Thursday, October 18, 2018

12:30 PM - 1:45 PM

Track I: Herscher Hall, 3rd Floor, 303-304

Producing for Film/TV, Branded Entertainment and Influencer Marketing Programming

Darnell Brisco, VP of Accounts, Fullscreen

Lindsay Stewart, founding CEO, Stringr

George Leon, Chief Strategy Officer, Hawthorne

Charles Dalaklis, President & CEO, Dalaklis Media Enterprises

Frank Donner, Founder and CEO, BLKBX Creative Group

Parker Williams, CEO/ Founding Partner, Wheelhouse

Ceslie Armstrong, CEO & executive producer, NYTEX Productions LLC, Moderator

George Leon, Chief Strategy Officer, Hawthorne: During George’s eight years, he has helped Hawthorne grow by 300% by focusing on campaign strategy and execution, data analytics, campaign optimization and partnership development. He leads a diverse team of account directors, data scientists, media strategists, buyers and planners who work on a broad range of major brand clients managing billions of dollars of media allocations and investments. George’s client roster at Hawthorne includes 3M (Command, Filtrete and Post-it), Angie’s List, BLACK+DECKER, Brother International, Carbonite, Children’s Hospital

of Los Angeles, Craftsy, Credit One Bank, Dexcom, Dyson, Equifax, Gerber Life, Hamilton Beach, HomeAdvisor, Indochino, It’s Just Lunch, L'Oréal, Mars, Mattel, Pella, Penn Foster, Philips Electronics, ResMed, ShopAtHome, Spectrum, thredUP, Transamerica, VARIDESK and zulily. Over the past 20 years, George has been involved in every aspect of video advertising from creative development, offer and content messaging to integrated media strategy, media planning, data analysis, forecasting and attribution methodologies—covering all channels and devices. He has created strong media relationships with major broadcast and cable networks, ad exchanges, DMPs, programmatic and addressable platforms, aligning Hawthorne campaigns with the right strategy and ROI-driven execution. Utilizing his background in financial analysis and forecasting, George launched his media career at Williams Television Time in Los Angeles. He worked on account analysis for clients such as DIRECTV, Mars, Mattel and Phillips Electronics. Later, George became media director of National Media. Within two years, George was responsible for all of the company's media and operation functions. In 2000, George co-founded Gold Mountain Media, Inc., a successful media agency focusing on long form media. As integrated marketing and data-driven campaigns expanded their dominance in the DRTV media marketplace, George launched CIELO Media Management, Inc. in 2008, focusing on a hybrid of English and Spanish long and short form media campaigns. In 2010, George joined Hawthorne as it continued to expand and grow brand response and accountable advertising covering the three pillars of Hawthorne’s Art + Analytics differentiation; Data Analytics, Responsive Creative and Accountable Media. George received his degree from Boston University. He grew up in Brooklyn, NY and remains loyal to all NY sports teams. Even the Knicks.

Lindsay Stewart is the founding CEO of Stringr (www.stringr.com), a video production platform that leverages the only nationwide network of highly responsive videographers. Before starting Stringr, Lindsay was a network news producing working for ABC, Fox News and Bloomberg. Lindsay earned her BA in English at University of California, Berkeley and MBA at The Wharton School.

Frank Donner is the Founder and CEO of BLKBX Creative Group, an innovative digital marketing agency based in Hollywood. BLKBX has crafted some of the most successful promotional campaigns for leading films and television shows, including ZOOTOPIA (CLIO award winning), A WRINKLE IN TIME, CALL ME BY YOUR NAME, FANTASTIC BEASTS, and Amazon’s GOLIATH. Frank's passion for mentoring young talent in the field of entertainment and marketing, has allowed him to take charge of the company’s brand by selecting some of today’s brightest industry talent. Frank’s strong commitment to education in the industry has included annual speaking presentations at UCLA’s, Anderson School of Management, MDE Graduation, from which Frank was also a graduate; involvement with Fulfillment Fund’s Mentorship Program; participation at 2018 SXSW Mentorship Roundtable; 2016 SXSW Interactive; 2016 NCORE (National Conference on Race & Ethnicity); 2015 SXSW V2V Mentor Session; and as a Panelist for Latino Media Visions’ Independent Filmmaker Series. An Oscar-nominated Producer for his documentary, “Deliver Us From Evil”, Frank continues to serve as an active member of the Producer’s Guild of America, while continuing to expand the rapidly emerging, BLKBX digital marketing agency. As an entertainment professional, both as an accomplished executive and film producer, Frank began his career by studying with Stella Adler alongside Mark Ruffalo, Salma Hayek, and Benicio del Toro.

Parker Williams founded Wheelhouse in 2012 with his business partner John Allred as a place for innovations in digital production.  Their team has heavily influenced live and on-demand streaming, with their technologies being used by fortune 500 companies worldwide.  This mindset has led their team of creatives, directors, engineers, designers, and developers to continue to invest in emerging technologies, focusing on firsts and new ways of delivering AR and VR.  With strategic locations in NY, NC, Chicago, San Francisco, and LA, Wheelhouse has been able to properly converge expertise in production, animation, and technology, while advancing the digital medium.

Darnell Brisco is Vice President of Accounts at Fullscreen, leading the agency’s entertainment efforts across film, television, and streaming industries. He’s spearheaded strategy, thought leadership, and innovative content creation for over 400 social media-driven campaigns, including: The Greatest Showman, Bright, Logan, The Alienist, SNL, Mother, The Walking Dead, Captain America: Civil War, The Secret Life of Pets, and Deadpool. He was named by AdWeek as one of 2017's 15 most innovative executives (2017 Adweek Media All-Stars). He received a degree in Advertising from Pepperdine University.

Charles Dalaklis, President & CEO, Dalaklis Media Enterprises: Chuck Dalaklis is an innovative content creator and brand advisor. He and his team of award-winning entertainment specialists, develop cutting-edge, immersive and buzzworthy content that drives audience engagement. For more than two decades, under Chuck’s leadership, DME has developed and produced hundreds of hours of top-tier media content for Fortune 500 companies, advertising agencies, digital distributors and national broadcast and cable networks. In 2011, DME joined Momentum Entertainment Group, an agency within the Interpublic group (NYSE:IPG). Chuck was charged with building an in-house content company to provide creative and production support within IPG’s network of agencies. In 2014, DME was selected as a preferred brand vendor for Momentum/Interpublic where it serviced clients including Verizon, Blackstone/SeaWorld and Pacific Gas and Electric. DME was concurrently a brand/business consultant and content creator for its own roster of clients including Kraft Foods, Anheuser-Busch, Kmart and Sears. Additionally, the DME team created a slate of long and short-form broadcast programming that remains in broadcast, digital, and OTT rotation.

Ceslie Armstrong is the CEO and Executive Producer of NYTEX Productions and the EVP of Marketing & Communications for WGVS: World’s Greatest Videos™. Armstrong is a media and entertainment premium content creator, innovator, and strategist specializing in positioning brands and organizations for increased consumer recognition, value, revenue and growth. As executive producer, creative director, interviewer and writer with a strong digital marketing and distribution backbone to drive revenue for publishers, organizations, networks using processes that adapt to changing and emerging technologies to connect to audiences and build strong brand relationships. Armstrong’s strategy of “content drives engagement, decisions and revenue,” along with her deep experience in subscriber-based recurring revenue business models, make her an in-demand consultant and advisor for brands and platforms. Armstrong’s company NYTEX Productions, produces original premium content and experiential events including concerts; fine and performing arts; Grammy award-winning artists; talk and music radio/podcasts; interview format; travel and lifestyle. Company brands include “Grapes, Grains & Grub,” “ACES Apex (Art, Culture, Environment, Sporting),” and more. Armstrong has a long career in hospitality and culinary arts including as an owner, operator, chef and brand strategist and has created culinary content for major platforms. She is a co-director of the inaugural Food Tech + Wellness Forum at Digital Hollywood. As the co-founder of Momentum Women Media & Entertainment for 10 years, Armstrong was the company’s Chief Content Officer producing programming for major platforms and events showcasing and recognizing global women innovators, leaders, celebrities, and authors. She is a recognized influencer in the women’s market and has been engaged as spokesperson for many globally known brands. She is a sought-after speaker at universities, organizations and conferences. Armstrong has been in the music industry producing and packaging artists including Los Lonely Boys, Matisyahu, John Cale, Alejandro Escovedo and more. She has created content with renown photographers including Lynn Goldsmith, Henry Diltz, Francesco Scavullo, Billy Name, Patrick McMullan, Christopher Makos, Mick Rock and many more. She has held the post of editor-in-chief, senior editorial positions and contributed to titles including Grace Woman, Marie Claire, Glamour, Mode, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, and more. She has been featured and quoted in hundreds of publications including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Financial Times, WWD, Forbes, Fortune, and Entrepreneur. She has appeared as guest, host and correspondent on Good Morning America, CBS Early Show, The View, E!, Access Hollywood, Food Network, Entertainment Tonight, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, and many more. She lives in the Hill Country on the Texas Wine Trail near San Antonio and commutes to her second home towns of New York City and Los Angeles where she lived for 20+ years. Upon relocating to Texas she was the keynote speaker at the George Bush Presidential Library; received a Texas Press Association award; a proclamation by the State of Texas for excellence in journalism.