Tuesday, May 22nd, 2018

11:15 AM - 12:15 PM

Track II: Ahmanson Hall, Live Webcast

The Influencer Lifestyle - Defining Your Life - Your Voice - Your Future

Social media has created an ever-expanding authority – the Influencer - as well as the micro-influencer.  Influencers range from everyday people who have social media followings of 10K to music, TV and YouTube stars with hundreds of thousand and even tens of millions of followers. In this session we will explore the scope and lifestyle of what it means to be an “Influencer.”  In this panel we celebrate the Influencer.

Rebecca Zamolo, YouTube Star, 2.7 M Subs - Comedy - Lifestyle - Joy

Maryam Ghafarinia, Creator, Glam and Posh, Fashion & Beauty Micro Influencer

Drew Baldwin, Founder and CEO, Tubefilter

Roxette Arisa, Beauty & Make-up YouTube Star

Adam Wescott, Partner/Co-Founder, Select Management Group

Sam Leigh, Producer, Artist & Brand Manager, inArtists (iA)

Shaine Griffin, Commercial Strategist, SAG-AFTRA, Moderator

Rebecca Zamolo is a producer, actress and entrepreneur. With a growing social presence of over 3 million followers, Rebecca uses her creative skills to produce content with the goal of making viewers smile. In just over one year of creating regular content on her personal YouTube channel, Rebecca has garnered over 2.3 million subscribers and 367 million views. Aside from her personal channel, Rebecca can be seen in her documentary Inside/Out: My Battle with IBD and in daily videos opposite her husband Matt Slays on their combined YouTube

channel.  In August of 2016, Rebecca began solely focusing on content for her personal YouTube channel. After producing viral content for the likes of Yahoo! and Funny or Die, Rebecca was inspired to produce content that connected with an audience on a personal level and made viewers happy. Using her goofy and awkward personality, Rebecca embraces her weirdness and creates videos in the realm of challenges, DIYs, comedy videos and recently her first original comedic music video. During October of 2017, Rebecca brought her channel to fans IRL by joining Brooklyn & Bailey on the West Coast leg of their tour as a special guest.

Maryam Ghafarinia, Creator, Glam and Posh, Fashion & Beauty Micro Influencer: I am Maryam Ghafarinia creator of Glam and Posh, a fashion and beauty blog that reflects my take on feminine minimalism style with a glamorous and chic twist. I began Glam and Posh at the end of 2015. As a little girl growing up in Iran, my grandmother, ‘Manji’ (I couldn’t pronounce Maman Joon, Farsi for grandma, so I just started calling her Manji), instilled and taught me that a woman must always be a pillar of strength, grace, and poise. Her dress icons were Jackie Onassis, Grace Kelly, and Audrey Hepburn. As you can imagine, these women have been an influence on my personal life and style since childhood, and I view my blog as a homage to these great ladies that I so dearly admire. I believe that looking chic and put together doesn’t always have to be expensive. So, I like to mix and match non-label pieces with labels. I always look for unique pieces that you don’t see everywhere, and will update the items I own to make it easier for my readers! I live in Los Angeles and my goal is to inspire my fans to live a beautiful life inside and out.

Roxette Arisa, Beauty & Make-up YouTube Star: As a professional figure skater for over twenty years, Roxette Arisa was introduced to makeup at the young age of five. She loved experimenting with beauty products and developed her skills by applying her own makeup for competitions. After perfecting her technique over the years, she decided it was time to share her expertise with the rest of the world via YouTube. It’s no surprise that Roxette’s warm and bubbly personality instantly captured the hearts of a massive ever-growing audience. Fast forward just two years and Roxette is now one of the hottest, up-and-coming social media stars with nearly one-million social connections. As ipsy’s newest Creator, her potential is unlimited and her future is incredibly bright. Roxette currently lives in Los Angeles and creates content out of ipsy Studios in Santa Monica.

Adam Wescott, Partner/Co-Founder, Select Management Group: Adam is an accomplished executive with more than ten years in the entertainment and digital industries. At Select Management Group, Wescott has managed the career growth of top YouTube talent Gigi Gorgeous, MyLifeAsEva, LaurDIY, and more. Wescott strengthened and expanded direct relationships with YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Refinery29, among other leader media platforms and players. Under Select’s entertainment arm, SelectNext, Wescott has been responsible for the hit satirical music single “Literally, My Life” (now over 37M Total Views and #1 single on iTunes Comedy for 2015). He developed and executive produced “How to Survive High School” with MyLifeAsEva garnering over 48M Views on just five short-form episodes. SelectNext debuted its first feature-length film “This Is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous” at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival. Wescott personally developed, sold and produced the project securing two-time Oscar Winner Barbara Kopple as director. The film is available on YouTube Red (SVOD) and has appeared at film festivals around the world including the San Francisco International Film Festival, Curious Minds Hot Docs, Tel Aviv International LGBT Film Festival, DocEdge Australia, Video Junkee Australia, and more. Additionally, Wescott developed, sold and produced SelectNext’s first single camera half-hour comedy “Me and My Grandma” starring MyLifeAsEva and TV legend Rhea Perlman. The series is available now on YouTube Red (SVOD). Previously, Adam served as principal consultant and executive producer to Refinery29 and Nylon TV, among others. As Vice President of Owned and Operated Properties for EQAL (acquired by EverydayHealth), Adam developed and ran more than 20 celebrity editorial websites in partnership with Bethenny Frankel, Nick Cannon, Lauren Conrad and created the Google-funded Original Channel ‘u look haute’ featuring YouTube sensations Elle and Blair Fowler. Earlier in his career he spent four and a half years managing E! Entertainment and Style Network’s creation and distribution of online video. Adam is an active member of Television Academy’s Interactive Media Peer Group and the International Academy of Web Television. He is a contributing author of “YouTube Channels for Dummies” and is YouTube-Certified in Audience Growth.

Drew Baldwin, Founder and CEO, Tubefilter: A passionate and outspoken advocate of technological innovation, free speech, and creative expression, Drew is the founder and CEO of Tubefilter (tubefilter.com), creator and executive producer of the Streamy Awards, (streamys.org), and executive director of Social Media Week Los Angeles (smw.la). A supporter of collaborative and interactive media, Drew chairs the New Media Committee for the Caucus for Producers, Writers & Directors, and serves on the Interactive Media Peer Group for the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (Emmys), the advisory committee of the Digital Luminary Awards for the National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE), the Digital V.I.P. advisory board for the New Media Council of the Producers Guild of America (PGA), and the Media Council of the Paley Center for Media. A champion of combining creativity with technology to support community building, Drew received his Masters of Urban and Regional Planning from Luskin School of Public Affairs at the University of California Los Angeles as a Martin Wachs Fellow and Institute of Transportation Studies Scholar. His comprehensive applied planning research project, We’re In For A Ride: Ensuring Successful Implementation of Ride-Contracting Mobile Technologies in Los Angeles, which was prepared for FAST under the direction of the UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies, identifies the major institutional and regulatory challenges in Los Angeles facing ride-contracting mobile applications such as Uber, Lyft, and Sidecar (bit.ly/ridecontracting). A recipient of the Leon Hoffman Award for his focus on the application of technology in urban planning, Drew is currently working on a joint project with the UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies and the National Science Foundation on connected vehicles. He is co-authoring a paper with Donald Shoup on parking in Westwood Village, where he recently presented a parklet design for the Improvement Association. Drew relaunched the Silver Lake Art Crawl for which he served as director for three years. Recently, he was appointed the co-director of the 2013 University of California Transportation Center Annual Research Conference. A Los Angeles native, Drew is proud to serve on the Salon LA Programming Committee for the Getty House, the Official Residence of the Mayor of Los Angeles. He is deeply concerned with the effects of traffic congestion on his home city, and believes strongly in the promise of technological innovation—particularly in mobile and social media platforms—to provide effective and low-cost solutions to many of the Los Angeles’ transportation problems.

Sam Leigh, Producer, Artist & Brand Manager, inArtists (iA): An Entertainment & Marketing Firm Specializing in the Convergence of Digital & Traditional Talent & Media. Sam comes to this field with years of experience working with top and emerging digital and traditional creators and performers, in partnership with new- media and legacy buyers, to package and deliver multi-format high quality content. Sam’s past employers include Collab Studios, AI Film, and Creative Artists Agency. Sam knows despite the hyper-speed at which mass-media evolves and carries us deeper into the era of digital communication there remains a desire intrinsic within The Arts for deep personal connections and a strong sense of community. He believes in the unique age-old power of story-telling and its ability to shape cultures, break down barriers, build bridges, and offer hope and joy for the masses.  A U.S. Navy vet and former active duty military police officer, he began his career in entertainment working for a veteran power-agent at a top agency, followed by a stint producing alongside a preferred film financier, all the while privileged to work with some of the industry's foremost figures in motion pictures and television. Sam then shifted his focus toward digital and new media talent, outlets, and audiences, where he sought to apply a traditional approach to new-media artist-management and content-packaging, development, and sales.

Shaine Griffin is the Los Angeles Organizer for SAG-AFTRA’s #AdsGoUnion campaign; a grassroots initiative meant to grow Union opportunities in the Commercial space. Shaine’s focus is on member activation and mobilization as well as outreach and education in the Content Creator space. Shaine is very passionate about protecting the rights of the next generation of creators (who gravitate to online platforms) and who are working in close partnership with Advertisers, often below their market value. Shaine comes to this work with experience in labor organizing, community organizing and production experience.