Thursday, March 8th, 2018

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Session A: Grand Ballroom (4th Floor)

VR/AR as a Branding/Advertising Strategy: The Immersive Experience as Image Maker - Movies/TV/Brand

The advertising and VR/AR industry was a partnership waiting to happen. The immersive experience on all platforms, from smartphones and tablets to headsets and a vast array of holographic experiences may in the future be the best relationship between brand and consumer ever devised.

Jake Lee-High, CEO/Creative Director, Future Colossal (Immersive for BMW, Showtime, Jay Z, Disney, and Citi Bank )

Tony Mugavero, CEO, Littlstar (VR for Showtime, Esquire, Discovery)

Nicholas Longano, CEO and Founder, Hourglass Technologies

Dana Porter, co-founder and CMO, Inception

Sunny Midha, Media & Technology Investment Banking, Houlihan Lokey

Moderator - Ted Cohen, Managing Partner, TAG Strategic llc

Jake Lee-High is an artist, creative technologist, and CEO of Future Colossal, an award-winning innovation lab for experiential technologies in advertising, entertainment, and art. Exploring the boundaries of technology and design, Future Colossal creates immersive experiences and spaces, both physical and

virtual, that are memorable, playful, and interact with the viewer. Drawn from a background in architecture, installation art, and experiential out-of-home, Jake’s vision shapes Future Colossal’s trajectory innovating new technologies and immersive experiences for brands such as BMW, Warner Bros, Showtime, Jay Z, Microsoft, and MasterCard. He's been featured in major publications including the Washington Post, Fast Company, PSFK, and MediaPost and his work has received prestigious awards such as Cannes Lions, Clio, Andy, AdWeek Project ISAAC, and Art Directors Club.

Dana Porter, co-founder and CMO, Inception: Dana is the co-founder and CMO of Inception, a leading 360 & VR destination of choice for premium content for millennials. Launched in 2016, Inception is available across all leading VR platforms and works with some of the biggest entertainment names in the world, including DJ duo Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Time Out, and Playboy. Prior to Inception, Dana led Business Strategy, Marketing and Planning for the Microsoft Israel Research & Development Center. Before this, she was Head of Amdocs Global Marketing. Dana has a B.Sc. Industrial Engineering from Ben Gurion University and an MBA from NYU.

Tony Mugavero is a 4x tech and media entrepreneur and the Founder / Executive Chairman of Littlstar, a VR Cinema platform and consumer destination to discover, watch, and share the best in 360 and VR content. Littlstar has experiences from companies like Showtime, Discovery, Nat Geo, PBS, Red Bull, Volvo, Disney, and more, with distribution on Samsung Gear VR, Playstation VR, Rift, Vive, Web, and mobile VR.

Sunny Midha, Houlihan Lokey: Sunny Midha currently works in the New York office of Houlihan Lokey (NYSE: HLI), a global investment bank with expertise in mergers and acquisitions, capital markets, financial restructuring, valuation, and strategic consulting.  He is an investment banker in the Technology, Media and Telecom Group, which is ranked as the No. 1 M&A advisor for all U.S. technology, media & telecom transactions under $20 billion, by Thomson Reuters.  Sunny covers the following domains: VR/AR, digital media, film & entertainment, (e)sports, frontier technology, music and video gaming. Prior to Houlihan Lokey, Sunny worked at Greycroft Partners, a leading venture capital firm based in Los Angeles and New York, which focuses on investments in the media, internet and mobile markets.  He covered frontier technology including VR/AR and eSports.  With an investment banking, film, VC and technology operating background, Sunny is one of a handful of individuals globally that focuses on the true convergence areas of media and technology.  He has also worked at a range of other financial firms such as Deutsche Bank and successful ecommerce technology start-ups such as PetsPyjamas.com and Zaggora.com.  At Zaggora.com, he led the ecommerce division, which sold 500K products in its first year using various influencer-marketing techniques and which were featured in a Harvard Business School case study.  The business won numerous awards for digital marketing such as E-Commerce Strategy of the Year at the Orange National Business Awards as well as being nominated in the Paypal E-Tail Awards & Retail Week E-Commerce Awards. Sunny grew up in the United Kingdom and has a BSc (Hons) Economics degree from the London School of Economics, an MA in Film Producing from the UK’s prestigious National Film & Television School and an MBA from the University of Southern California.  His NFTS graduation film was nominated for the Honorary Foreign Film award at the 2009 Student Academy Awards and he is both a Toledo Scholar (awarded by producer Duncan Kenworthy) and a BAFTA LA Scholar.

Ted Cohen, Managing Partner, TAG Strategic: industry luminary and former, Vice President, Digital Development & Distribution, EMI Music: As Vice President of Digital Development & Distribution for EMI Music, Ted Cohen oversaw worldwide digital business development for this "big five" record company, which includes labels such as Capitol, Virgin, Angel/Blue Note, Parlophone and Chrysalis. Under Cohen's guidance, EMI has led the industry with its initiatives in new technologies and business models such as digital downloads, online music subscriptions, custom compilations, wireless services, high-definition audio and Internet radio. In addition to seeking out, evaluating and executing business opportunities for the company, Cohen serves as both a strategist and key decision-maker for EMI's global new media and anti-piracy efforts. He has worked to establish company-wide policies, which have allowed EMI's artists and labels a substantial advantage in the digital music arena. Cohen served previously as the Executive Vice President of Digital Music Network Inc., where he co-founded and served as Chairman of the Webnoize '98 & '99 conferences. He currently chairs MidemNet, an international music/technology conference convened in Cannes each year. Cohen also held senior management positions at both Warner Bros. Records and Philips Media. Additionally, Cohen lead two highly successful new media consulting operations, DMN Consulting and Consulting Adults, attracting clients such as Amazon.com, Microsoft, Universal Studios New Media, DreamWorks Records, Liquid Audio, Wherehouse Records/Checkout.com and several other entertainment, computer and new media organizations. A 25-year industry veteran, Cohen serves on the NARAS (Grammy) Los Angeles chapter Board of Governors, the Board of Directors for the Neil Bogart Memorial Fund, Co-chairs the new media arm of the T.J. Martell Foundation, and lends his time and talents to the Grammy In The Schools Program.