LATV Festival

LATV Festival

In a little more than a week, leading writers, creators, producers, distributors and others in the Hollywood programming community will gather at the Hyatt Century Plaza hotel for one of the most insightful, relevant and enthusiastic networking opportunities that exist today. If you're in the LA area, whether you have a project to pitch or not, do yourself a big favor and check out this event, which runs from July 12 through 15 in Century City.

It's encouraging to see so many of those who have "made it" in the business invest the time and consideration to help those who are working to gain a foothold. Successful creatives and executives like Ali LeRoi of 5914 Productions, David Hudson of TNT & TBS, Mark Garner of A&E, Eric Schotz of LMNO Productions, Rob Smith, Endemol USA, Vicki Dummer of ABC, Chad Bennet of Reveille, Marc DeBevoise of Starz Media, Jason Klarman and Cori Abraham of Oxygen, Blythe Cappello of E!, Tim Duffy of Spike TV, David Lyle of Fox LOOK, Julie Bristow of CBC Factual Entertainment, Paul Gilbert, CBS Studios International, Austyn Biggers of BET, John Ferriter of Octgon Entertainment, Natalka Znak of RDF USA, Ilsa Berg of Fox Television Studios, Alexis Rapo of Disney/ABC, and Izzie Pick of BBC Worldwide mix effortlessly with content development innovators like Justine Bateman of FM78.tv, Yuri Baranovsky of Happy Little Guillotine Films, Alex Albrecht of Revision 3, Mark Gantt of The Bannen Way, Sibyl Goldman of Yahoo! Entertainment and Amber Lawson of Babelgum.com.

Together, this group of creatives is responsible for some of the most innovative content spanning all media platforms and technologies today, as well as some that will be unveiled shortly. This probably explains why representatives from Nestle (Marc Gillilan), Pepsi (Chad Stubbs), Microsoft (Eric Day and Betsy Aoki), Dell (Neeraj Choubey), Nokia (Bryan Biniak), Deutsche Telekom (Andres Jordan), IKEA (Magnus Gustafsson), Virgin America (Porter Gale), Harley-Davidswon Motor Company (Dino Bernacchi) Boxee (Andrew Kippen), Subway (Rob Maresca) and Eastman Kodak (Jeffrey Hayzlett) are also in attendance. Never too early to work a brand into the entertainment experience, I always say.

In addition to the informative sessions that cover everything from how to pitch your project to network executives to producing content for the smartphone, there are also a number of social events. Luncheons that feature intriguing guest speakers like Michelle and Robert King, executive producers of CBS' new hit drama series The Good Wife; and JD Roth of 3Ball Productions, one of the creators of NBC's popular weight loss competition The Biggest Loser, also provide an opportunity for participants to ask advice of those who have tried and succeeded. There's also the Innovator Award cocktail reception which this year honors ABC's top-rated series Extreme Makeover: Home Edition; and the NextTV Awards and reception, celebrating the unique talents and innovative content that's sure to influence development slates in years ahead.

Howie Mandel kicks off the LATV Festival on Tuesday, July 13 at 8:30am with the keynote address "Welcome to Howie's World," sure to provide the encouragement we all need to follow our dreams.

See you there.