Recent developments in the digital media industry are forcing the entertainment industry to rethink current business models as the industry evolves. The success of Youtube and iPhone, notwithstanding, does leave out some issues that need to be addressed – particularly in areas of digital copyright and the ownership and the marketability of user generated content. As internet and mobile technology is maturing and evolving, old laws are being rewritten in favor of new laws. Join a panel of digital media experts as they discuss the current state of the industry, including hot button issues such as how big media companies will balance the opportunities presented by digital distribution with the possible cannibalization of existing businesses? Points of discussion to include:
- What is the next big thing in digital media in the next 12 months to 2 years and who will be the winners and losers in the years to come?
- What are the most likely business models for user-generated content?
- Can content created by consumers be the backbone of a viable business model?
- What is the future for ad-supported free distribution of digital content - including music, video and games - online?
- How can traditional media businesses connect with this consumer mindset?
- Life after iphone: What’s next in the digitial revolution of music? What standards are likely to emerge?
- What new opportunities exist for marketers to tap into these newly formed digital communities and niches?
- Mobile media : Life after ringtones and music. – What next?
- Dan Beldy - Steamboat Ventures (Disney Ventures)
- Rupert Young - AT&T Ventures
- Jim Griffin - Onehouse LLC - Industry Analyst
- Yangbin Wang - Vobile Inc - Leading Video DNA
Startup
- Azita Arvani - Arvani Group - Digital Media
Consultant
- Panel moderated by Scott Hervey, Partner
Weintraub Genshela Chediak
 Dan Beldy, Managing Director, Steamboat Ventures
DAN BELDY is a managing director of Steamboat
Ventures. Dan has spent the last 20 years in technology
and finance as an investor, entrepreneur and operator. Prior to Steamboat, Dan was a co-founder and managing director of Plainview Capital, an innovative family of fundamental value investment funds that leverage a proprietary software platform, Plainview Analytics™. Before Plainview, Dan was an associate and partner at Hummer Winblad Venture Partners.
Focusing on early stage software investments, Dan was involved with several successful, growing companies as an investor / advisor / board member including Employease, acquired by ADP (NASDAQ: ADP), Technorati, Starmine, Method Home and
Maxion Technologies. Early in his career Dan was an officer and an F/A-18 Hornet jet instructor pilot for the U.S. Navy, completing over 275 aircraft carrier landings in tours of duty with the Atlantic Fleet. Dan received a BS in computer science as a distinguished graduate of the US Naval Academy in 1986, and received an MBA in finance from The Wharton School in 1998.
 Rupert Young, Director,
AT&T Ventures
Chartered with finding new businesses for AT&T to enter both quickly and profitably, Rupert focuses on looking for emerging opportunities that can be quickly translated into new, market facing offers. Also has responsibility for all of AT&T’s Equity Alliances – from strategy to governance through life cycle management.
Rupert joined PacBell in 1995 after graduating from a co-op master's program at BellCore/MIT. Initially he worked in a small R&D subsidiary Telesis Technologies Laboratory working on emerging multimedia/web technologies, VoIP, DSL, and later IP over optical and metro Ethernet. In 2000, he joined SBC's strategic partnership group to help start the hosting business and later was part of the team that formed the strategic relationship with Yahoo for broadband services. In 2002, he joined the strategic marketing organization developing 3-5 year roadmaps and plans for entering emerging markets such as managed services, hosting, application services, and most recently seamless mobility and mesh wi-fi services for business customers. In 2006 with the creation of the AT&T Business Development organization, he was brought in to be the lead the development of AT&T's strategy, business model, product, partnerships, and sales for muni wi-fi services. In 2007 Rupert moved into his current role. Rupert has lived in the S.F. Bay area for 12 years. He has a SB and SM in Computer Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
 Yangbin Wang-- Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Vobile, Inc.
Prior to founding Vobile, Yangbin was the CTO of Onewave Technologies following the acquisition of the IPTV business of YZTECH by Onewave in 2004. He was the founder and CEO of YZTECH, a leading IPTV technology provider in China famous for the landmark deployment of its IPTV platform by Hangzhou Netcom/WASU. It was the first and largest commercial IPTV service offering in China. Previously, Yangbin was the founder and CEO of EnjoyWeb, which pioneered the time-shift delivery of video contents via broadband Internet. In addition, Yangbin was director of software architecture at Oak Technology's Broadband Consumer Group. He also participated in several startups. At the outset of his career, he was a research engineer at Compression Labs (CLI) and General Instrument (GI). Yangbin earned a BS degree from Zhejiang University in China and an MSEE degree from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He also completed the executive education program at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
 Azita Arvani, President, Arvani Group
Azita Arvani has spent nearly two decades in senior-level assignments involving both Fortune 500 and start-up companies across the globe. Prior to founding Arvani Group, she served as Vice President of Business Development and Strategy at ActiveSky, an innovative developer of interactive rich media technologies for mobile applications based in San Mateo, CA. There, she led the creation of commercial and product development relationships with content providers, content services providers, micro-browser vendors, wireless infrastructure companies, mobile carriers, and handheld device manufacturers, including the Cartoon Network, Sprint, Casio, Openwave, KDDI, and Nokia. She also played a key role in generating $22 million in Series B funding.
Azita has previously held positions with Xerox Corporation. As Director of Corporate Business Strategy in Palo Alto, CA, she focused the marketing and business development of the spin-off that became ContentGuard, an enabler of Digital Rights Management for Web-distributed content. She also served as Director of Corporate Business Strategy at company headquarters in Stamford, CT. There, she was a consultant to the CEO and his senior team on planning and implementing corporate initiatives. Azita led the corporate initiative to develop a market-centric architecture for future-generation printing solutions. She also created a new business strategy for the Kinko’s account (annual revenues of $200M+).
 Scott Hervey, Partner, Weintraub Genshlea Chediak, Moderator
Scott Hervery’s practice focuses on Intellectual Property matters, issues concerning the Internet, licensing and entertainment law. Scott’s Intellectual Property practice involves the representation of companies primarily in the areas of trademarks, copyrights and licensing. He regularly practices before the United States Patent and Trademark Office on trademark registrations, opposition and cancellation proceedings. Scott also handles trademark and copyright infringement matters, including Internet based trademark disputes. Scott’s entertainment practice focuses primarily on the music and independent film industries. He has represented talent, producers, managers, production companies and independent record labels in a variety of transactions.
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