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!

1. Festival Careers & Starting a festival- Jeff Ross, SF Indie

2. Sponsorship & Marketing- Michal- SBFF | Beau Blanchard, CA Film

3. Social Media & Media Relations-Paul Cohen

4. Celebrity Talent- Jennifer Blum, Integrated Marketing, Events, and Talent Relations Professional, JB Group

5. Fundraising, Budgets & Grant writing- Barb Morgan

6. Digital Strategies & Distribution-Benjamin Oberman, President/CEO, Film Festival Flix

7. Board Development & Nonprofits- Dale Strack, Chairman, San Diego Film Festival

8. 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.