M+E Connections

WiTH Panel at HITS Spring to Look at Diversity, Inclusion

During the annual HITS Spring: The Hollywood Innovation & Technology Summit in Los Angeles on May 17, a special program presented by Women in Technology: Hollywood (WiTH) will feature a unique panel that will take a look at the importance of diversity and inclusion.

Panelists taking part in the discussion — “Building High Performing Teams: It’s About More Than Just the Talent” — will stress how diversity and inclusion in your teams is not just a nice idea, but a crucial imperative that can drive better products, results and revenues. They’ll tackle how Hollywood’s tech groups can develop engaged, resilient teams with more well-rounded points of view, and how studios and hiring managers can take steps to shore up the skills, attributes, experience and perspectives of their teams.

Moderated by Tracy Wright, director of talent and HR business partner for Netflix, the panel will include Christi Karandikar, SVP of talent acquisition, engagement and development for Warner Bros., Paul Martin, SVP and chief diversity officer for Sony Pictures, Anita Noe, VP of talent acquisition, diversity and inclusion for Lionsgate, and MyKhanh Shelton, SVP of global inclusion, engagement and diversity for 21st Century Fox.

The WiTH portion of the HITS Spring program will also include the 2018 WiTH Leadership Award presentation ceremony, and a keynote by Mo Gawdat, founder of One Billion Happy and former chief business officer for Google X.

HITS Spring expects to see several hundred senior studio technology leaders gathering for the 9th annual “reality check” on the key trends transforming the way content is being produced, distributed and consumed.

HITS Spring is produced by the Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA) and the Hollywood IT Society (HITS), in association with Women in Technology: Hollywood (WiTH); the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA) and the Smart Content Council. The event is being presented by Entertainment Partners, with sponsorship by Expert System, LiveTiles, Microsoft Azure, Ooyala, Veritone, Amazon Web Services, Avanade, Avid, IBM Security, MarkLogic, Aspera, Light Point Security, MicroStrategy, SAS, Scaeva Technologies, Western Digital, Brainstorm, Zaszou IT Consulting and Bob Gold & Associates.

For more information visit HollywoodITSummit.com. To become a sponsor and participate at upcoming MESA events, contact Christian Calson at [email protected], 310-945-6284.