2014 SXSW PanelPicker Now Open: Vote for uStudio

It’s not the official donkeys vs. elephants voting season, but the polls are now open through Sept. 6 to vote for those sessions you’d like to see included on the agenda of the now legendary, Austin, TX-based SXSW music, film and interactive festival.

uStudio has submitted several entries and we’d like your help. Frankly, we’d like your vote. A public thumbs up is worth 30% of the total vote, so if you would, exercise your civic SXSW festival duty and cast your vote for uStudio. (See below for directions on how to vote.) No promises of sending PAC money your way or promising stays in the Lincoln bedroom; just the satisfaction of helping a small but wildly growing video management start up stand on the podium with industry giants to discuss the burning issues affecting video. Here are our entries:

1. Roll Your Own: A (Better) Life After YouTube?

While the battle over who first said “Content is King,” goes on, (Sumner Redstone? Bill Gates?), a bigger skirmish is shaping up: Who owns the value of that content? The Goliath here is (surprise!) YouTube. Pretty much everyone else who creates video is collectively David. Sides are being taken as the ether swirls with fighting words about how content creators are (or aren’t) getting killed by YouTube’s program that pays (or lures, depending on your POV) talented creators to produce video for posting on YouTube, with an ad rev split the ongoing prize. Participate in a chat with industry insider Chip Ward, Emmy Award-winning “independent” developer of television content, as Jen Grogono, CEO of uStudio and pioneer of online video distribution strategies, interviews him regarding the economics, risk and rewards of independent production and content ownership. Decide for yourself if YouTube and other “network deals” are Trojan Horse ploys or a fair shake for content creators.

2. Running a Green Film Festival in the Cloud

Festivals are making an operational shift from physical to virtual, at all levels of the process. Cloud computing offers new opportunities to enable efficiencies of submissions, judging and screening, all while reducing costly shipping and a fest’s carbon footprint. Filmmakers can upload their entry and judges can watch on any device. With varying goals in mind, from efficiency to cost to environmental responsibility, festivals are upending their strategies to account for the cloud. What are the challenges, considerations and best practices festivals should consider as they evolve along this path?

Using two film festivals, Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and Lights Camera Help that have gone green, this case study will illustrate the environmental and economic benefits these festivals have realized when they tossed old technology and adopted new, more practical tools.

3. McLuhan and the 5 Ps of Video. Huh?

The medium is the message. Blah blah. Old news. Think again: McLuhan’s famous statement isn’t a full frontal attack on content. It’s about the change a specific medium can cause. It’s about impact. When Forrester’s Dr. James McQuivey noted a minute of video is worth 1.8M words, he was also talking impact. Are you accounting for that impact in your video strategies? Are you really? Again back to Mr. McLuhan, are you “anticipating” it, “deflecting and controlling” it or are you just along for the ride? The challenge for video leaders cum entrepreneurs, marketers, and producers is to build a video strategy based on anticipatory changes online video is bringing — from OTT to monetization and engagement patterns — and incorporate them into results. Just like the “P”s of marketing, there are actually 5 P’s of Video — things you must consider to capture the opportunity that McLuhan put forth. Know them.

Directions on how to vote:

1. Follow the  instructions to create an account here. (Don’t worry – it only takes a minute!)
2. Go to any of our entries.

- Roll Your Own: A (Better) Life After YouTube?
- Running a Green Film Festival in the Cloud
- McLuhan and the 5 Ps of Video. Huh?

3. Hit the “thumbs-up” button in the left panel.

Thanks for the support!