Dr. Andreas Schweinbenz
Webzooms; Netviewer
Founder & CEO
Dr Andreas Schweinbenz is CEO of Netviewer GmbH, one of the fastest growing technology companies in Europe and founder of its daughter
company, Webzooms AG. Webzooms enables
portals and website to provide user generated IPTV. In 2006, Dr.
Schweinbenz was elected ‘Convergator of the Year’.
Andrew Baron is the creator and producer of Rocketboom,
one of the most popular online daily news shows. He holds a BA in Philosophy and a MFA in Design and Technology.
Andrew brings extensive digital media knowledge to the Vividas team, through his career developing
international business opportunities round complex emerging technologies, particularly in the telecoms
sector. Prior to joining the Vividas team, Andrew worked at Cable & Wireless, where he undertook a number of senior management
roles. As Director of Digital Music from 2003, Andrew helped the company become recognised as the leading provider of digital
technology to the European business market, developing digital technology services such as music, gaming and video, for B2B audiences.
Carsten Schmidt is responsible for the Sports & New Business division since March 2006. He is in charge of the production and editorial concepts of the entire spectrum of Premiere sports programs, acquisition of sports rights as well as expanding the range of new interactive products and services for the Internet, cell phones and TV. Carsten is also Chief Officer of Premiere Austria.
After studying economics, Frank started his career
with international companies such as Daimler Benz, Digital Equipment, and Sony Europe.
Establishing
his first company of “Mobile Software”
in 1995, Frank set up more than 10 companies in his career. His greatest success has been the sale of United Domains AG to Lycos Europe
in 2004. Together with Harald Müller and Christian
Seiler,
he founded myTV.de Internet Fernsehen AG in 2006, the first and only Internet Broadcast Guide for online videos and TV.
Heinrich is responsible for customer relations and strategic planning in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Heinrich is very experienced in the markets of Broadcast, Broadband and TK. Before he joined SeaChange he was responsible for the Set-Top-Box Business in the DACH-region at Pace. Prior to Pace and SEAC Heinrich worked for TOP Business AG (VP Sales & Business Development for Training and Consulting), Philips (Sales Director for Broadcast, Broadband and STB Business) as well as PKI Philips Kommunikations Industrie AG and TeKaDe.
Huw has been a pioneer and evangelist for IPTV for over 12 years, and today draws on this experience in promoting Amino’s thought and product leadership. Previously Huw was EMEA Technical Director for Kasenna, after a period as a consultant specializing in IPTV infrastructure and applications. For several years from 1996 Huw was the CTO of Yes Television, the first true IPTV middleware developer. A regular speaker and writer on various aspects of IPTV, Huw holds a BSc in Mathematics from Imperial College, London.
Ingo has been involved in IT and Media for fifteen years, and has worked extensively with major Telcos in Germany and Europe. He started his working life as an engineer and has now been involved in sales, business development and account management for a decade. Ingo joined Entriq in September 2002. As head of sales for Central Europe, Ingo‘s primary responsibility is to increase the adoption of Entriq‘s solutions and services and to help maximise the growth of customers‘ digital content revenues.
After having studied electrical engineering at the Berlin Institute of Technology, Jan started his product
management career at AVM. Being responsible
for AVM‘s IP-Settopbox, Jan has in-depth knowledge of the IP-STB-related technologies as well as detailed
insight into the current IP-STB market.
Having gained a BA, MSc and PhD degree in computing
sciences, Jörg Überla has extensive knowledge
in the field of new technologies. Following
his entrepreneurial
passion, he joined a non – funded
European
start-up until it was sold to a strategic buyer – his first successful
exit. After an MBA at INSEAD, he joined Wellington
in 1999, where he has been supporting European entrepreneurs in building successful companies. His two most successful companies were both funded from scratch by Wellington and have grown to over Eur 60 Mio in sales each in 2006.
Justin Hewelt is the Director of ‘PayMedia Consulting
Group’, a ‘boutique’ consultancy firm specialising in Pay Television marketing and competitive strategy.
PayMedia provides insight into the marketing
strategies and working practices of leading Pay TV businesses World-Wide, providing case-studies, reviews of pricing & packaging, evaluating new products (PVR, HD,VOD, IPTV) and tracking communication
and advertising campaigns across a variety of media.
Kathy Johnson, Consort Partners
Co-Founder
Kathy Johnson’s pioneering ventures include blinkx.tv,
Firefly, and the introduction of online loyalty. She was voted „2004 Agenda Setter“ by www.silicon.com alongside Apple‘s Steve Jobs, eBay‘s Meg Whitman, and Chinese Premier Hu Jintao. Kathy has also served as a consultant to Prime Minister Koizumi and has been closely
involved with Japan‘s first inbound tourism campaign, „Yokoso Japan,“
as well as Japan’s FDI (foreign direct investment) strategies with the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry. Kathy currently
serves as an advisor to global Web 2.0 companies including Xing (openBC), Kyte.tv, King.com, and wunderLOOP.com, amongst others.
Iolo Jones, Narrowstep
Founder
Iolo founded Narrowstep in 2002 and the company now powers over 200 internet tv channels through its telvOS™ product, for clients including Telefonica, FIAT, Ford, ITV and the SciFi Channel. Previously Iolo founded and built several pioneering companies in the multimedia sector.
Manfred Moormann, Telekom Austria
Head of TV
As Head of TV, Manfred Moormann has been leading
Telekom Austria’s TV activities since 2002. In this position, his achievements include the launch of aon.tv in 2003 as well as the launch of the awarded ‘Buntes Fernsehen Engerwitzdorf’, a user generated content IPTV service that was introduced at the ‘UN World Summit of the Information
Society’ in 2005. Manfred was responsible for aonDigital TV launched in 2005, based on Telco–TV including approx. 70 TV channels,
more than 700 hours of Video on Demand and interactive TV services.
Marc Mangold, Hubert Burda
Head of Corporate
Development
Dr. Marc Mangold is Head of Corporate Development at Hubert Burda Media Marketing & Communications where he is closely involved in the company‘s strategic initiatives and corporate development. Since the beginning of 2007 he is also deputy head of Hubert Burda Media Research. From 2001-2004 he was a researcher at the Center on Global Brand Leadership in Munich and New York (Columbia University). Before joining Burda in 2005, he was head of the German office of the U.S.-based consulting firm The EX Group. Mangold has published several books and articles on marketing, media, brand- and customer experience management.
Marcel Pirlich, Arvato Mobile
Senior Manager Business Development
Marcel Pirlich is a renown expert in the area of New Media and Mobile. After various positions in the Media and Mobile industry, he is responsible for Value Added Services, Mobile Entertainment Services,
Mobile Marketing and Interactivity as Senior Manager Business Development at Arvato Mobile since 2006. Arvato offers its customers
digital entertainment contents as well as innovative concepts and interactive solutions worldwide. Arvato works for leading network
providers, internet service providers, media companies and brands, amongst others, in more than 75 countries. Arvato is part of Bertelsmann.
Marcus Hochhaus, Plazamedia
Head of New Media & Business Development
Marcus started his professional career at the German
Kirch Group in 1998. In 2001 he was promoted
to the position of Manager Project Office, which was focussed on the merger of KirchMedia KGaA and ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. In 2002, Marcus tackled a broad range of projects coping with specialised areas of the sale of various KirchMedia
units. After changing company in 2003, he became Head of Business Development and New Media at Plazamedia Film- und TV-
Production.
As a senior analyst for JupiterResearch, Nate Elliott launched and leads Jupiter‘s European coverage of digital home technology – including IPTV, HDTV, DVRs, and personal media players. Previously, Nate spent more than a decade working in digital advertising at companies
such as DoubleClick and Macromedia. A graduate of Cornell University, Nate lives in Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin.
Nikolas Samios is Serial-Entrepreneur, Consultant and currently Managing Director of wiredworld GmbH, a consulting and incubation company focussed
on corporate development in convergent markets. Nikolas has more than 10 years of experience as founder, manager and consultant in different segments of the electronic media,
IT and CE industries. In 2003, he co-founded moreTV to realize
the first “TiVo”-class iTV services in Germany. Before that, Nikolas
worked with partners like Axel Springer Verlag, Microsoft Inc.,
Vodafone, Siemens or Medion.
Olivier Heckmann is one of the pioneers of French Internet. In 1995, he co-founded MultiMania, the leading French Internet community web site, which was acquired by Lycos Europe for 220M. Olivier then became Managing Director for Lycos Europe. There, he developed a new range of paying hosting services in 8 European countries. Under his impulsion, Lycos Hosting became the European leader of hosting and the first source of direct income of the Lycos Europe group with over 150 000 clients.
As MD of Pushbutton, Paula runs the UK’s most prolific
interactive TV agency specialising in iTV solutions
for broadcasters and advertisers. Her clients include ITV, the BBC, BSkyB, the National Geographic
Channel, the Disney Channel and i-ad clients such as Kodak. Before
founding Pushbutton in 2002, Paula spent six years as Product Development Director For Sky Active, UK. She was responsible for BSkyB platform’s original interactive services including enhanced TV, interactive Ads and games.
There is one person well known when everything is about economical pioneering spririt: Paulus Neef. He established the Internet- Services company Pixelpark
and went it public 10 years before the beginning
of the new economy phase. Today he is founder and CEO of NEVA Media, which is specialised in the mobile-TV business.
Having gained a MBA from the University of Cologne
and Columbia University, New York, Peter
Kerckhoff joined The Boston Consulting Group as consultant in 1992. Changing to RTL Group, Bertelsmann
AG in 1995, he gathered extensive knowledge
as Senior Project Manager and Member of the Board Corporate
TV. Since 2002, Peter has been with Deutsche Telekom AG as Senior Vice
President, Content Sourcing
/ Media Cooperation.
His responsibilities also include heading the T-Online Portal
and worldwide Content Acquisition and Media Cooperation.
Pierre Hunter as Director Market Development IPTV at Irdeto is responsible for Irdeto’s overall business in the IPTV segment. He has 20 years experience of working in the broadcast and pay-media industry and has been focusing specifically on IPTV over the last 5 years.
Ralph´s responsibilities encompass development of customer solutions, customer partnerships and strategies in the field of applications (e.g. Home Entertainment,
Home Media & Control). Ralph joined Siemens in 1996 working in international sales as well as global supply chain management in the business areas of telecommunication networks and mobile phones. Ralph holds a master in electrical engineering and successfully passed through Siemens’ advanced management program.
Scott Gronmark is Managing Partner of Zype, a UK-based consultancy advising brands on how to exploit the potential of video on demand across all digital platforms. Zype‘s clients include Honda, AMD and NewYou. He was formerly Online Homepage editor and Head of Interactive TV at the BBC.
Sebastian is Co-Founder of thebrainbehind, today
responsible for Consulting and Business Development. As a media expert Sebastian is focussed on the international digital TV market.
He is a well known speaker and panel host supporting relevant conferences across Europe. Being with [tbb\*] thebrainbehind since 2002, he consulted several key players in the German media
industry. Prior to thebrainbehind, Sebastian worked as Senior
Consultant in a Media Agency specialising in broadband projects and iTV.
Stefan is Partner at Trommsdorff + Drüner. Whilst studying, he worked as a scientist at the Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, teaching
media psychology, media and advertising effects, and entertainment research. 1999-2006 Stefan has been working at Siemens ICN, and Siemens Com in Munich. 2001-2003 he was heading Business Innovation within Siemens ICN Group Strategy. From 2003 to 2006 he was VP Innovation Strategy & Head of Business Innovation at Siemens Communications, heading
a Business Innovation Think Tank for fixed and mobile communications.
Sefy Ariely has over 10 years of experience in business management in IPTV, including marketing, sales and business development. Sefy has been a vocal part of this growing industry, speaking at numerous industry events on a variety of subjects that have shaped the way IPTV has unfolded. As VP of Sales and Marketing, Sefy is responsible for Orca’s sales, marketing, business development and product analysis activities.
Holding a degree in Mechanical Engineering and a MSc in IT, Uwe Schnepf has been working in the area of multimedia and internet for the past twelve years. As head of „Streaming / New Media“ at nacamar GmbH (formerly Tiscali Business GmbH) in Germany, he has been responsible for the product division, which he developed from a pure streaming service unit into an international full service provider for New Media. Since August 2006 he heads the working group „IPTV / Interactive TV“ of the BVDW (German Association of Digital Economy).
William advises clients on convergence media strategy and implementation. Previously, as Head of Interactive at BBC Broadcast, he operationally managed
the successful launch and delivery of online
and interactive television services for the BBC. William began his career as a broadcast journalist, following a PhD in Communications and a degree in English from the University of Leeds.
Wolfram Winter is now the Managing Director of the newly founded Premiere Sky, after having held the position of Managing Director for NBC Universal Global Networks Germany for eight years. Prior to this, he held various positions at DF1 Das Digitale Fernsehen, DSF, MGM Media and Antenne Bayern.