The sixth edition of Media Honeypot, held on February 14, 2019 at the Sofia Future Farm on Sofiankatu in Helsinki, provided a comprehensive view of the European media start-up landscape, and its investors, in a full day of sessions, pitches, and speed-meetings. The value of having major European media houses, from Axel Springer to Bonnier and Schibsted, and leaders of the mobile gaming scene, including Small Giant Games’ Timo Soininen and Next Games’ Teemu Huutanen, as well as ventures from Belarus to London, is clear: the next big thing in media innovation is more likely to emanate from Europe than from North America.

I led a panel, ‘AI in Media,’ that featured panelists from various sides of the AI media spectrum: blockchain media distribution (Cedric Monier, CEO of iKAST.io); media curation (Romain Eude, CEO of Utelly), and AI service provisioning (Laura Avonius, founder, Fragity). The discussion of how AI can enable new services demonstrated the depth of European media start-up leadership in AI.

As always, Media Honeypot founder Heikki Rotko created an atmosphere of congenial spirit, capping the day off with a sauna session at Löyly, followed by a late-night session at the famous Kaarle nightclub.

Chris Pfaff, Heikki Rotko, chairman/founder of Media Honeypot, and Vinay Solanki, head of Channel 4 Ventures, at Löyly, Helsinki

Chris Pfaff listens to a pitch from holler.live founding partner Iva Sakarova in the Media Honeypot Deal Room

Two views of a selfie: Romain Eude, Utelly; Cedric Monier, iKAST.io; Chris Pfaff, and Laura Avonius, Fragity, after the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Cedric Monier (center), CEO of iKAST.io, discusses the implementation of AI with blockchain media distribution on the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Romain Eude (left), CEO of Utelly, discusses Utelly’s use of AI for media curation on the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Laura Avonius, CEO of Fragity, discusses media firm’s use of AI for data refining, on the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Two long views of the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Chris Pfaff (right) discusses the ‘AI arms race’ in the media industry on the ‘AI in Media’ panel

Credentials and coffee at Media Honeypot 2019

It is always a pleasure to work with Tracey Swedlow and her team at the TV of Tomorrow Show. I have known Tracy since 1998, and she has indefatigably helped lead the discussion around advanced TV and video for more than two decades. And, yes, we shared the virtual stage in a famous Producers Guild of America (PGA) New Media Council event in February, 2008 (it was a webcast, with me in New York at the New School; she in San Francisco, at the Macromedia building), in which we presented panelists and debated the New York vs. San Francisco tech/new media scene.

At the recent TV of Tomorrow Show New York, held at the SVA Theatre in Manhattan on December 7th, 2018, I moderated a session, ‘Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence for the OTT Universe,’ that dove into a wide range of issues facing broadcasters; MSOs; user-generated content, and advertisers as machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) increase their sophistication in the overall OTT world.

My panelists included:

Romain Eude, CEO/founder, Utelly

Randa Minkarah, COO, Transform

Janne Neuvonen, CEO/co-founder, BCaster

Aman Sareen, CEO, Zypmedia

Have a listen to the audio from this session by clicking the link embedded in this post from the TV of Tomorrow site:

https://thetvoftomorrowshow.com/radio-itvt-machine-learning-and-artificial-intelligence-ott-universe