Thursday, May 24th, 2018

Noon - 1:00 PM, Sponsored: Women’s International Music Network

Session II: Haas Conference Center - Room 171

Influencing Diversity in Media: The Voices of Change in the Entertainment, Content and Technology Industries

Laura B. Whitmore, Founder, The Women’s International Music Network, Moderator

Laura Nickerson, Content Creator and Brand Manager, America’s Funniest Home Video

Inga Dyer, Executive Vice President, General Counsel Business and Legal Affairs, Revolt TV

Morgan Rhodes, Music Supervisor, Middle of Nowhere, Selma, Queen Sugar S1

Natalee Geldert, Director of Brand & Media Partnerships, PMG

Alece Oxendine, Director of Digital Sales, Good Deed Entertainment

Laura B. Whitmore, Founder, The Women’s International Music Network: Music Industry veteran Laura B. Whitmore owns and runs Mad Sun Marketing, a boutique agency that specializes in marketing, PR, artist relations, event production, graphic design, and more for music and audio companies. Prior to launching Mad Sun, Whitmore spent two decades as the marketing manager for Korg USA, handling all marketing for the Korg, Marshall and VOX brands in the U.S. She started her career in the Direct Marketing department of CBS Records.

A singer-songwriter and performer herself, Whitmore is the founder of the Women’s International Music Network (thewimn.com), an organization that advocates for women in the music industry.  She is also the co-creator and producer of Backstory Events, a live-streamed interview series, and hosts and moderates workshops, panels and showcases at industries and festivals, including NAMM, SXSW, ASCAP Expo and more. More at www.thewimn.com

Morgan Rhodes, Music Supervisor, Middle of Nowhere, Selma, Queen Sugar S1: Morgan Rhodes is an LA-based music supervisor who’s spent the last six years working on films (Middle of Nowhere, Selma) and television (Queen Sugar S1, Dear White People S1 and S2).  Her music career began in radio at influential station KCRW and she now is one of the featured music critics on KPCC’s weekly music show “Tuesday Reviewsday”. Four months ago she began co-hosting Maximum Fun’s newest podcast, “Heat Rocks”, a 40 minute conversation with artists, scholars and writers about seminal and canonical albums. She’s obsessed with indie and obscure music finds and is always in search for the perfect song.

Natalee Geldert, Director of Brand & Media Partnerships, PMG: Natalee Geldert is the Director of Brand and Media Partnerships at PMG, focusing on strategy development and executional excellence across a portfolio of top clients and can usually be found wearing a Yankees ball cap - even though she’s not a big fan of the game. Despite being a 9-year veteran of large-scale campaigns aimed at driving awareness and establishing a notable market position for global brands, Natalee also engages in regular business and strategy conversations to ensure proper ideation and how we are driving our client’s businesses forward. Her brilliant work for companies like Apple (Beats by Dre), J.Crew, Madewell, Nike, KEEN, and Estee Lauder has drawn acclaim, and more importantly, delivered new prospects to the top of those brands’ respective purchase funnels. In addition to deep digital branding expertise, Natalee also draws from her early-career experience in print design when developing fully integrated campaigns. Natalee graduated from Southern Methodist University with a BA in Creative Advertising, Fine Art and Art History, later studying International Advertising at Regent’s University London. Thanks to her artistic background, education, and years of sewing lessons, Natalee has a knack for all things creative, including artistic handwriting, calligraphy and sewing.

INGA DYER, Executive Vice President, General Counsel Business and Legal Affairs, Revolt TV: At REVOLT TV a newly formed Music Television network owned and operated by entertainer and businessman Sean “Puffy” Combs, Inga serves as the Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Business & Legal Affairs.  Launching Nationally in October of 2013, REVOLT is set to make television history by targeting the creators of this generation.  As GC Inga has established the networks standards & practices in all areas of business & legal affairs including, but not limited to, the creating and enforcing the “standards and practices” guidelines for the Network, talent and format acquisitions, production agreements, rights agreements, drafting and negotiating, content license and distribution agreements, third party integration and sponsorship agreements, web development agreements, all REVOLT vendor agreements, and other agreements in connection with the development and production of television programming and the annual Revolt Music Conference.  REVOLT, along with Inga and a newly formed team of industry veterans, will represent the architects who define culture and influence society. They are set to build an empowering platform for artists and their audience. Prior to joining REVOLT, Inga served as Senior Counsel for BET Networks.  As Senior Counsel, Inga was, amongst other things, the primary liaison between BET and CBS for the re-launching of the record breaking cable television hit “The Game”. On a day to day basis Inga was responsible for the business and legal affairs for BET’s Original Programming scripted department her shows included The Game, Being Mary Jane, and Reed Between The Lines. As Senior Counsel, Inga worked closely with executives in all departments of BET, from Programming, Development, Creative, Media Sales, Finance, Marketing and Corporate Communications.  Inga also handled various production matters including, but not limited to, music clearance, new and social media matters, third party content clearance, talent agreements, development deals, scripted programming writer and director deals, and current production and finance issues.

Laura Nickerson is a content creator and brand manager for America's Funniest Home Video's digital department. She also creates brand sponsored videos for ModernMom.com. She has worked as a host and producer for Mom.me, The MomBuster, CTV, and KCET. Her radio and television show "Broad Topics" ran for 5 years, and she was a traffic reporter for iHeartMedia, in which her reports always sounded like this: "Traffic in LA is bad, really bad. Try learning to skateboard, or fly. You'll get there faster on this... Sunday morning...". Of all of the things she has done, trying to get two kids to agree on what TV show to watch has been the most difficult. Michelle Belcher, VP, Film & TV Music, SONY MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT SYNCSHOP CREATIVE MUSIC & LICENSING PARTNERS (will send bio and head shot)

Alece Oxendine, Director of Digital Sales, Good Deed Entertainment Alece is making a name for herself in the digital realm of the film industry, holding various positions in marketing, business development, and fundraising at New York Film Festival, Film Society of Lincoln Center, BAMcinématek, Rooftop Films, Fandor, and GoDigital, Inc./Distribber. Alece is currently Director of Digital Sales at Good Deed Entertainment where she oversees digital sales and partnerships with various video on demand services. Alece continues to develop and strengthen partnerships with filmmakers, distributors, and streaming platforms to ensure true independent and diverse content gets seen worldwide. She received her Masters in Film Studies from Columbia University and graduated magna cum laude from Winston-Salem State University with a Bachelors in English. Alece is from Durham, NC, has lived in New York City and San Francisco and proudly calls Los Angeles home.