We are pleased to announce that the Futures of Entertainment 6 conference will be held on Friday, Nov. 9, and Saturday, Nov. 10, at the Bartos Theater on MIT's campus in Cambridge, MA. Registration is available here. Also, note there is a pre-conference MIT Communications Forum free and open to the public on Thursday, Nov. 8. Some details below.
At the two-day conference, each morning will be spent discussing key issues faced by media producers, marketers, and audiences alike, at the heart of "the futures of entertainment." Each afternoon, we will look into how some of those issues are manifesting themselves in specific media industries.
Here is the schedule outline, as well as some of the confirmed panelists who will be joining us at the event. More information will be released regularly from @futuresof on Twitter. We will also have the conference website up later this month.
Thursday, Nov. 8
7:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m.: MIT Communications Forum Pre-FoE6 Event at Building E25 Room 111 New Media in West Africa
Panelists:
Derrick "DNA" Ashong, leader, Soulflége
Colin Maclay, Managing Director, Berkman Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University
Fadzi Makanda, Business Development Manager, iROKO Partners
Moderator: Ralph Simon, head of the Mobilium Advisory Group and a founder of the mobile entertainment industry
Friday, Nov. 9
7:30 a.m. Registration Opens
8:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m.: Opening Remarks from FoE Fellows Laurie Baird and Ana Domb
9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Listening and Empathy: Making Companies More Human
Panelists:
Lara Lee, Chief Innovation and Operating Officer, Continuum
Grant McCracken, author, Culturematic, Chief Culture Officer
Carol Sanford, author, The Responsible Business
Emily Yellin, author, Your Call Is (Not That) Important to Us
Moderator: Sam Ford, Director of Digital Strategy, Peppercomm
11:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Break
11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.: The Ethics and Politics of Curation in a Spreadable Media World--A One-on-One Conversation with Brain Pickings' Maria Popova and Undercurrent's Joshua Green
12:30 p.m.-1:45 p.m.: Lunch Break
1:45 p.m.-3:45 p.m.: The Futures of Public Media
Panelists:
Nolan Bowie, Senior Fellow and Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Andrew Golis, Director of Digital Media and Senior Editor, FRONTLINE
Rekha Murthy, Director of Projects and Partnerships, Public Radio Exchange
Annika Nyberg Frankenhaeuser, Media Director, European Broadcasting Union
Moderator: Jessica Clark, media strategist, Association of Independents in Radio
3:45 p.m.-4:15 p.m.: Break
4:15 p.m.-6:15 p.m.: From Participatory Culture to Political Participation
Panelists:
Sasha Costanza-Chock, Assistant Professor of Civic Media, MIT
Dorian Electra, performing artist ("I'm in Love with Friedrich Hayek"; "Roll with the Flow")
Lauren Bird, Creative Media Coordinator, Harry Potter Alliance
Aman Ali, co-creator, 30 Mosques in 30 Days
Bassam Tariq, co-creator, 30 Mosques in 30 Days
Moderator: Sangita Shresthova, Research Director of CivicPaths, University of Southern California
6:15 p.m.-6:45 p.m.: Closing Remarks from Maurício Mota and Louisa Stein
Saturday, Nov. 10
7:30 a.m. Registration Opens
8:30 a.m.-9:00 a.m.: Opening Remarks from Xiaochang Li and Mike Monello
9:00 a.m.-11:00 a.m.: Curing the Shiny New Object Syndrome: Strategy Vs. Hype When Using New Technologies
Panelists:
Todd Cunningham, Futures of Entertainment Fellow and television audience research leader
Jason Falls, CEO, Social Media Explorer
Eden Medina, Associate Professor of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University
Mansi Poddar, co-founder, Brown Paper Bag
David Polinchock, Director, AT&T AdWorks Lab
Moderator: Ben Malbon, Managing Director, Google Creative Lab
11:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m.: Break
11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.: Rethinking Copyright: A discussion with musician, songwriter, and producer T Bone Burnett; Henry Jenkins, Provost's Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts, and Education at the University of Southern California; and Jonathan Taplin, Director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California
1:00 p.m.-2:15 p.m.: Lunch Break
2:15 p.m.-4:15 p.m.: The Futures of Video Gaming
Panelists:
Ed Fries, architect of Microsoft's video game business and co-founder of the Xbox project
T.L. Taylor, Associate Professor of Comparative Media Studies, MIT
Yanis Varoufakis, Economist-in-Residence, Valve Software
Christopher Weaver, founder of Bethesda Softworks and industry liaison, MITGameLab
Moderator: Futures of Entertainment Fellow and games producer Alec Austin
4:15 p.m.-4:45 p.m.: Break
4:45 p.m.-6:45 p.m.: The Futures of Storytelling and Sports
Panelists:
Abe Stein, researcher at Singapore-MIT GAMBIT Game Lab; graduate student, Comparative Media Studies, MIT; columnist, Kill Screen
Peter Stringer, Senior Director of Interactive Media, Boston Celtics
Alex Chisholm, transmedia producer and Co-Founder and Executive Director, Learning Games Network
Moderator: Mark Warshaw, President, The Alchemists Transmedia Storytelling Company
6:45 p.m.-7:15 p.m.: Closing Remarks from Heather Hendershot and Sheila Seles
7:15 p.m.: Post-Conference Workshop--The Futures of Transmedia Studies: Collaborations in and beyond Higher Education
