Friday, November 13, 2009

Gearing up for Streaming Media West and the Online Video Platform Summit

Streaming Media West rolls in into San Jose, California next week and with it comes the new Online Video Platform Summit. There are some 60 companies exhibiting, more than 130 speakers combined at Streaming Media West and the Online Video Platform Summit and over 40 sessions over the four days of the events which begins on Monday, November 16, with Streaming Media West Pre-Conference workshops through Thursday, November 19, 2009. The Online Video Platform Summit is November 18-19 and is held in conjunction with Streaming Media West.

Streaming Media West is the largest conference focused on discussing the business impact that online video is having on the TV and advertising industries. At this year's Streaming Media West Show, executives from FOX, Disney, NBC Universal, MTV, HBO Broadband, EPIX, MLB, YouTube/Google, Turner, CNN Money, Comcast, Associated Press, FUNimation, and Mountain Sports International will discuss how converging media technologies are redefining traditional distribution methods, the disruption they see taking place from Web television, TV Everywhere, broadband enabled devices, advertising standards and HD video. Streaming Media West is two-track conference and you can see the conference program for the full list of sessions and speakers.

The Online Video Platform Summit is a single-track conference with six focused sessions, online video platform showcases and a special keynote address by Brightcove CEO and Chairman Jeremy Allaire. I'll be featuring the individual sessions over the next few days and you can see the full program here.

As part of the festivities, Streaming Media celebrates the industry with the annual Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards. Finalists were selected by 5,136 readers in 18 categories and the winners will be revealed at a gala reception at Streaming Media West on November 18, broadcast live courtesy of LiveStream, and featuring entertainment from Eclectic Method, made possible by our Diamond Sponsor, Kaltura. Thanks also to our Gold Sponsors, Digital Rapids and ViewCast.

For those who can't make it to San Jose in person, we'll be live streaming Jeremy Allaire's keynote from the Online Video Platform Summit as well as the Readers' Choice Awards reception on Wednesday, Nov. 18 at 4:45 p.m. EST/1:45 p.m. PST. From Streaming Media West, we'll be bringing you the keynotes from Bill Stone, president of FLO TV at 12 p.m. EST/9 a.m. PST on Tuesday, Nov. 17, and Emil Rensing, chief digital officer of Studio 3 Partners/EPIX at 12 p.m. EST/9 a.m. PST on Thursday, Nov. 19. All keynotes will be delivered again by Livestream on the StreamingMedia.com home page.

Special thanks to our sponsors including our Diamond Sponsor of the Online Video Platform Summit and for both events our Platinum, Gold, Corporate, Red Carpet and Media Sponsors. There are too many to name here but we thank you all.

There has been some great coverage of both these upcoming conferences and the online video the space with recognition by news agencies, blogs and press releases for many of the companies participating in the events. The Forrester Research report, The Forrester WaveTM: US Online Video Platforms, an evaluation of six top online video platform vendors created quite a buzz in the industry and some controversy since the report excluded most of the 60 some platforms in the market. Forrester's Bobby Tulsani went on record speaking with Beet.TV to defend the report saying that it was geared to the mid-tail producers and not big media companies or free video sharing sites. He also wrote a blog post to follow up on why the report only evaluated Brightcove, Fliqz, Kaltura, Ooyala, Twistage and VMIX.

USATODAY.com published an article yesterday which is an indication that mainstream media has taken notice of the growing online video space and the need for publishers and content owners to have a video solution. In the article, Services such as Fliqz, 360 help businesses get videos online, Jeffereson Graham reported on what he called,
"(a) new wave of services has cropped up to help businesses get their work online, via networks that are similar in operation to YouTube but that offer more controls and customer service, for a fee. Sorenson Media's 360, Fliqz and VideoBloom are among those aiming at the small and midsize business market."
As part of the article they interviewed Forrester Research analyst James McQuivey along with Sorenson Media President and CEO Peter Csathy and Fliqz CEO Benjamin Wayne who will both be participating as speakers for the Online Video Platform Summit session Redefining Monetization on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 2:00 p.m.

James McQuivey, Forrester Research pointed out that,
"Whether you're a hot-dog vendor in Boston or design firm in Santa Fe, you will be producing video for the Web. Video is how your customers will find you."
Benjamin Wayne who indicated that the adoption rate of online video platforms will take time said,
"About 2% of small businesses have begun to adopt video. They don't understand yet how it will drive their business. That will change in the next two years. That's because they don't know how to get the video produced. That's the hard part."

ReelSEO.com's Grant Crowell and Mark Robertson recorded a podcast to give a preview of their coverage of the events in their, Streaming Media West & Online Video Platform Summit Podcast Coverage! and why it's considered to be the premier event for video professionals.










Mark will be speaking on the Online Video Platform Summit panel session Optimizing Video Search and Discoverability on Thursday, Nov, 19 at 10:30 a.m. Look for more on that session in the next few days.

Aside from the Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards, there will be more parties! Dan Rayburn published the following post of the not-to-miss social events:
Here are a few other conference related posts from Dan:
Several companies will be making a number of big announcements next week. Here's a sampling of some of the news coverage and press releases so far, keep up date with other Streaming Media - Industry Announcements:

Update 11/16/09
  • Did you hear that Kevin (Nalts) Nalty will also be speaking on the Online Video Platform Summit session Redefining Monetization on Thursday, Nov. 19 at 2:00 p.m.? Don't miss his exclusive Bay Area appearance! ;-)
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