at the forefront of emerging content development for most of his career and has always maintained a priority to deliver content to the most relevant audiences through the most relevant channels.

Mike currently oversees all digital strategy, content distribution and operations for Big Fuel, a digital ad agency based in New York . At Big Fuel Mike uses his experience with on-air, online and mobile platforms to develop effective strategies for clients like Johnston and Johnston, AOL, Fox, Unilever and MTV.

Before joining Big Fuel, Mike founded Link Media Management, a digital content strategy firm in Los Angeles that produced HD content for pay TV and maintained an innovative consulting practice in the entertainment sector. During this time Mike also completed a year long digital transformation project for Australian broadcaster SBS.

Before Link, Mike worked in Sydney heading up broadband content development for Telstra’s Broadband Service Bigpond.  In this role, Mike oversaw launches of several on-line services, including Australia’s first large-scale music download site, an on-demand movie and premium TV service, two national sports channels and the largest online games portal in the Pacific Rim.

Prior to Telstra, Mike served as Managing Director for Massive Interactive in Sydney where he built a development team that engineered groundbreaking iTV and broadband service roll-outs for Austar, Foxtel, Telstra and Sky New Zealand.

Mike also gained considerable experience in pay television as VP of production and programming for Country Music Television (CMT). Mike also owned and operated Moving Story Pictures, an independent broadcast production company offering programming consulting, production, branding and other creative services to the pay TV industry. Some of Moving Story Pictures’ clients included: CBS Cable, A&E, Sony Music, Greystone Entertainment, Automatic Pictures, Country Music Television (CMT) and The Nashville Network (TNN).

Zhan Ye is President, GameVision, and a Strategic Investment Consultant for Giant Interactive Group, China’s leading online game developers and operators in terms of revenues. 

Giant Interactive has over 1000 employees at their headquarters in Shanghai, and over 3000 Sales & Marketing personnel throughout China.

A veteran game developer and entrepreneur, Zhan Ye is one of the first-generation game developers in China.  Zhan began creating PC games in 1995 and his thinking and writings have inspired many of today's Chinese game developers. Zhan established China’s first game developers magazine and served as its editorial director. He is the founder and president of GameVision, a business consulting and outsourcing management firm. GameVision's clients include global game publishers and developers, Venture Capital firms, technology vendors, and media companies.

Zhan Ye received a Master's Degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) from Carnegie Mellon University.

Nathan Torkington ran the first web server in New Zealand, chaired the O'Reilly Open Source Convention and other O'Reilly conferences for over a decade. He runs Kiwi Foo Camp, co-wrote the best-selling Perl Cookbook, and lives in Leigh where he consults in the Asia-Pacific region on web and open source technology.

He teaches programming to 7 year olds and isn't afraid to admit it.

Greg Suess is a founding partner of ROAR, a Beverly Hills-based management consulting company.  He also practices corporate and entertainment law with Glaser, Weil, Fink, Jacobs, Howard & Shapiro, LLP. 

Since ROAR’s inception, Greg has overseen more than $250 million in financing transactions for clients.  Under the ROAR banner, Greg co-executive produced the acclaimed mockumentary, Pittsburg and the moving drama, Memories of Tomorrow.  Greg is currently producing the feature Little Big War, with Fox, to be directed by Walt Becker (Wild Hogs), and the comedy, Tug, financed by TicTock Studios.  Greg produced the first ever Girls Gone Wild music compilation, with Jive Records and ZOMBA.  He also produced a live HD concert for Billboard’s #1 World Band, Gaelic Storm, entitled Gaelic Storm: Live From Chicago, and co-executive produced Aisha Tyler is Lit: Live at the Fillmore, which sold to Comedy Central. 

Greg made the unprecedented move of becoming “Of Counsel” to Glaser, Weil as a third year lawyer, after securing a number of high profile clients for representation, including Quincy Jones, CJ Entertainment, PCCW, and The Milken Family Foundation.  Prior to joining the law firm, Greg was director of business development for Knowledge Exchange.

Greg was listed as a “Super Lawyer” in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by Los Angeles Magazine and Law & Politics.  Greg is also the co-author of I Love You Man, But Not Like THAT (Andrews McMeel 2007).

Greg is a graduate of the University of Southern Californias Entrepreneur Program

Trent J Blacket is the head of ROAR Asia Pacific.

ROAR is a management and production company based in Beverly Hills, California with offices in Nashville, Atlanta, and New York.

Trent specializes in advising clients operating in both the North American and Asia Pacific trade and investment sectors, with a primary focus on providing management consulting services to corporate and Government groups re North American market growth strategies, together with advising on transactions and investments that have a nexus with the global media and entertainment industries. Clients include The Government of Western Australia (USA Trade & Investment Office), LFG, The Michael Hutchence Trust, Redback Tools, Disruptive Studios/Pullin TV and other middle market corporations.

Trent was formerly an Australian Lawyer and Management Consultant, being the Principal of Wilshire Stead, and was formerly a Director of TC&A Lawyers, of Melbourne. At TC&A, Trent worked closely with JT Campbell & Co, a prominent merchant bank (Chairman, Michael Kroger) and also represented prominent Australian clients including Gai Waterhouse Racing, Roy Morgan Research Centre, Tempo/ISS and PPB Victoria.

Trent was educated at Trinity Grammar in Kew, Victoria, and subsequently at Monash University Law School. Trent holds a combined degree of Bachelor of Laws (International Business major) and a Bachelor of Jurisprudence.

Trent is Board Member of Advance (Los Angeles), and an active member of the American Australian Association, The Milken Institute Young Leaders Circle (USA), Australians in Film (Los Angeles), Australian Film Institute (Aus) and the Law Institute of Victoria (Aus).
 

Managing Directrix, Mohawk Media (Auckland)

Helen Baxter runs Mohawk Media, an animation & video production company in West Auckland. She produces the g33k show, a science & technology series, writes the MsBehaviour Files for The Big Idea, appears regularly on Virtual World, Radio New Zealand, and the Radio Wammo show on Kiwi FM.

Helen was based in the UK for ten years as a digital entrepreneur, writer, online community producer, and training manager for an ISP. She lectured in New Media at the University of the West of England, and has appeared as an technology commentator for the BBC, TV3, TVNZ and SKYTV in the UK, New Zealand & Australia.

Helen was founding Editor of KnowledgeBoard.com a global community for Knowledge & Innovation to define KM Made in Europe' on behalf of the Euopean Comission. Voted 'Best of the Web' by the Harvard Business School in 2002. KnowledgeBoard also went on to win 'Best User Experience' at the International Information Industry Awards in 2003.

Director, HB Media Ltd (Auckland)

Vincent Heeringa is a director of HB Media Ltd and one of New Zealand’s leading business commentators.

He is a co-founder of Idealog, the country’s biggest circulating business magazine. A former business journalist with Metro magazine, The Independent Business Weekly and the founding editor of Unlimited magazine, Vincent has won numerous awards including being twice named "Editor of the Year" by the Magazine Publishers’ Association.

In 2004 he co-founded HB Media, publisher of Idealog, Inspire (NZ’s largest travel magazine) and Good magazine, New Zealand’s first carbon-neutral magazine. He is a director of AUT Media, the publishing arm of AUT University. He was also recently appointed to the advisory board of the Media & Science Centre.