Keynotes July 2025

The Digital Hollywood Summer Summit

Monday, July 21st - Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025

The Defining Event: The Future of Entertainment, Media & Technology

A Virtual Event • Registration is Free - An Expected Audience of 12,000

• Speakers Note: Some Sessions will be Taped Prior to the Event - Please check with your moderator

The Evening Keynote Roundtables

Monday, July 21st, 2025

8:00 PM – 8:50 PM: Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

21st Century Hollywood: The Creative Mind Without Boundaries

If ever there was an industry, emblematic of an ethos of creativity, it is Hollywood. From the indie brilliance and idiosyncrasy of “Being John Malkovich” to the blockbuster genius and visualization of “Oppenheimer,” brilliant minds and expression unleashed is the core ideal of the industry. And today, a new technology has arrived that may unleash another layer of creative invention, Artificial Intelligence. While some may fear its arrival and implications, others are experimenting and discovering that the most creative among us are able to harness AI as a “Mental Collaborator,” perhaps a McLuhan or Leary-like accelerator to reach beyond a heretofore unavailable creative boundary. Similarly, AI is able to augment the complexities of VFX and CGI and serve as a tool of discovery in the creation of blockbusters and indie projects alike.

Session II:

The Spatial Strategy: From Enhanced Eyewear, AI & AR to Full Immersion
We live in a world of platforms and technologies, a mobile, AI, XR and accelerated lifestyle of visual, audio and immersive experiences. Apple Vision Pro has been countered with the Meta eyewear short-term and long-term technologies. And every major player, Google, Amazon, Samsung, even chip players, NVIDIA and Qualcomm not to mention the AIs, OpenAI, Microsoft and the Adobes and Autodesk. In this session, we have assembled some of the greatest creative minds to help us make sense of the rate of innovation, change and the meaning of it all. This is about our technology and the way we live and will live our lives.

8:00 PM – 8:50 PM: Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

AI & Cinematic Creativity: On the Verge of Its Citizen Kane Moment

Perhaps one way to gauge the proliferation of AI Cinema is by making note of the AI Film Festivals and Meet-ups around the world. Let’s start with Seattle and LA, Mumbai and Berlin, Austin and Shanghai, West Palm Beach and Vienna, New York and Cannes, UK and Prague, Chicago and Atlanta. Not to mention Dubai. AI is the fastest emerging technology of all time and the quality and excitement around the tools and unleashed creative energy speaks for itself. In this roundtable we will be screening from among the best. We will we speak to film makers and voices of AI creativity. Are we on the verge of our “Citizen Kane Moment?” No question Cinematic AI will be largest and most explosive entertainment category ever.

Session II:

The Cultural Tsunami: Creator Economy + Podcasts = A Media Realignment

Think about the average family prime-time living room scene. Mom and Dad settle in for their 8 PM favorite, Junior and Babs are texting and doom scrolling and before long, Mom breaks out her iPad and Dad does the same. We are all in a world of video creators and our favorite Pods, all the while texting our besties creating our own unique Emojis. Let’s face it, the old guard is being disrupted, and new voices, platforms and a whole new way of life has emerged. Of course, this is not the end of Networks and Studios as we know them, but it is a huge migration to devices from mobile to immersion. No question that it’s a “Cultural Tsunami,” and in this session, we will explore what it means and where we are going.

The Evening Keynote Roundtables

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2025

8:00 PM - 8:50 PM: Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

The Studio • The Brand • The Agency = A Global Media & Technology Revolution

While the power of Hollywood never fades, the traditional silos of the studio, networks and celebrity are being reshuffled into a “Power-Shake-Up” of Global Brands, Mega Technologies and Global Agencies. The Result? On the one hand, consumer personalization which has always been at the forefront in decision making, now with the addition of powerful and direct AI engagement with consumers, which is only in its formative stages, will likely emerge as something of a breakthrough “Brand/Consumer Co-Pilot Relationship.” And in a world of immersive content experiences, AI as a “Creative Partner” is taking the ideation and production process to an entirely next level experience. The world will be experiencing a host of “Sphere Level” creative experiences. In this roundtable, we bring together the executives deeply involved in exploring and delivering on this promise.

Session II:

Training the “Stanley Kubrick” Level AI: Fact or Fantasy & the Question of Ethics

What would happen if an AI were trained with the entire oeuvre, the life work of Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, Stanley Kubrick, Billy Wilder and John Ford? That would be like sharing the “Keys to the Hollywood Kingdom,” the finest in cinematography, screenwriting, humor, drama and editing as well. And even with that “Assemblage of Greatness,” attached to an AI of tomorrow, meaning an AI with a near-Einstein level mind, would that “Advanced Machine” be able to create, even with professional “Human Assistance” a truly great achievement in Cinema? This question is not an idle bit of humor or fantasy. In a world racing toward “Advanced General Intelligence,” it is a question that we might have to one day address.

9:00 PM - 9:50 PM: Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

AI & Human Intelligence –The Human-Machine Relationship: Emotion – Intuition - Empathy - Feelings

What role will an AI play in our lives. It will help in our daily lives, as an advisor, a researcher, a mind to help stimulate our create process and even as a companion to share feelings and emotion. It might manifest as text, or as a visual on a screen, as “Her” on a smartphone or as a “Humanoid Robot,” but will it make the leap to full “Human Like” emotion, intuition, judgement and the full spectrum of human experience. It is not too early to ask these questions. What about the question of human need, affection and even love? A child expresses those feels from their earliest cognitive moments. Dogs and cats do as well. Accordingly, a “Highly Trained AI” will do all that and have an advanced mental capability too boot. No question, today’s ChatGPT can read and write and in this session, we’ll explore what else is on the horizon.

Session II:

AI & the Law: A “Deep Dive” - Fair Use, Copyright and the Doctrine of Innovation

Even with the successful resolution of the Entertainment industry “Guilds” strike of 2023, there remains an ongoing fear that "artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions." The core AI issue sparking debate in Hollywood is not only based on compensation, data training and ownership but the creative control of the ultimate production itself. Additionally, “Deep Fake” technology has raised concern about potential harmful uses, such as political disinformation, revenge porn, and misuse of intellectual property. At the same time, many “creatives” tout the game changing benefits and innovation this technology can bring to artistic and other endeavors, such as educational opportunities, enhanced freedom of expression and reduced barriers to entry. This panel will discuss these competing concerns and whether existing legal frameworks, such as right of publicity, copyright, and existing regulations, are sufficient to address this powerful technology.

The Evening Keynote Roundtables

Wednesday, July 23rd, 2025

8:00 PM - 8:50 PM: Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

The Actor vs The Terminator: Synthetic Actors & Performers vs. Human Creativity

Imagine a great Hollywood screenwriter, imagine a plotline to transform characters into a world of cinematic magic and then utilize and embrace technologies, new generative AI technologies to bring life, anthropomorphize the language and phrases and manifest that imagery into a “Terminator” on the big screen that will ultimately beat-down an otherwise heroic “Human Actor.” Does that represent the creative competition in the Hollywood of our future. Does Hollywood ultimately face the choice of Synthetic Movie Stars vs. Human Actors and Human writers? That is the question of the day.

Session II:

The Economic AI Godzilla: The GPU Mega-Factories – Energy Burn Rate – A Future that Burns Bright

If two or three hundred million Americans are attached to a national AI Grid, with GPTs churning away doing the “Thinking” for us all, with Robots making our sandwiches and desserts, not to mention our photo and movie making AI making life a blast, imagine now the GPU Clusters and Mega-Factories needed to support that overload. This nation will need an energy supply about fifty times our current output. Even with the innovations that might be discovered like DeepSeek, Con Ed and PG&E are not gonna cut it. This national will be facing an AI Power Godzilla and it is not secret. If we have rolling brownouts today, imagine our future. This isn’t only our problem; it’s a global problem. This is the question of the day.

9:00 PM - 9:50 PM: Eastern Time Zone

Session I:

AI & Intelligence: Content, Brand & Consumer Engagement - Text/Audio/Video: “You Had Me at Hello!”

The “Era of Limited Utility Chatbots” may finally be coming to an end. It’s not only the dissatisfied customer headache, but rather, it’s the “Arrival of Conversational AI,” whether in the form of “Text, Audio or Video” that is coming to the “Rescue” of the global population. And it’s just in time. AIs, trained to the specific needs, demands and idiosyncrasies to serve specific brands or industries, or “Off-the-Shelf” models are now coming off the conveyer line. This is the “Opening Bell,” of AI serving at the “Gateway” to “Brand Identification” or “Brand Experience” on all platforms and on all devices. And in the coming generation, the AI may well be as compelling as the best trained “Retail Experience Representative.” There may be a few “hallucinations” and even a handful of legal hurdles to overcome in the process, but many consumers will likely describe their experience with “You had me at Hello.”

Session II:

Blockchain, Crypto & the Next Hollywood Economy: A “MetaVision” of Platforms , Studios & Networks

While Hollywood will always be the innovation engine, creating feature films, games, immersive content and now, leading the way in AI produced technology and content, next level “Hollywood Economy Strategies” will lead the way in the development and deployment of blockchain and Web3 applications. With a faster and fully integrated “Cloud-Based Economy,” “Multiplatform Apps” will not only secure the monetization of content globally, the Hollywood and advertising communities will lead the way in creating new direct to consumer trust relationships and innovative content and product categories. A few years ago, the “Metaverse” came into common usage, now we might be entering its successor, to be called, “The MetaVision.