Chris Pfaff appeared on the production finance panel at the Catalyst Story Institute Festival (at the Kitchi Gammi Club in Duluth, Minnesota) on Friday, October 1, 2021 with (left to right):

Seitu Jemel Hart, CEO, Careers in Entertainment, Chris Pfaff, CEO, Chris Pfaff Tech Media LLC, Michelle Miller, Viviana Zarragoitia, VP at Three Point Capital, Sonja O’Hara, from Bohème Film, and Matthew Valentinas, Esq., Of Counsel at Sennott, Williams and Rogers, LLP. Many thanks to Philip Gilpin, Jr., Nikki Coble, and Jennifer Plotzke, and the entire Catalyst Story Institute team for producing an exceptional four days of exuberant creativity.

Chris Pfaff and Viviana Zarragoitia before the panel

Viviana Zarragoitia discusses film financing as Michelle Miller (near left), Sonja O’Hara, and Matthew Valentinas (right) listen

Sonja O’Hara discusses financing of her projects

Chris Pfaff moderated the ‘Live Events in the ‘New Normal’ panel at the Streaming Media Magazine Connect event, on Thursday, August 26, 2021, with Bonnie Comley, CEO/founder of BroadwayHD; Fabrice Sergent, managing partner of Bandsintown Group, and Jordan Gremli, VP, artist development at DICE.

The panel discussed the return of live events to venues across the globe, yet the virtual live market – music, theater, dance – has been alive and well since the start of the pandemic, and will likely evolve into a hybrid model for venue owners, artists, promoters, and audiences.

You can watch the full panel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWq7bHRTeYo&t=22s

Bonnie Comley (upper left), Chris Pfaff (upper middle), Jordan Gremli (upper right), Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen (bottom left), Fabrice Sergent (bottom right)

Chris Pfaff moderated the ‘Built to Scale: Growing Your OTT Service with Your Audience’ panel at Streaming Media Connect 2021 on Wednesday, August 25, 2021, featuring Rick Allen, CEO of ViewLift; Emily Powers, head of BritBox LLC North America; Dave Lankford, VP of Product, The Walt Disney Company Streaming (Hulu, ESPN+, Disney+, and Star+), and Nicole Fencel, senior manager, the Roku Inc. Channel.

The panel discussed the record OTT usage in the summer of 2021, and how the OTT viewing trend that accelerated during the first year of the pandemic has continued unabated. In this session, we will discuss how operators and content providers deal with subscriber growth and unpredictable viewing spikes.

‘Built to Scale: Growing Your OTT Service With Your Audience’ can be viewed in its entirety at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNMegTfXWFg&list=PLcSb1s2U3uyBx4h76YL2Dzt56k-c60ygq&index=7

Chris Pfaff (upper left), Emily Powers (upper middle), Nicole Fencel, (upper right), Dave Lankford (lower left), and Rick Allen (lower right)

Chris Pfaff produced and moderated the ‘Virtual Theatre: The Metaverse Smashes the Four Walls’ session at the VR AR Global Summit Online North America on June 3, 2021, featuring some of the leading producers of immersive theatre and dance, including: Kiira Benzing, from Double Eye Studios; Blair Russell, from Crux; Brandon Powers, from Brandon Powers Projects, and Lorne Svarc, from Technodramatists.

You can view the entire session at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQdKsKS3qnw

The panel discussed the emergence of XR theatre production, including VR and AR integration with narrative original and adaptive works, as well as how to blend XR technologies with live and virtual audiences.

Kiira Benzing (upper left); Brandon Powers (upper middle); Blair Russell (upper right); Lorne Svarc (lower left), Chris Pfaff (lower right)

Brandon Powers shows some of ‘Queer Skins’

Kiira Benzing shows off some of ‘Finding Pandora X’

Blair Russell demos new work

Lorne Svarc demos new work

Lorne Svarc shows some of ‘AliBi’

Blair Russell introduces a new virtual world

Chris Pfaff moderated the ‘Media VCs and Accelerators’ panel at Arctic15 Helsinki on Tuesday, June 1, 2021 with the following panelists:

• Melanie Schröder, director of finance and portfolio, APX
• Nico Lumma, managing partner, Next Media Accelerator
• Anne Jacobsen, CEO, Media City Bergen

Arctic15, the leading networking and matchmaking event for investors – including Index Ventures, Draper Esprit, and NEA – and start-ups in the Nordic region, was an ideal forum for this session, which discussed:

* media consolidation rapidly accelerating at a time when media tech is smashing legacy distribution models. Are we actually about to enter a new golden age of media investment in Europe?

* European broadcast and cable networks and telecom operators have created environments that enable media innovation to flourish. How do accelerators work with broadcasters and operators to create differentiated ventures?

* Strategic media investors are in a strong position today, it would seem, as many institutional VC firms shy away from media investments. How does APX approach early-stage media investment?

* Bergen is an unusual media hub, bolstered by TV-2 and its famous spin-outs, including VizRT and Vimond, among others. How has MCB broadened the outlook for the Norwegian media scene, in general, and can it sustain the track record of Norwegian media start-ups?

* Germany continues to produce leading media-tech ventures, from Soundcloud to hologate. What does the next year – coming out of the pandemic – look like for media investment in Germany?

* how do you help position start-ups in a media world that seems, quite often, to be dominated by Big Tech? Do the likes of Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, and Google appear to be roadblocks or islands of opportunity (either for investment or acquisition)?

Nico Lumma (upper left); Chris Pfaff (upper middle); Melanie Schröder (upper row, second from right); Anne Jacobsen (upper right)

Chris Pfaff moderated the Streaming Media East session ‘How to Succeed With a Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) Service’ on Wednesday, May 19, 2021, featuring some of the leading players in the D2C space, including:

• Ian Greenblatt, Managing Director, JD Power 
• Karl Meyer, Head of Media and Entertainment, Samsung Ads 
• Jon Goodstadt, Director, Ad Sales, Media & Entertainment, Roku 
• Louise La Grange, Launch Director and General Manager, BBC Select

You can watch the full panel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o40IY7dsQA&list=PLcSb1s2U3uyBDk4jY5_c5gdZ_zinvjVqR&index=23

Karl Meyer (upper left), Chris Pfaff (upper middle), Jon Goodstadt (upper right), Ian Greenblatt (middle left), Eric Schumacher-Rasmussen (middle middle)

Chris Pfaff moderated the Streaming Media East Connect session ‘Ad-Supported Streaming Takes Over?’ on Wednesday, May 19, 2021, featuring some of the content and technology leaders in the Free Ad-Supported TV (FAST) space, including:

• Damian Pelliccione, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Revry
• Chris Yates, general manager, on-demand, Redbox
• Nick Colsey, VP, Business Development, Sony Electronics
• Srinivasan KA, Co-founder, Amagi
• Philippe Guelton, EVP of Online Networks & President of Crackle Plus at Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment

You can watch the full panel at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmxMh1u8BQ0

Chris Pfaff (upper middle); Srinivasan KA (upper right); Philippe Guelton (middle left); Nick Colsey (middle middle); Chris Yates (bottom left), Damian Pelliccione (bottom right)

Chris Pfaff produced and moderated a killer session – ‘Co-Watching: The Next Best Thing to Being There’ on the growing industry trend of co-watchig at TVOT LIVE! Spring 2021, on April 26, 2021. Industry leaders, including Jonny Williams, COO, Sceenic; Miheer Walavalkar, CEO, LiveLike, and Wim Sweldens, co-founder/chief architect, Kiswe, joined the session.

You can watch the full panel at: https://youtu.be/R2ly-X-dl5w

Chris Pfaff (upper left); Jonny Williams (upper right); Wim Sweldens (lower left), and Miheer Walavalkar, LiveLike (lower right)

MORE ABOUT ‘CO-WATCHING: THE NEXT BEST THING TO BEING THERE’

More than a decade after the “second screen” brought mobile users and TV content together, the co-watching era brings people together in a sync solution with live content. The live sports and entertainment industries have benefitted, during lockdown, from audiences not able to gather in sports venues, concert halls, festival venues, sports bars, or even in living rooms. This panel features some of the global leaders in the field of co-watching, who will discuss the technical and marketing challenges of launching and sustaining co-watching experiences.

Jerimiah Hamon, chief scientist of Firstlight Media, one of the leading data science figures in the OTT industry, conducted a one-on-one fireside chat with Chris Pfaff – ‘Your Data or Your Gut?’ – at the TVOT Live! Spring 2021 edition on April 27, 2021. Hamon discussed his views on what data science brings to the business of building an effective and engaging OTT offering. How predictive analytics can deliver a superior experience.

You can watch the full panel at: https://youtu.be/STpbnjxNsVE

Chris Pfaff (left) and Jerimiah Hamon (right)

ABOUT ‘YOUR DATA OR YOUR GUT?’

Media and entertainment executives have a long history of “knowing” what sells, but nowadays are gut feelings enough of a foundation for a winning business strategy? As more and more choices vie for consumers’ attention and loyalty, can the content industry really leave subscribers’ viewing choices to chance?  Jerimiah Hamon, Chief Scientist at Firstlight Media, is a computational mathematician with a background in military intelligence, healthcare and medical research, and now consumer behavior and entertainment. He is expert at correlating and automating the links between stimuli and viewer responses to enable more precise targeting of video content. In this wide ranging conversation with  Chris Pfaff, CEO of Chris Pfaff Tech Media, Jerimiah will lift the veil that surrounds data science, explaining: the top misconceptions executives have about data; the pillars of a successful data strategy; and the advanced psychographics that are making data more accurate than ever.

Chris Pfaff produced and moderated a supersession at the Spring (NAB-themed) Media Meet & Greet event ‘OTT Platforms for All Sizes: Not All Content Wears the Same’ on April 22, 2021, presented by Broadband TV News, and sponsored by Amagi Corporation. Avner Ronen, from Samsung Electroics; Tony Huidor, from Cinedigm; Paul Edwards, from ViacomCBS’ Pluto TV, and Sriivasan KA, from Amagi, discussed the explosion of free ad-supported television (FAST) and the growth of niche content channels in this 42-minute session. Kudos to Janet Greco and the Dealroom team for a great event.

You can watch the full session at: https://dealroomarchivedsessions.s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/46556092/269e189d-45f5-40f7-9c01-4470b75320e1/archive.mp4.

Paul Edwards, ViacomCBS’ Pluto TV: (upper left); Tony Huidor, Cinedigm (upper middle); Avner Ronen, Samsung Electronics (upper right); Srinivasan KA, Amagi (bottom left), Chris Pfaff, Chris Pfaff Tech Media LLC (bottom right)