M+E Daily

The Hollywood Innovation & Transformation Summit (HITS), being held May 22 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles, will open with the kickoff discussion “Integrating AI Across Creative Workflows.”


Industry experts will discuss creative workflows and how AI will revolutionize artists’ approach to their craft. The conversation will also connect how technological advancements within any project can be a catalyst for innovation.

Whether you create music, VFX, bumpers, trailers, or metadata, your workflows are going to be impacted, in real-time, in the very near future (if they are not already!). Learn how creative minds are transforming our industry with current products in the marketplace, one workflow at a time, and learn where they think the AI technology revolution will matter the most.

Guy Finley, president and CEO of MESA, will moderate the panel with Sealand Flynn, head of media and entertainment for Fortinet; Jamie Jones, singer, songwriter, producer and founder of All-4-One; and Matt Wong, singer, songwriter and producer.

Later in the morning, the breakout track “AI and Advanced Tech” will feature three sessions:

• “Riding the Next Wave of VFX.” Animation, visual effects, and virtual production have offered technologically advanced techniques for content creation. Combine these tools with the power of AI and the recipe for content creation moves forward to a new world of creators. As visual effects companies are faced with more to do, increasingly complex workflows (with “co-pilots”!), and new UGC-oriented tools that seem to take the mystery out of very complex, learned skills, our industry is on the precipice of many new ways to create incredible content for less. Tune in to this session for a deep dive into the realities of a cloud-shaped, AI-driven future for the purveyors of movie magic. ICVR’s Sinan Al Rubaye, chief experience officer, and CEO Ihar Heneralau, along with John Canning, director of developer relations for AMD, will discuss.

• “Tech Check: How ‘Drive Chip and Putt’ Hits the Green Every Time.” Drive Chip and Putt is a free, nationwide youth golf program brought to life through a partnership between the USGA, the PGA of America and Augusta National Golf Club. With requirements including event registration, player and event admin, plus live scoring across digital and analog screens, Drive Chip and Putt is the perfect example of the power of structured content organization and real-time workflows and automation. In this session, you will also see how this same structured data approach has been applied to support other live events at scale for golf and all major sports. Join us to learn how the CMS behind the program powers 450-plus annual events that lead to the season-closing tournament finale the week before the Masters Tournament. Chris Hutson, principal product manager for Brightspot, will present.

• “The Next Tech Supercycle: What Will It Mean for M&E?” Technology cycles don’t repeat, but they often rhyme. Tech cycles from the transistor to the PC have transformed the business landscape, elevating some players to global dominance while rendering others completely obsolete. What tech will dominate the next era, and how can M&E players harness them to increase revenues and market cap? This session will look at the likely trillion-dollar opportunities and threats in the next decade. Seth Shapiro, founder and managing partner for D[a]2: Digital Asset Advisors, will take the stage.

The pace of the constant innovations and transformations in media and entertainment, across all aspects of content creation and distribution, from advanced workflows to evolving industry technology requirements, can be a challenge for even the most tech-savvy among us. This year’s HITS will again address artificial intelligence but through the lens of our global entertainment supply chain. Since the start of HITS in 2010 we have focused this community on the increased use of platforms and APIs to provide a more fluid interface for the “other” AI (automation and integration)!

This year’s HITS is co-located with EES and Women in Technology: Hollywood. EES is the annual gathering of industry innovators and thought leaders, all discussing the use of data to effectively blend physical and digital experiences across the global entertainment ecosystem. WiTH brings their community’s leadership vision to the main stage at HITS to update their community in the Spring while on the way to their SoCal Women’s Leadership Summit in the fall.

HITS Spring is presented by Box, with sponsorship by Fortinet, SHIB, AMD, Brightspot, Grant Thornton, MicroStrategy, the Trusted Partner Network, the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA) and EIDR, and is produced by MESA in partnership with the Pepperdine Graziadio School of Business.

To register, click here.