IFFS 2014 Day 2 Agenda
9:00am – 10:00am
Texas Ballroom 1
Tech:
Sell Out Your Festival with Big Data
Panelists will discuss how festivals can leverage the vast amount of data on concerts, bands, managers and other sources to maximize attendance. Learn the tools and strategies that festivals are using to leverage Big Data to drive ticket sales and marketing.
Moderator: Biasha Mitchell, Manager, Music & Festivals, Eventbrite
Panelist: Uri Bogler, VP Marketing, Front Gate Tickets
Panelist: Keith Goldberg, VP of Marketing and Product, Vendini
Panelist: Sean O’Connell, Festival Director, Hangout Music Festival
9:00am – 10:00am
Texas Ballroom 4-7
Film
Sponsorship 101: Creating a Winning Deck
Stuck in a rut? Does your deck need a makeover? Learn from our panel how to brainstorm yours and create a buzz-worthy sponsorship package that excites your sponsors & maximizes your branding. Bring yours and we may highlight you! Let’s Brainstorm with our brain trust.
Moderator: Liana Bender, Development Director, California Film Institute
Panelist: Michal Wiesbrock, Director of Development, Santa Barbara Film Festival
Panelist: Beau Blanchard, Development Manager, California Film Institute
Panelist: Kyle Conway, Owner, The Sponsor Bureau (Grapefest, Mayfest, Plano Balloonfest, Bedford Blues & BBQ Festival, Gaylord Hotels, Geico, Lexus, Ford, Chevrolet)
Panelist: Holly Tighe, Marketing Werks
10:15am–11:00am
Texas Ballroom 4-7
Filmmakers and Festival Directors:Why can’t we be friends?
It’s always a dustup when Indiewire publishes another article about what filmmakers don’t like about festivals and visa versa. But it is a symbiotic relationship that should be fostered with communication & understanding. Getting to the heart of the matter, let’s explore how festivals and filmmakers can better communicate to avoid the logjam of complaints.
Moderator: Paula Bernstein, Filmmaker Toolkit/Technology Editor, IndieWire
Panelist: Chris Lowell, Writer/Actor/Director (Besides Still Waters, The Help, Veronica Mars)
Panelist: Deirdre Haj, Director, Full Frame Documentary Film Festival
Panelist: Noah Miller , Director/ Producer, Sweet Water (2013) & Touching Home (2008)
Panelist: Logan Miller, Director/ Producer, Sweet Water (2013) & Touching Home (2008)
11:00am–11:30am
Dedicated Solution Center Networking & Coffee Break
Sponsored by EarAngels
11:30am–12:30pm
Texas Ballroom 4-7
Film
The Greatest Show on Earth-Programming the Film Festival
Premieres, stars, competing festivals, submissions vs. curated, studio vs indie, audience vs auteur. Let’s get to the bottom of it all, if we can…
Moderator:Liz Ogilvie, Director of Market Programs, Fandor
Panelist: Anna Germanidi, Festival Director, Slamdance Film Festival
Panelist: Erin Hallagan, Creative Director, Austin Film Festival
Panelist: Tonya Mantooth, Vice President, San Diego Film Festival
12:45pm–1:30pm
Texas Ballroom 1
Tech:
Optimizing the Three D’s of Digital – Data, Distribution & Development of Social Strategy
Festivals often have difficulty harnessing the new digital platforms and tools that will inevitably help grow fan base, ticket sales, and overall engagement between consumers and the festival brand. Speaking with industry experts, you’ll learn how social media, digital distribution and customer data can be utilized,analyzed and collected to keep the current audience engaged year round, but also grow the audience exponentially.
Moderator: Eric B. Stein, Founder, Impact Global Media
Panelist: Michael Barnett, CEO, INGO
Panelist: Makonnen Blake Hannah, Reggae Film Festival
Panelist: Tara Wood, CEO, International Film Sales Company Wood Entertainment
12:45pm–1:30pm
Texas Ballroom 4-7
Film
Marketing Your Film Festival
Banner ads, street teams, experiential marketing, word of mouth, traditional advertising, digital branding, social media, tweeting, FB liking, radio, tv, publicists…..exhausted yet? Can you measure what’s working or are you throwing it all up against the wall in hopes that something sticks? Let’s break down the tools and figure out how to optimize each one to benefit your organization.
Moderator: Dave Margulies, Executive Director, Ashland Independent Film Festival
Panelist: David Glanzer, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, Comic-Con
Panelist: David R. Bell, Xinmei Zhang and Yongge Dai Professor/ Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Panelist: Dale Strack, Chairman/CEO, San Diego Film Festival
1:30pm–2:15pm
Dedicated Solution Center Networking
2:00pm–4:00pm
Hill Country A & B
Sponsor Drop In
You’ve got 15 minutes to put your best foot forward and show your stuff! (You may leave a proposal in the form of paper, CD rom or flash drive.)
Facilitator: Kyle Conway, Owner, The Sponsor Bureau (Grapefest, Mayfest, Plano Balloonfest, Bedford Blues & BBQ Festival, Gaylord Hotels, Geico, Lexus, Ford, Chevrolet)
2:15pm–3:30pm
Texas Ballroom 4-7
Drill Downs (two 45 minute sessions)
Prepare to ask questions as our Drill Down facilitators address industry topics on a more intimate level providing insight, advice and feedback to your questions you can’t get answered anywhere else!
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Festival Careers & Starting a festival- Jeff Ross, SF Indie
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Sponsorship & Marketing- Michal- SBFF | Beau Blanchard, CA Film
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Social Media & Media Relations-Paul Cohen
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Celebrity Talent- Jennifer Blum, Integrated Marketing, Events, and Talent Relations Professional, JB Group
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Fundraising, Budgets & Grant writing- Barb Morgan
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Digital Strategies & Distribution-Benjamin Oberman, President/CEO, Film Festival Flix
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Board Development & Nonprofits- Dale Strack, Chairman, San Diego Film Festival
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Operations- Beth Caldarello, Operations Manager, Telluride Film Festival
3:30pm–4:15pm
Texas Ballroom 4-7
Film
Distribution-What A Tangled Web We Weave
The days of opening with a studio film, sandwiching a few mini-majors in, programming with a few Sundance hits & featuring local filmmakers is over. The studios are largely irrelevant, mini-majors highly selective & submissions largely a thankless task. All of that being said, there are still great films being made & distributed (they always show up at the Oscars & Spirit Awards), so the challenge is, where do we find them and how do we get to program them? And once picked up, how are distributors selecting the festivals that get to show them? And how do festivals get to participate in exhibiting great films without being a known name festival? Let’s hear from the big guns as we consider the state of cinema in the 2010’s.
Moderator: Eric B. Stein, Founder, Impact Global Media
Panelist: Alex Nohe, Partner, Circus Road Films
Panelist: Joseph Beyer, Director of Digital Initiatives, Sundance Institute
Panelist: Greg Reitman, Director/ Producer, Blue Water Entertainment, Inc.
Panelist: Keith Mitchell, Partner Development Manager, Cinevee
Panelist: Tim League, Founder & CEO, Alamo Drafthouse (Fantastic Fest)
4:15pm–5:00pm
Texas Ballroom 4-7
Centerpiece: Festivals as Film Funders
As production budgets decrease, film organizations can take a more active role in financing and shepherding artistically meaningful productions through development, production and release. The example of San Francisco Film Society’s collaboration with the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, providing $1m per year in filmmaker support services and grants, could serve as a funding model for other film organizations and festivals.
Panelists: Noah Cowan, ED, SFFS
Panelist: Jen Rainin, CEO, Kenneth Rainin Foundation
Panelist: Kat Candler, Filmmaker, Candler Productions
4:15pm–5:00pm
Texas Ballroom 2&3
Crossover Panel
Presented by Lineup Magazine: The Media is your Message
Everyone complains about the media but nobody does anything about it. Yet where would festivals be without it? And what is the media now with bloggers taking the place of journalists and digital magazines as ubiquitous as teenagers on cell phones. We’ve assembled the observers and now you can put them in the hot seat..please keep gloves on.
Moderator: Waco Hoover, Publisher, Lineup
Panelist: Jennifer Blum, Integrated Marketing, Events, and Talent Relations Professional, JB Group
Panelist: Gregg Goldstein, Writer, Variety
5:00pm–7:00pm
A Salute to Wonderful Women Hosted by WordPress.com
Dedicated Solution Center Networking, Cocktails & Hors d’oeuvres on the Exhibit Floor
Join us on the exhibit floor and you can enjoy a cocktail in a space just right for making connections and establishing new partnerships while you learn about the latest solutions for your event.
