Click on the Video Below and Sample a Session from a previous Digital Hollywood event. For Additional Video Sessions, Click Here Digital Hollywood Tuesday, October 30th 3:50 PM - 5:00 PM – Special Workshops Session Workshop B: Widgets as a Platform: Content, Advertising, Communications Now there is a new expression, The Widget Economy. For the uninitiated, the widget is miniature application or website that resides as a component element on a user’s desktop, social media page or mobile device. A button on a user desktop may open multiple widgets, so that in a flash, mini-apps open on the desktop to reveal up-to-the minute stocks, the weather, airline arrivals, a dictionary, your photo album – virtually anything, any data type - can be formatted into a widget and placed on your desktop. Once the user gets the hang of it, life without widgets is impossible. Widgets are as addictive as email. Widgets are your mini-obsessions managed and delivered as desired. Add in a layer of commerce and you have a fully featured platform. Watch out! Widgets are coming! Martin Green, Vice President, Business Development, meebo.com John Boden, SVP of Product Management, Openwave David Weiden, General Partner, Khosla Ventures Chris Cunningham, Vice President of Global Sales, Freewebs Dan Strauss, Vice President, Fox Interactive Media Labs Levy Cohen, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Collarity Kent Steffen, Vice President, CSG Interactive Joyce Schwarz, JCOM Emerging Entertainment Marketing, Moderator Chris Cunningham, Vice President of Global Sales, Freewebs: As Vice President of Global Sales at Freewebs, Chris Cunningham leads the advertising sales team and delivers targeted and successful advertising campaigns for clients that reach more than 14 million users. Mr. Cunningham is a seasoned Internet and new-media executive with a combined passion for technology and online creativity which has made him an active member in the media industry and a popular speaker at industry events and conferences, and he continues to build major enterprise sales effort that integrates all aspects including new technology, product development, creative, marketing and partner programs. Cunningham has successfully partnered with a myriad of companies within diverse industry sectors including: Cingular, Sony, Visa, Nike, Paramount Pictures, Wendy’s, New Line Cinema, Verizon and Adidas. Mr. Cunningham was previously Senior Vice President at Bolt Media, a leading networking, gaming and extreme sports site focused on teens and young adults. Under Cunningham's leadership, the sales division was able to streamline its sales process, and align with Fortune 500 companies. He helped boost company sales by 80% and was solely responsible for $10 million in sales. As a sales and new media entrepreneur, additional career highlights include: Director Sales for leading organizations including Digital Music Network and Music Vision, where he pioneered the sales strategy for marketing online digital music platforms and built solid relationships with leading advertisers including Gatorade, Sears, Nintendo, Radio Shack, Reebok, and Volkswagen. Cunningham graduated from the University of North Carolina with a degree in Economics & Marketing and is now based in New York City. Kent Steffen, Vice President, CSG Interactive: As VP of CSG Interactive, Kent is responsible for overseeing CSG System's interactive strategy, sales and operations. CSG provides customer and operational management systems to 45% of North American cable TV and satellite markets for customers like Comcast, Echostar, Time Warner and Charter. Under Kent's direction, the CSG Interactive team has created CSG's Content Direct, a product specifically designed to manage customers and monetize digital content. Kent's solid leadership experience combined with strong technical acumen and a relentless entrepreneurial drive made him the obvious choice to lead CSG Interactive. Prior to CSG, Kent co-founded Telution, a customer management and billing company providing solutions to the communications industry, which was acquired by CSG Systems in 2006. Before Telution, Kent spent 10 years spearheading enterprise-level programs in the communications, health care, and financial services industries at Anderson Consulting. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Illinois. Levy Cohen, CEO/Founder, Collarity: Levy Cohen has more than 20 years of experience in operations, software development and marketing in high-tech companies. He has founded several successful software companies. Prior to joining Collarity, Levy was CEO of RightOrder, a company that addressed fundamental challenges related to structured and unstructured data for enterprise applications. Levy was also CEO of Licom, a private company that founded and managed high-tech companies in Israel among them one of the early ISPs. Additionally, Levy was president of ISG Israel, part of ISG International Software Group that acquired his earlier company, Hadran. He holds both a bachelor's degree in computer science and in economics from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. David Weiden, General Partner, Khosla Ventures: Beginning in door-to-door sales in high school, David has learned the value of asking for the order. One sales pitch led not just to a sale but to a full-time job at McCaw Cellular, now Cingular. In the mid-1990's at Morgan Stanley he helped finance the buildout of nationwide mobile networks working with what is now T-Mobile and Verizon, and again and recently again collaborated with Morgan Stanley researching the emerging Mobile Internet. After receiving a stern reprimand in 1995 from Morgan Stanley for using Internet email, David jumped at the chance to join Netscape Communications where he learned from some great leaders and managers. After pitching in on strategy, he led the Directory & Security division that offered among the first commercial server products supporting Linux and open source development. Later David led AOL's Communications, Community & Instant Messaging product divisions as they surpassed 50MM users worldwide. Combining his interest in communications and the Internet, David joined Tellme Networks as SVP Marketing & Business Development. Using a quantitative framework called Rifle, his team helped grow the company's revenue beyond $100M in revenue and to profitability. David's personal and venture investments have focused on communications and Internet software including Aliph, Bitfone (HPQ), FON, Frengo, Good Technology (MOT), iLike, loopt, Opsware (OPSW), RingCentral, SmartPay and Spot Runner, and Tellme (MSFT). David grew up in Seattle, Washington and graduated from Harvard College magna cum laude with highest honors in the special major Organizational Behavior and Economics, with additional coursework at MIT and NYU in engineering. He lives with his wife and daughter in Portola Valley, California Martin Green, President, Business Development, Meebo: Martin is Meebo’s business vice president, responsible for community engagement, revenue strategy and corporate partnerships. He started his career at Morgan Stanley and in 1996, joined an emerging client of Morgan Stanley, CNET. Martin spent 10 years at CNET Networks in a variety of strategic, financial and operations roles, most recently serving on the executive committee and serving as senior vice president of lifestyle and community. Martin grew up in England and Canada and lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children Dan Strauss, Vice President, Fox Interactive Media Labs: A Vice President at News Corp’s online division Fox Interactive Media, Dan Strauss is in charge of FIM Labs, whose mission is to drive technical innovation and integration across the division’s leading web properties. FIM Labs is responsible for research and development for new and existing technologies as well as identifying prospects for acquisition and integration. Strauss leads a team of world class designers, engineers and product managers including acquired companies Newroo, and Sidereus Technologies. Prior to the formation of Fox Interactive Media in July of 2005, Strauss was the director of production and project management at FOXSports.com where he managed all aspects of the development of the site. Strauss successfully integrated SportingNews.com, relaunched FOXSports.com with MSN, and administered the first version of Fantasy Football. He also effectively released NFL Sunday Ticket, a new desktop application that offered real-time scores alongside Fantasy Football game and data. Prior to FOXSports.com, Strauss worked in variety of internet startups in the New York City area. His career began in the media business at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, where he launched the paper’s very first web site. Strauss has a Bachelor’s degree from Miami University in Ohio. John Boden, Senior Vice President, Product Management, Openwave Systems: As Senior Vice President of Product Management, John Boden is responsible for the development and management of Openwave’s entire suite of products and solutions. In this role, he is charged with cultivating a synergistic product portfolio and directing the product lifecycles and roadmaps for Openwave’s core product lines. John brings 20 years of product management, development and marketing experience to Openwave. He joined Openwave from voice-over-IP (VoIP) startup GENBAND, where he was Chief Technology Officer. Prior to that, John had a long career with Nortel, holding several leadership positions in the wireless, wireline and enterprise business units. Most recently John led the Product Management and New Product Introduction teams at Nortel for the VoIP and DMS portfolios where he played a key role in driving and sustaining Nortel’s number-one VoIP market share year after year. John holds a BS degree in Engineering Physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Joyce A. Schwarz is an author/speaker/consultant and one of the leaders in the emerging entertainment and media arena. She heads JCOM, a new product launch and branding consulting firm located in Marina Del Rey, California. Joyce has created marketing and advertising campaigns for more than 100 consumer and B2B technologies and products ranging from emusic.com to projects for Philips, France Telecom & AT&T. She combines more than 20 years experience in advertising and marketing for international ad agencies such as Foote Cone & Belding with a masters degree in film from USC and extensive production experience in film, television, video and interactive. She wrote "Reinventing Hollywood" for the NAB in 1992 and then co-wrote "Multimedia: Gateway to the Next Millennium" in 1993, "How to Break Into the New Hollywood" in 1995. Her latest book is "Cutting the Cord: Guide to Going Wireless" Que Publishing, June 2002. Schwarz is well known as a business writer and colu! mnist for more than 150 articles in such publications as: Business 2.0, Conferenza, Digitrends.net, 'Christian Science Monitor", 'Sales and Marketing' (SAM), LA Times and more. She was the chair and organizer for the first Paris, France Internet/ITV conference from 1995-1997, Digital Day LA , 1993-1996 and is a popular keynote speaker at such conferences as the Invention Convention and the San Diego Computer Fair. She specializes in developing partnerships and alliances for emerging entertainment and new technologies.