DAS Keynote Speakers
AMIA Announces Keynote Speakers for Digital Asset Symposium
Program Will Run Simultaneously with AMIA Annual Conference
LOS ANGELES (October 15, 2015) – The Association of Moving Image Archivists (AMIA) has enlisted keynote speakers Erik Weaver and John Downey for the Digital Asset Symposium (DAS), which takes place Nov. 18-19 in Portland, Ore., at the Hilton Portland & Executive Tower. This year marks the first time that DAS will run simultaneously with AMIA’s Annual Conference, taking place Nov. 18-21.
Weaver will open DAS Wednesday evening with an in-depth look at the future of digital media, and Downey will focus on the future of storage and the cloud in the second keynote following lunch on Thursday.
Weaver is a recognized expert on the intersection of the cloud with media and entertainment, and runs “Project Cloud” for The School of Cinematic Arts’ Entertainment Technology Center (ETC) at the University of Southern California (USC). The project unites senior leaders from the six major studios in developing next generation cloud standards, supporting Hollywood organizations and major cloud vendors, and producing proof of concepts. The group encompasses many aspects of the cloud including transport, security, metadata, long-term storage, and formation of an agnostic framework that unites key vendors and studios. Previously, Weaver was CEO of Digital Ribbon, Inc., a very early pioneer in the field of cloud-based computing.
Downey is founder and CEO of NextGen Storage, a company dedicated to accelerating the breadth and market adoption of next-generation, cloud-integrated storage technologies and services. In his role, Downey delivers thought leadership around data storage and data management technologies and their intersection with cloud computing. Prior to launching NextGen Storage, he managed enterprise storage strategies for Amazon Web Services.
Bringing DAS to Portland in conjunction with the annual conference and a half day edition of The Reel Thing Technical Symposium creates a comprehensive, cross-discipline look at media preservation and access. Since 2007, DAS has been a unique forum for a broad range of experts from content creators, technologists, storage specialists, systems designers, and archivists who tackle similar media management challenges.
“Whether you work in archives, entertainment, gaming, law enforcement, education, or beyond, the challenges of handling digital content can be monumental,” said Tom Regal, VP of Pro-Tek Vaults, who serves as DAS program chair. “The race to keep up with evolving technologies – and their impact on workflows, access, security, and content management – is universal. DAS is built around the idea that while our specific focus may be different, all of us working with digital media share core challenges and we can learn from each other.”
Additional speakers and session topics will be announced soon. Past participants have included authorities in the field from the WWE Network, Bandito Bros, Belgium Ministry of Culture, HyperTED, MoMA, John Hopkins University, Los Angeles Police Department, The Living Archive, and many more.
For more information, visit www.das2015.org.
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ABOUT DAS
DAS addresses the full life cycle of the media asset – from content creation to rights management to assuring asset preservation – with speakers and case studies that address what works in the real world. Each part of the life cycle impacts the next and DAS is the only place where everyone is part of the conversation – content creators, post-production, systems designers, archives, asset managers – where commercial meets nonprofit and corporate meets public.
ABOUT AMIA
As the world’s largest international association of professional media archivists, AMIA is uniquely poised to bring together a broad range of experts. Members represent film studios, corporate and national archives, historical societies, labs, post production, universities, footage libraries and more. Because of this diverse membership, AMIA provides an opportunity to interact with every facet of the field and a single forum to address the best ways to preserve our media assets. For more information, visit www.amianet.org.
Media Contacts:
ignite strategic communications
818.980.3473
Christine Purse, chris@ignite.bz
Lisa Muldowney, lisa@ignite.bz