HITS Connections

HITS, the media & entertainment IT society, returns to New York City next week at NAB’s CCW Conference on November 11 with a three-hour, in-depth program overview of the ways that Information Technology is reinventing the broadcast ecosystem, supply chain and customer experience.

The morning program and speaker line-up for the HITS Broadcast IT Summit covers the full range of topics that are top of mind among broadcasters undergoing their own digital transformation, from multiplatform content delivery; to collaborating in the cloud; IT and broadcast advertising; data, analytics and discovery; and cybersecurity and incident response.

The program features two celebrity keynotes: Author, essayist and journalist Michael Wolff will explain why he believes that “Television is the New Television” and why the web, social media and the many mobile platforms will not supplant traditional broadcast for advertiser dollars and viewer attention. Later in the proceedings, CBS Chief Research Officer, David F. Poltrack, will explain how major broadcasters are responding to the digital challenge by infusing analytics throughout their organizations to optimize revenues and advertiser value.

What do the “customers” think of the transformation of the broadcast enterprise? New revenue models and advertising technologies have huge revenue potential, but they require careful integration into the corporate network for measurement, consumer targeting and supply chain integration. In a session entitled “IT Meets Madison Avenue,” moderator Harold Geller, Chief Growth Officer, Ad-ID, will lead a discussion between the customer side, as represented by Bob Liodice, President and Chief Executive Officer, Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and the broadcaster perspective as represented by Patrick McGovern, Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Operations, ABC Television Network.

Customer data and content personalization are two major byproducts of the new, IT-enabled broadcast operation. This will be the theme of another session, “Driving Data and Discovery,” where industry executives will address how new digital technologies are enabling unprecedented understanding of the consumer and how, by harnessing the power of metadata, we can lead to increased viewer engagement. Moderator Christy King, Chief Operating Officer, Levels Beyond, will lead a panel including Ken Brady, Manager, Multimedia, Bridgewater Associates; Frank Savage, Vice President and Senior Architect, HBO; and Matt Turner, Chief Technology Officer, MarkLogic in a discussion that will focus on how old rules of distribution are changing in light of an emerging content ecosystem that weaves broadcast, OTT, UGC and social into a new, consumer experience.

One of the biggest challenges of this new, multiplatform content delivery landscape is how to integrate the digital supply chain from the content producer to the network, broadcaster, advertiser and ultimately the consumer. This will be the subject of a panel entitled “Generating $ and Sense Across Platforms,” featuring a range of C-level broadcast executives including: Stacey Decker, Chief Technology Officer, WGBH; Glenn Goldstein, Senior Vice President, Chief Technology Convergence Officer, Viacom; Kurt Rao, Vice President, Corporate IT and Chief Information Officer, Time Warner; and Joe Simon, Chief Operations Officer, Encompass Digital Media

Jeff Davidson, Content Supply Chain Architect, Viacom, will further elaborate on this topic in his presentation, “The New Cloud: Collaboration by the Numbers,” explaining how new, best-of-breed cloud platforms are letting media and entertainment companies increase their internal collaboration, while providing real-time data analytics about the effectiveness of new employee workflows.

The downside of broadcast’s digital trend, however, are new forms of risk and security threats for IT departments, which lead to the conference program’s penultimate session, “Secrets to Building An Incident Response Team.”

Security executives, including Philip Kibler, Director Cyber Security Services, IBM; Cyril Rickelton-Abdi, Security Director, Turner; and Joel Sloss, Program Manager, Security, Privacy, and Compliance, Microsoft Azure, will discuss how to build and manage your company’s Incident Response Team (IRT) and what to do when you’ve suffered a breach or discovered an exploited vulnerability.

For more information and to register to attend visit: www.hollywooditsociety/nyc-2015/
For more information about NAB’s CCW Convention visit www.ccwexpo.com