The ongoing evolution of technology accompanied by the increasing array of options for accessing media and entertainment continues to present significant challenges; not only to those involved in the creation and production of entertainment properties, but those involved in broadcasting and distribution. Add to this the unique challenges in attempting to carve out a place for Canadian content in the online environment together with the economic downturn, and a ‘perfect storm’ is created.

Join us at this event and hear how many current critical issues are being addressed.

• The economics and evolution of the media and entertainment industries
• The future of broadcasting in Canada
• Is regulatory renewal on the horizon? The recent CRTC proceedings and impact on the industry
• Emerging business models for content production and distribution: what’s working, what’s not
• Access to funding and capital
• Copyright: issues, challenges and their impact on the business of entertainment
• The gaming market: why it’s thriving – will it continue?
• ‘Dissect-a-Game’: an inside look at the money trail
• The mobile market: an explosion of growth, but will it live up to the hype?
• The evolution of advertising: targeting your market whoever and wherever they are

PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS

Alan Sawyer
Principal Consultant, Two Solitudes Consulting

Susan Abramovitch
Partner, Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

This program has been accredited by the Law Society of Upper Canada towards the professional development requirement for certification.
Corporate & Commercial Law – 2.5 hours
Intellectual Property Law – 1 hour

This program has been approved by the Law Society of British Columbia for
3.5 hours.

The Barreau du Québec automatically recognizes training activities held outside the province of Quebec and accredited by another Law Society which has adopted MCLE for its members (this program qualifies for 3.5 hours).

MARKETING PARTNERS

MEDIA PARTNER

Backbone magazine is a broad-based business magazine that focuses on technology for business executives who need to stay up to date. It provides a tangible tool to enhance productivity and agility in Canadaís changing economy. It is the only magazine in Canada with this focus that reaches a large senior business executive audience.

• Executives from the film, television, new media/gaming, music, and print media industries involved in content creation and development or distribution and association executives
• In-house Counsel such as Director of Business and Legal Affairs; Director of Regulatory Affairs
• Executives from broadcasters, cable companies, ISPs and mobile telecommunication services
• Advertising executives
• Executives from financial organizations

• Representatives from:
  
• Consulting companies and research organizations
• Officers and members of creator collectives
• Agents and consultants to performers, artists and writers
• Corporate, commercial and IP lawyers
• Departments of Canadian Heritage and Industry
  • and the Copyright Office
• Provincial Ministries/Departments of Culture

Dear Colleague:

As the distribution of media and entertainment content continues to evolve with technology, the choices available to consumers in how content is accessed have increased considerably. In order for any new method of distributing and accessing content to become sustainable however, systems of payment must be adopted that fairly compensate all stakeholders for their respective contributions both as content creators and those involved in its distribution. While simple in principle, this basic concept is a continuing source of frustration for many of those involved along the value chain for a variety of reasons, and in many respects could still be considered experimental as some business models seem to be succeeding while others are struggling.

Fundamental to any system of compensation however, is a copyright regime that reflects the current realities of the online environment and unfortunately, Canada has not kept pace with other countries in updating its Copyright Act. This has had the effect of undermining Canadian creators and copyright owners in the online environment where file sharing has already caused serious erosion of revenue for the music industry and is threatening to do the same to the film and TV production sectors. Upholding the principles of the Broadcasting Act in this environment will be exceptionally challenging and was the subject of the CRTC’s recent New Media hearing.

Additionally the economic downturn has put even greater financial pressure on broadcasters as advertising revenues have dropped substantially, putting the continued viability of local stations in jeopardy. Whether this situation is merely cyclical or the beginning of the end for traditional broadcasters is going to continue to be the subject of intense debate as the fee-for-carriage issue could represent a watershed ‘make or break’ event.

This Insight Information conference will offer a unique opportunity to debate all of these issues in the Canadian context as the economic and technological evolutions which underlie them continue to unfold around us. It’s one we’re sure you won’t want to miss.

Sincerely

Alan Sawyer
Principal Consultant
Two Solitudes Consulting

Susan Abramovitch
Partner
Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

MONDAY | OCTOBER 19, 2009

8:15 | 9:00

Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 | 9:05

Welcoming Remarks from Insight Information

9:05 | 9:15

Opening Remarks from the Co-Chair

Alan Sawyer
Principal Consultant
Two Solitudes Consulting

9:15 | 10:00

Economics and Evolution of the Media and Entertainment Industries

Peter Lyman
Senior Partner
Nordicity Group Ltd.

Alan Sawyer
Principal Consultant
Two Solitudes Consulting

Duncan Stewart
Technology, Media & Telecommunications
Deloitte & Touche LLP

• Is the era of ‘ad-supported’ over for everybody except Google?
• How can ‘old’ media deliver the same ability to measure advertiser ROI as internet advertising? (Using internet radio as a case study)
• Why is the future of print so different for books and newspapers?
• New business models and evolution of the consumer
• The impact the economic downturn has had on this sector and broadcasters in particular
• The continuing erosion of revenue in the music industry due to piracy, now also experienced by film and TV producers
• The difficulties large online entities (YouTube, Google) are having monetizing their sites

10:00 | 10:15

Networking Coffee Break

10:15 | 11:45

The Future of Broadcasting in Canada

Moderator: Alan Sawyer
Principal Consultant
Two Solitudes Consulting

Norm Bolen
President
CFTPA

Richard Costley-White
Chairman & CEO
Blackburn Radio Incorporated

Ted East
President
CAFDE

Jill Golick
Executive Producer/Creator
Vice-President, Central Region
Writers Guild of Canada

Cal Millar
President & COO
Channel Zero Inc.

• Changing Channels; the evolution of television
  • the impact of future alternative distribution channels for existing types of content; TV, radio, cinema
• Fact or fiction? Is the broadcast industry really dying?
  • the demise of ‘local’ broadcast stations, programming, news
• The relevance and value of broadcasters if they become nothing more than re-transmitters of U.S. programming
• The role of the CBC in the online environment
  • what its future mandate should be, how it should be funded
  • should it step in when the market fails to bring needed/desirable programming forward?
• How much of the current financial crisis facing broadcasters is due to the economy, self-inflicted through bad management, and the changing media landscape?
  • overbidding on U.S. programming
  • too little spending on domestic programming of relevance to Canadian audiences
  • dependence on a single source of revenue, lack of access to subscriber revenues of BDU’s
  • high debt load from previous acquisitions
• The impact of satellite and online radio on local communities, advertisers and artists
• Analysis of cost/benefit of Canadian shows vs. Hollywood
• Storytelling of tomorrow
• How close are we to internet TV and what technological challenges will need to be addressed for this to be a reality?
  • existing caps on consumer bandwidth usage by ISP’s currently an obstacle
  • measure of protection by ISP’s of their existing broadcast distribution businesses
• What’s next after HDTV? 3D TV?

11:45 | 12:30

Is Regulatory Renewal on the Horizon? The Recent CRTC Proceedings and Impact on the Industry

Moderator: Alan Sawyer
Principal Consultant

Peter Grant
Partner
McCarthy Tétrault

Michael Hennessey
Vice-President, Wireless, Broadband and Content Policy
TELUS

Sheridan Scott
Partner, Litigation
Bennett Jones LLP

• Outcome of the New Media Hearings
• Conclusions of the Heritage Committee on broadcasting
• Net neutrality / ‘traffic shaping’ hearing
• OTA proceedings
• Should the CRTC’s mandate change with the advent of internet TV?
• Does the CRTC’s mandate continue to make sense?
• How can the CRTC continue to regulate broadcasters when their competitors online are not regulated?
• Should their mandate move more toward regulating competition between players?

12:30 | 1:45

Networking Luncheon

1:45 | 3:15

Emerging Business Models for Content Production and Distribution: What’s Working, What’s Not

John Barrack
National Executive Vice President
CFTPA

Kate Hanley
President
Digital Theory Media Consulting

John Heaven
President & CEO
Yangaroo

Jordan Jacobs
Jordan Jacobs Entertainment & Media Law

Marit Stiles
National Research Director
ACTRA

Barbara Williams
Executive Vice President, Content
CanWest Broadcasting

• Terms of trade between producers and broadcasters
• Dispute over new media
• How online content is structured and paid for
• Recent agreement negotiated with ACTRA, CFTPA
• Need for broadcasters to be able to exploit a work across all platforms
  • indie producers need a share in the revenue stream
• Risk with new media; transition from analogue $ to digital cents
• No single, clear business model yet, but many are being tried both successfully and unsuccessfully

3:15 | 3:30

Networking Refreshment Break

3:30 | 4:30

Access to Funding and Capital – Ensuring the Future for Canadian Content

Dan McMullen
Senior Account Manager, Media & Entertainment
RBC Royal Bank

Catherine Stuart
Vice President
Aver Media

Dr. Kevin Tuer
Managing Director, Canadian Digital Media Network
and VP Digital Media, Communitech

• Establishment of the new Canada Media Fund
• How can this sector compete for capital?
• Tax credits in some provinces re-vamped, resulting in greater competition for productions
• How available is venture capital in Canada?
• What impact has the current economic climate on access to capital?
• Specific challenges faced by film / television, music, and gaming
• Are ‘Angel’ investors out there?
• The need to support early stage ventures in digital innovations to assist producers of entertainment content and how this is being addressed

4:30

Conference Adjourns for the Day

TUESDAY | OCTOBER 20, 2009

8:15 | 9:00

Continental Breakfast

9:00 | 9:15

Opening Remarks from the Co-Chair

Susan Abramovitch
Partner
Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP

9:15 | 10:30

Copyright: Issues, Challenges and Their Impact on the Business of Entertainment

David Basskin
President
Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency

Casey Chisick
Partner
Cassels Brock

Reynolds Mastin
Associate Counsel
CFTPA

Paul Spurgeon
General Counsel
SOCAN (Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada)

• Canada on U.S.T.R. list of most egregious copyright offenders
• Slow Canadian copyright revision process and its implications domestically and for international trade between Canada and other nations that have already modernized their copyright regimes
• International activity among/between collecting societies and music publishers
  • European reorganization of music licensing services within and across borders
  • is Canada headed in a similar direction?
  • implication for users and creators
• Clearance of many different rights on various platforms a major issue for broadcasters
• Who’s responsible for paying?
• Use of new technologies and business processes to assist in the identification of, and payment for the use of copyrights

10:30 | 10:45

Networking Coffee Break

10:45 | 12:00

The Gaming Market: Why it’s Thriving – Will it Continue?

Patrick Crowe
Co-President
Xenophile media

Jim Laird
Managing Director and CFO
Bedlam Games

Pierre Le Lann
Co-CEO
Tribal Nova

When other sources of entertainment are feeling pinched economically what is it about both gaming as a pastime and its business model that had allowed it to largely escape the effects of the current recession?

• Gaming in the online space
• Entertainment within social networks
• Problems with current financing model for games
• Games are doing well in a growing market, but still face challenges in accessing financing – how can these challenges be overcome?
• Gaming; its impact and interrelationship with other entertainment media (radio, TV, music, books)

12:00 | 1:30

Networking Luncheon

1:30 | 2:30

‘Dissect-a-Game’: An Inside Look at the Money Trail – Case studies of one online multi-player game and one console game

Warren Currell
President
Sherpa Games

Trevor Fencott
Managing Partner and CEO
Bedlam Games

Nathon Gunn (invited)
CEO
Bitcasters

• A look at underlying agreements in place
• ‘Follow the money’; analyze revenue streams, eg. advertising revenue, initial retail sales, subscriber fees, etc.
• Where the money goes; who gets paid, and for what?
  • the story telling, the content creation (images, content, CGI), the music); what’s the business model; royalties, etc.

2:30 | 2:45

Networking Refreshment Break

2:45 | 4:00

The Mobile Market: An Explosion of Growth, But Will it Live Up to the Hype?

Michael Carter
President and CEO
MyThum Interactive

Matt Golden
Partner
BlackBerry Partners Fund

Anthony Lacavera
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Globalive Communications Corp.

Alistair Mitchell
Vice President, Multimedia Integration
Research In Motion

• The evolution of content in the mobile environment as the move is made to 3G LTE
• The rapid growth of application stores (iPhone, BlackBerry), – how are they being used by media companies
• Changing economic models for application development and how people access content
• Games for mobile devices are cheaper to develop than for consoles, developers can do it for less, bypassing the big players
• Ease of distribution this has created; barriers to distribution are low online
• Driving down the price point for software

4:00 | 5:00

The Evolution of Advertising: Targeting Your Market Whoever and Wherever They Are

Clay Conrad
Vice President, Global Sales
INVIDI Technologies Corporation

S. Brady Gilchrist
President
Admodo Group Inc.

Warren Tomlin
Chief Creative Officer
Fuel Industries

• Audience behaviour: how consumers are navigating the bifurcated worlds of traditional and new media and entertainment
  • breakdown of demographics; who uses what to access programming, news, etc.
  • what Canadians are currently doing with new media
• Top internet sites outpacing traditional broadcasters in attracting advertising
• Advertising; the future of advertising
  • where are all the ad dollars going?
  • how can advertisers reach their target market in today’s media landscape?
• Social media as an increasingly significant consumer touchpoint
  • Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn
• The mobile market; your message in their pocket
• Experiential marketing; integrating brands into virtual worlds and bringing the brand to life
• Advergaming (branded entertainment) – how effective is it?
• Dynamic targeted advertising
• Invidi technology in practice; how it works
  • is privacy truly protected?
  • possibilities and challenges for broadcasters, BDU’s
  • who controls the set-top box?
  • who collects ad revenue?
  • how is it measured?

5:00

Register 3 delegates for the main conference at regular price at the same time and you’re entitled to register a fourth person from your organization at no charge. For other group discounts, please call 1-888-777-1707. All discounts must be redeemed when booking, discounts will not be valid or applied after this time.