Hot Global Media and Entertainment Industry Networking Events in May Announced!

This year MUSEXPO 2013 in Los Angeles will be preceded by the A&R EXPO on May 5 as well as the Global Sync and Brands Summit on May 8 drawing music professionals from film, TV, games, advertising and brands participating in face-to-face interaction with content owners from across the U.S. and global markets. Expo session days typically open with a networking breakfast and close with a wine tasting cocktail reception served with Hors D’Oeuvres. As the conference agenda unfolds, Viacom India will present opportunities for global music companies in Asia. MTV, EA Games, Cosmos Music Group, New Cap Radio, Capitol Studios will co-host social mixers. Evening artist showcases will begin at 20:00 at S.I.R. Studios in Hollywood.

The origins of MUSEXPO stems from the roots of the intimate A&R Network (the predecessor to A&R Worldwide) networking dinners in Los Angeles, which first occurred back in 2001 and have since traveled to New York, Berlin and London. These exclusive dinners were organized by A&R Network and A&R Worldwide architect Sat Bisla with the purpose of bringing together friends and like-minded relationships from the global radio, A&R, film/TV music supervision, publishing, new media and artist management communities to engage in creative dialogue and establish fresh business relationships. It was the positive achievement of the networking dinners, creating a climate that attracted executives and artists to travel from over 30 countries across the world to participate, that led to the establishment of the four-day MUSEXPO.

Just across town, the NARM Music Biz Expo in Century City will host music professionals from brick and mortar as well as online music retailers, streaming services, wholesalers, distributors, record labels, mobile service and hardware providers, game and app developers, information technology companies, artists and artist managers, music educators and students and others, to participate in NARM and digitalmusic.org events. At the Expo which runs May 6-9, BMI Executives, John Coletta and Michael Drexler will be present to join discussion and share their knowledge on various panels. For more information on the panels. The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) is a not-for-profit trade association that since 1958 has served the music and entertainment content delivery community in a variety of areas including networking, advocacy, information, education and promotion.

The British Independent Film Festival of London will showcase independent films from around the world with a focus on British talent. It also helps create exposure for its independent films selection by having multiple screenings of a film along with national press coverage. This two day event which opens May 11 is organized by the Film Festival Guild allowing it the advantage of links to festivals around the world. There are a number of awards up for grabs at the Festival, including the prestigious British Lion Award for Achievement in Film on a low budget. The Film Festival Guild provides showcases for short films, movies, animations, music videos and screenwriters. The Guild was started in 2006 and has now grown to manage five international film festivals, complete with awards ceremonies and industry appeal and importance.

The CLIO Awards ceremony that happens in New York City, May 15, is an international awards competition for advertising, design, interactive and communications. Award Presentations include: Grand CLIOs, Production Company of the Year, Advertiser of Year, Brand Icon Award, Honorary CLIOs, Lifetime Achievement Award, Hall of Fame, Agency of Year, Network of the Year and Adweek’s Project Isaac “Gravity” Award. The CLIO Awards honors work in a broad range of media types including, but not limited to: Content and Contact, Branded Entertainment and Content, Digital and Mobile, Direct, Engagement, Film, Print, Design, Audio, Public Relations, Out of Home, Innovative Media, Integrated Campaign. Musical artist will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas will be an Honorary Award Recipient. Fashion icon Tommy Hilfiger will make a special presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award to legendary ad man, George Lois.

George Lois has been inducted into The Art Directors Hall of Fame, The One Club Creative Hall of Fame, with Lifetime Achievement Awards from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, The Herb Lubalin Award (Society of Publication Designers), as well as a subject of the Master Series at the School of Visual Arts. He was a contributing pioneer of the Creative Revolution in American Advertising, and among the dozens of advertising/markting innovations was creating the concept and prototype design for the New York supplement for the Herald Tribune (the forerunner of New York magazine); made a failing MTV a huge success with his “I Want My MTV” campaign.

George Lois is the author of George, Be Careful (Saturday Review Press, 1972), an autobiography; The Art of Advertising (Abrams, 1976), praised as “the bible of mass communications”; What’s the Big Idea? (Doubleday, 1991), used as a text book in college communications courses all over the world, and $ellebrity (Phaidon, 2003), a work dealing with his campaigns using celebrities in fresh and outrageous ways. Cocktails and Food will be served at the Pre-Reception and After-Party Dress Code: Cocktail Attire. The Winners Gallery will be open for public viewing from 10:00. Entry to the awards ceremony is through ticketing.

In existence since 1946, The Cannes International Film Festival – Le Festival International du Film de Cannes – is an annual invitation-only film festival which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from around the world. The President of the Jury for the 2013 festival will be American film director Steven Spielberg. French actress Audrey Tautou, best known for the 2001 film Amelie, will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. Special featured sections held during the festival include the Marche du Film, the Festival’s film market, structured to help meet the needs of film attending industry professionals.

Also at Cannes, the Producers Network assembles producers from around the world in a series of meetings and events created to stimulate international coproduction and project financing. Actor/director Vincent Bosco making his second visit and co-director Pierre Abadie will be screening ‘Comment te Dire’ at the Festival, accepted into the 2013 Short Film Corner. The work, recorded entirely in French and centering on a risky game of seduction will also be available throughout the Festival for viewing in the video library. Jerome Salle’s Zulu, starring Orlando Bloom and Forrest Whitaker, will close out the 66th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 26.

The Sundance Institute’s Film Music Program and BMI present the ComposersLab in Los Angeles, as a one-day version of the institute’s Summer Lab. The purpose of the Film Music Program is to connect composers and directors, giving them firsthand experience of the collaborative process of creating music for film. From 1998 the Film Music Program has held a summer Lab at the Sundance Resort in Utah for a selected group of film composers. The ComposersLab: L.A. is just a condensed version of the summer Composers Lab, with the goal of offering a new opportunity for aspiring and seasoned film composers to gain insight into the development of film music. The full-day program set for May 18 – led by Peter Golub, Director of the Sundance Institute Film Music program – will include presentations by Creative Advisors, Rolfe Kent, Clint Mansell, Thomas Newman, and Aaron Zigman, who will give examples of their work and discuss choices and strategies. In addition, Music Editors Adam Smalley and Scott Johnson will illustrate their collaborative process.

BMI’s Doreen Ringer Ross, VP Film & TV Music, will moderate a mid-day industry panel, with panelists: Carter Armstrong, Senior VP for Music, Warner Brothers Pictures; Robert Messinger, Agent, First Artists; and music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas. Closes with a Cocktail Reception.

West African musician, Boubacar Kafando and his Kora-Griot band Zaama Nooma, take part in a special May 18 performance to benefit Le Centre Culturel Zounogo, of the village of Banembanto Sapone (27 km south of the capital of Burkina Faso: Ouagadougou). The objective of the center is to expose children of Burkina Faso to varieties of musical instruments, music lessons, dance, a children’s puppet show performed by children and an introduction to various life enhancing crafts. In 2007, Boubacar Kafando created Zaama Nooma: a collective of artists and artisans from France and Burkina Faso. The band then moves on to Paris for a May 24 engagement of Africa Night 2013, featuring a three Course West African Meal, performances by Zaama-Nooma and three other bands, a fashion show by Congolese designer Aurelie Lamini, dance performances by Compagnie DK-BEL and Rebman Wambaa. Proceeds go to support the youth Mission Trip to Gabon to participate in the Envision Culture in July.

At the annual Drama Desk Awards, selected New York theater productions on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off Broadway compete against each other in the same category. Among the over two dozen award categories, 2013 nominees for Outstanding Play include: Annie Baker, ‘The Flick’, Christopher Durang, ‘Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’, Joe Gilford, ‘Finks’, Richard Greenberg, ‘The Assembled Parties’, Amy Herzog, ‘Belleville’, Deanna Jent, ‘Falling’, Richard Nelson, ‘Sorry’. This year’s nominees for Outstanding Musical include: ‘A Christmas Story: The Musical’, ‘Giant’, ‘Hands on a Hardbody’, ‘Here Lies Love’, ‘Matilda’, ‘Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812’, ‘The Other Josh Cohen’. In addition to the usual category awards, each year, the Drama Desk votes special awards to recognize excellence and significant contributions to the theater. The official ceremony will be held May 19.

Formed in 1949 by a group of New York theater critics, editors, reporters, and publishers, the organization was created to educate the community on vital issues concerning the theater. In 1955, Drama Desk became the first major organization to honor Outstanding Achievement Off-Broadway, with their Vernon Rice Awards, named for the late New York Post critic who had pioneered Off-Broadway coverage in the New York press. In holding to its original mission, the organization sponsors guest panel luncheons with theater professionals. Panels address topics of current interest covering the season on Broadway, Off-Broadway and Off-Off-Broadway, with the aim of prompting informative and stimulating discussion. All of the Drama Desk officers and Nominating Committee members perform their various services for the organization on a voluntary basis. The Nominating Committee typically meets twice a month to discuss eligible shows members are responsible for seeing. They then nominate the productions on which the entire membership will vote.

Streaming Media East – and its counterpart Streaming Media West – explores what is taking place with all forms of online video business models and technology. At this year’s two-day New York City convention that opens May 21, keynote addresses will be given by Damon Phillips, VP, ESPN and Rob Gelick, SVP, GM, Digital Platforms, CBS Interactive. There will be eight scheduled “how-to” sessions, coverage of areas like: encoding, video-players, webcasting productions, and other topics, offering attendees step-by-step instructions on various technical aspects of the industry. These will be separate from other round-table events that will cover in part: Mobile Video Strategies, Using Social Media with Webcasting, Connected TV Platforms, Live Streaming Production, Encoding for Multiscreen Delivery. A Streaming Devices Pavilion will be set up in the exhibit hall where attendees can test drive today’s leading hardware devices and content platforms. Co-located with Streaming Media East, the fifth annual Content Delivery Summit, happening on May 20, bring together telecom carriers, service providers, content owners, and industry vendors for a detailed look at CDN platforms for the delivery of video and content acceleration. A networking reception closes out the first day of Streaming Media East.

With some semblance to Austin’s SxSW, Music Matters Festival features emerging and established bands from Asia/Pacific region and the world, and sets up Festival’s location, Singapore as Asia Pacific’s regional hub for entertainment, digital media and technology. The platform, which contains a showcase of events termed “ALL THAT MATTERS” in music, entertainment, technology and media, produced by Branded Limited, features flagship events: Digital and Music Matters, Music Matters Live, Nokia Music Connects and Social Media Matters. Music Matters is co-located with Digital Matters, Music Matters Live/HP and YouTube FanFest powered by HP. From May 21 there are conferences, workshops, mentoring and networking including a citywide international music festival. In conjunction with YouTube, the live broadcast of the festival delivers a global audience of musical performances at Clarke Quay. Music Matters Live 2013 takes place from the 22-24th May, at several venues in and around Clarke Quay with the live stage at Central Fountain Square. Open to the public, the majority of performances have free entry and in conjunction with YouTube, will be streamed live. Located along the Singapore River, Clarke Quay sits on a historical commercial site dating back to the 19th Century, and within a climate controlled canopy lit by colored lighting.

Opening in London, the Connected TV Summit is focused on strategic challenges and opportunities presented by post-convergence TV, covering connected and hybrid broadcast broadband TV, second-screen and multi-screen TV. It is about the Connected TV marketplace covering the spectrum of online video delivered to a television screen. The conference agenda closely examines the emergence of the ‘Pay TV Lite’ market, where operators provide flexible bundles and contracts without the need for satellite dishes, cable connections or set-top boxes. Amidst a fast evolving Connected TV market, the two day conference starting May 22 explores market opportunity for CE vendors, whether their televisions are now competing with tablets in kitchens and bedrooms, if there is a new opportunity for CE Connected TV devices at the hub of the SmartHome. There are also breakout sessions covering the next-generation user experience and looking at how Pay TV operators can harness apps within their own STB-based platforms. The Connected TV Summit is produced by the same team who deliver Videonet and the Future TV Advertising Forum.

Cine Gear Expo offers its audience an opportunity to meet with companies producing the latest tools and services for the industry, get on-site hands-on technical training, gain new skills, hear breaking industry news, network with peers and learn from industry leaders. The Cine Gear Expo 2013 Cinematography Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Haskell Wexler, ASC in recognition of the contributions he has made to advancing the art and craft of Cinematography. The Awards ceremony is part of the VIP Party at the Paramount Theater in Hollywood, May 30 == the Expo’s opening day. A Cine Gear Expo VIP Reception, where Indy, Student Shorts, and Feature Film Competition winners will be announced, takes place at the Paramount Theater and Paseo Grounds, May 31. The expo runs through June 2.

The above events are only a sample of what is fully listed. Complete details are on the “Media, Entertainment and Performing Arts Industry News and Events” page of The Actor’s Checklist. The events blog also shows links to pages that are translated into ten of the most widely used international languages read over the Internet other than English. This month’s picture placement highlights photo and graphic images of film director/actor Vincent Bosco’s latest entry into the Cannes Festival with ‘Comment te Dire’, in the Short Film Corner, and West African musician Boubacar Kafando and band Zaama Nooma have some benefit engagements lined up in the month. Looking ahead into the next month, be aware that: Mexico International Film Festival will be happening in Rosarito, Albuquerque Film & Media Experience will be happening in Albuquerque, Banff World Media Festival will be happening in Banff. North by Northeast Film Festival will be in Toronto, Maui Film Festival is in Paia, the Music+Sound Awards will be in Cannes.