Thursday, March 8th, 2018

1:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Session A: Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)

Media, Entertainment Content & Advertising Strategies - Addressing a Multi-Platform Universe

From the announced mergers and acquisitions in the media and technology industries, the need to merge great content and advertising networks across massive technology platforms appears to be the desired outcome. The result is greater investment and freedom for content companies to create new and exciting projects on all platforms, from TV to Mobile, even AR/VR/MR. And similarly, the advertising industry is being challenged to create branding and ad content equal to the most creative programming content.

Robert Rodriguez, CEO, Natcom

Elizabeth Kiehner, Senior, Global Design Services Director, IBMiX

Scott Brown, SVP Technology & Strategic Relations, Engineering & Technology, The Nielsen Company

Conor Brady, Chief Creative Officer, Critical Mass, an Omnicon Agency

Chris Tolles, CEO, Topix

Moderator - Terry S. Bienstock, CEO, Mobilactive Media, LLC.

Conor Brady, Chief Creative Officer, Critical Mass: Conor Brady, a renowned creative leader, is a passionate believer in the power of great storytelling,

experience design and design craft across all media. For Conor, these are core approaches to solving our clients’ business problems. In his role as Chief Creative Officer at Critical Mass, he oversees all the agency’s work and drives creative excellence on a global scale. Conor has nearly a decade of experience as a Chief Creative Officer at digital agencies Huge and Organic. Throughout his career, he has worked with many of the world’s largest and most admired brands, a few of which include Nike, Pepsi, Audi, Hilton, Citi and Samsung. His work has won awards across the globe from Cannes to London to Asia. He is also a regular member of some of the industry’s most respected award juries, having served as a judge on the Design Jury at Cannes (twice), The Andy's, the D&AD awards and the Webby's. Born in Belfast, he began his career by helping create the first 100 book covers for Vintage Paperbacks at Random House in London and then moved into the music industry as a creative director at Universal Music/Polygram, designing record covers.

Elizabeth Kiehner is the Global Design Services Director and Chief of Staff at IBM. Elizabeth Kiehner is a design thinking evangelist who believes in harnessing the power of creativity to solve global business challenges. By unearthing human insights, Liz co-creates customer-centric experiences that have the power to transform the enterprise. Elizabeth Kiehner’s day ranges from identifying and mentoring the newest crop of talent to capturing the pulse of an ever-changing innovation and technology landscape. Her passion and creativity have inspired some of the world’s most recognized brands with enterprise engagements and design thinking workshops with the C-suite. Elizabeth Kiehner is also a founding partner of Thornberg & Forester, an award-winning, full service design agency in the heart of Union Square in NYC.

Chris Tolles is a co-founder & the CEO of Topix, an audience discovery engine for premium, high engagement content. Chris has led the company since 2007 and pivoted the business of the company from its original mission of Artificial Intelligence based news categorization and community generated content to its present course.  Topix is the third company Chris has co-founded, the first being NewHoo, the largest human edited directory of the web, which was sold to Netscape and incorporated into  Netscape Search at AOL (which also was the first licensing deal for Google). Chris also cofounded the first VC funded social networking startup, Spoke Software in 2002.  Previously, Chris ran marketing for the Security Products Group at Sun Microsystems. Chris holds multiple social networking patents, and earned his degree in Computer Science and Economics from the University of California at San Diego, where he also received the Michael Addison award for his thesis on the industry structures of the information economy. Chris is an advisor to Bullpen Capital and serves on the neighborhood advisory committee of the San Francisco Port Commission.

Robert Rodriguez, CEO, Natcom: A 30 year seasoned expert in the area of entrepreneurial business leadership in the fields of marketing and multi-media content for large platforms such as broadcast television stations, internet sites, telecom companies and other digital organizations throughout the world. Robert brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in content related to health, tourism, technology, e-commerce and social media for the new challenges and opportunities of modern times. He has managed complex acquisitions and work force integrations in the U.S., the Caribbean as well as international regions such as Asia, Latin America and Europe. Currently Robert is the CEO of Natcom Global, a multi-platform video content producer and distributor. Natcom is one of the leading fact based short form content producers and distributors in the U.S. Natcom clients include nearly 75 broadcast stations in the U.S., 1,000 Internet sites around the world, international telecom operators and Fortune 500 companies. Some of Natcom clients include CBS, Disney/ABC, AOL/Verizon, Citibank, Baidu, Humana, the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Department of the Treasury, to name a few. In addition to his overall responsibilities he is also responsible for acquisitions and international expansion that includes establishing operations for Natcom in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean. Prior to Natcom, Robert was the CEO of NPN Media, a company he and other investors acquired from NBC Universal. NPN produces and distributes fact based news related segments to broadcast stations as well as digital outlets in the U.S. NPN became part of Natcom in 2014. Before NPN, Robert co-founded and was CEO of National Communication LTD (NCL) where he successfully attained an Inc.500 ranking twice. (fastest growing privately held companies in America) NCL is a diversified marketing communications agency that has developed hundreds of marketing and media initiatives for global companies such as Citibank, Burger King and Chevron to name a few. In addition to the private sector NCL provides or has provided strategic consultancy services to governments including the United States, regional government agencies in Spain and the government of the Islands of the Bahamas. Some of NCL’s work with the U.S. Federal Government included micro economic development research and implementation initiatives providing different federal agencies with best practices and recommendations for contracting to small and disadvantaged businesses. In 1995 NCL produced the award winning world record program, “Around the World in a Day” using an Air France Concorde to break the world aviation speed record which currently still stands.

Scott L Brown, SVP Global Engineering & Strategic Relations, The Nielsen Company: Scott L. Brown serves as Senior Vice President, Global Communications, Client Insights & Strategic Relations for Nielsen. In this role, Scott is a frequent speaker and sought after visionary for impending changes to the media landscape, the impact of new technology, and for the path of new advertising models. Scott is responsible for client insights and communications, strategic business relationships, and works with media strategy and digital platform development for the company. Scott focuses much of his time on establishing and managing business relationships with advanced technology and new media companies. He is the key company spokesperson for evolving television technologies, advanced metering systems, and new technology development. Scott provides the internal and external company vision and leadership for the new world of digital convergence, connected TV technology, and multi platform measurement, etc. Scott, is a veteran of Nielsen, with roots going back to Advanced Software Systems Design, progressing into Senior Operations Management, and then into his current position with Nielsen. Scott's expertise is grounded in technology, the implications for Nielsen measurement, coupled with a deep client following on what is relevant in the media world. Scott is frequently asked to forecast the future for major advertisers, and media companies. Scott holds a Bachelor of Science and a Masters Degree from Illinois State University.

Terry S. Bienstock, CEO, Mobilactive Media, LLC.: a New Jersey-based distributor of managed application publishing and secure remote access solutions for business and consumer markets. WorldExtend has revolutionary products to deliver to a business a low cost software-based VPN, and has developed a virtual computer on a TV set to bridge the Digital Divide. He also manages and advises other ventures relating to new media platforms, such as Video-on-Demand, digital video recorders, broadband and mobile services. Prior to this, he served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel, Law and Government Affairs, for Comcast Cable Communications in Philadelphia. In this position, he maintained business responsibility for Comcast's Video on Demand platform, Comcast University and claims management. He was also responsible for overseeing the Law department for the country's leading cable and broadband communications provider, advising senior management on legal and business issues, and for Comcast's state and local government affairs in the 5000 communities and 41 states in which it did business. Prior to joining Comcast, for 23 years Bienstock was in private practice, serving as lead counsel on numerous major communications, First Amendment and property rights cases for most of the top media and cable companies, and lead high visibility cases, from the first fully televised trial in the U.S. to the Noriega tapes case for CNN. He pioneered litigation in the cable television industry for operators, programmers and equipment manufacturers, and successfully prosecuted cases on theft of service, copyright and trademark, premises access, franchising, franchise modifications, transfers, renewals, leased access and other constitutional and Cable Act issues. He has over 100 reported decisions to his name. A graduate of the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1975 and the Rutgers-Camden School of Law in 1978, Bienstock has authored several articles in leading legal publications on cable issues such as theft of service, franchising and access to premises. He regularly lectures at numerous national trade associates and legal conferences on various communications, media, regulatory, law department management and litigation topics, and at business conferences on new media topics