inVerge 2007

The 2008 version of Inverge: the interactive convergence conference happened on Sept. 4+5 in Portland, Oregon. It was an interdisciplinary thought-leader event that focused on the convergence of media platforms, of virtual + physical, content + advertising, and corporate content + consumer-generated content.

> View list of companies that registered people to attend Inverge 2008

> Download the 2008 press release

Speakers for 2008

	Joshua Green Research Manager Convergence Culture Consortium Massachuttes Institute of Technology TOPIC: Restructure Time? Two Years in Convergence Culture >>MORE Joshua Green is Research Manager of the Convergence Culture Consortium at MIT. Green leads a team of researchers exploring the changing media landscape and the ramifications of Convergence Culture for content production, advertising, branding, and the way we understand media audiences. Before coming to MIT, he worked as a researcher in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation at QUT in Brisbane, Australia. >> MORE
	Renny Gleeson Global Digital Strategies Director Wieden+Kennedy TOPIC: Connection: never closer together, never farther apart? >>MORE Renny’s kinetic energy, key insights and irreverent approach won over last year’s Inverge audience and he was the highest-rated presenter at the conference. So naturally we invited him back AND asked him to be our master of ceremonies. Renny was creative director at Saatchi & Saatchi’s Darwin Digital, where he developed interactive engagement platforms for General Mills cereals, Procter & Gamble and Time Warner’s Entertainment Weekly, Money and People magazines. Later he was recruited by the NBA to lead their global digital marketing and content syndication efforts. Renny was then tapped to lead the NY and Atlanta offices of Carat Fusion, a full-service digital marketing agency. >> MORE
	Andy Mooney Chairman, Disney Consumer Products The Walt Disney Company TOPIC: When worlds collide - Online worlds meet real world product >>MORE Andy Mooney was named chairman of Disney Consumer Products in May, 2003, after having served as its president since joining The Walt Disney Company in December, 1999. Mooney oversees the worldwide day-to-day operations of Disney Consumer Products, which extends the rich Disney entertainment experience to a broad selection of merchandise ranging from toys, apparel, home décor and books to interactive games, food and beverages, electronics and fine art. This is accomplished through several business lines: Toys, Apparel, Accessories and Footwear; Stationery, Food, Health and Beauty, Home, Disney Publishing Worldwide, Disney Interactive Studios and The Baby Einstein Company. >> MORE
	Chris Heatherly VP/GM, Disney Electronics CTO, Disney Toys The Walt Disney Company TOPIC: When worlds collide - Online worlds meet real world product >>MORE Chris Heatherly was named general manager & vice president, Global Electronics, Disney Consumer Products in 2004. In this role, he oversees product innovation and development, drives key licensee and retailer relationships, and leads a global team of employees in five regions. During his tenure, Disney Electronics has continued to innovate in the global youth electronics marketplace. Heatherly came to DCP from frog design, where he was a chief strategist, managing the cross-functional strategic consulting practice for the legendary design firm. >> MORE
	Erin Holland General Manager and Executive Vice President, Portland Edelman TOPIC: Channel Explosion: How Convergence Morphed PR into a Marketing Superhero >>MORE Erin Holland brings a long history of establishing market leadership for companies of all sizes, with 19 years of experience in public relations. As general manager, Holland is responsible for strengthening Edelman’s leadership presence in the Northwest. In this role, she focuses on applying the office’s expertise in technology, consumer marketing, health care, public affairs, food and nutrition, community relations, online marketing, corporate reputation and issues management to help companies achieve their business objectives. >> MORE
	Tony Uphoff Chief Executive Officer TechWeb, The Global Leader in Business Technology Media TOPIC: Media Business Trends In The Age of Convergence: What Happens Next…And How You Should Prepare >>MORE As CEO of TechWeb, Tony Uphoff leads United Business Media’s (UBM) group of global business technology brands, encompasses the leading face-to-face, online and print media brands and services in business technology. TechWeb brands range from global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Dark Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, Byte & Switch, InformationWeek.com, bMighty and Financial Technology brands; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek magazine. TechWeb reaches over 10 million key business technology decision makers worldwide. >> MORE
	David Card Vice President & Research Director JupiterResearch TOPIC: Cross-Media Usage Patterns and the Convergence of Content, Communication, and Marketing >>MORE David Card directs Jupiter’s coverage areas in media and marketing. As an analyst, he focuses on the media and music industries, with particular emphasis on cross-media programming, social media, audience segmentation – including teens – and online portals and networks. Previously, as Jupiter’s Research Development VP, he helped guide coverage architecture, research methodologies, and overall quality. Card is frequently quoted in the traditional and online press, and has appeared on ABC World News Tonight, ESPN, and NPR. >> MORE
	Karl Long Product Manager of Ovi Games Nokia TOPIC: Exploring The Motivation Behind Co-Creation >>MORE Karl is currently a Product Manager at N-Gage, the video game group at Nokia, developing strategies and features to deepen and extend the relationships with customers, and market our products and services through the web and social media. Karl is also the author of experiencecurve.com (one of Ad Weeks top 5 Digital Design Blogs) where he has been writing and instigating conversation around social media, customer experience and marketing since 2003. >> MORE
	Amber Case Cyborg Anthropologist and Social Media Consultant TEN MINUTE TOPIC: From Telephone to Tweetup: an abbreviated history of technology and social exchange >>MORE Amber Case is a Cyborg Anthropologist and Social Media Consultant living in Portland, Oregon. She is active in the local Portland tech community and attends (and sometimes reviews) conferences, meetups, tweetups, and other events and is a member of the Portland’s SECP and SEMPDX. >> MORE
	Marc Scarpa Producer/Director MySpace LIVE! series and some Verizon VCAST Mobile Performances for Live Nation TOPIC: Media Communities - Everything is Live and On Demand >>MORE Marc Scarpa is a veteran director and producer of live interactive media. His most recent directing credits include, MySpace LIVE! a seven hour live High Definition transmission on MySpace viewed by over 1 million people worldwide that celebrated community through individual expression. A ground breaking first, mobile phones were used by fans to capture content and mixed live into the HD broadcast. He has also directed Grammy Award artist John Legend, Teddy Geiger, Joe Satriani, 50 Cent, Gogol Bordello, Jonas Brothers and The All American Rejects for the LiveNation Verizon VCAST Mobile performance series. >> MORE
	William Swartout Director of Technology USC Institute for Creative Technologies TOPIC: Toward the Holodeck: Integrating Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Entertainment and Learning >>MORE William Swartout is Director of Technology for USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT) and a research professor of computer science at USC. From 1989 to 1999 he was Director of the Intelligent Systems Division at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI). Dr. Swartout has been involved in the research and development of AI systems for over 30 years. His particular research interests include virtual humans, explanation and text generation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation, knowledge sharing, education, intelligent agents and the development of new AI architectures. >> MORE
	Raven Zachary Principal raven.me: iPhone intelligence FIVE MINUTE TOPIC #1: Why 2008 changes everything (in mobile tech) >>MORE FIVE MINUTE TOPIC #2: 20 things you never thought you’d do with a mobile phone! >>MORE Raven Zachary is a Contributing Analyst with The 451 Group, an IT industry analyst company, where he covers open source and mobile technology. He also advises companies on the creation, development, and launch of iPhone products through his iPhone consultancy, raven.me. Raven is the founder of iPhoneDevCamp, a not-for-profit iPhone developer conference. >> MORE
	Ed Lantz President & CTO Vortex Immersion Media TOPIC: Immersive, Collaborative and Sentient Spaces: The Coming Revolution in Destination Entertainment >>MORE Ed Lantz has over 20 years of Management and Executive level experience in media and entertainment technology, art, science and business. He has demonstrated consistent success in envisioning and leading high-risk technical and entrepreneurial operations. Mr. Lantz is internationally recognized as a pioneer and leading authority in large-format digital cinema and immersive experiences. Other areas of expertise include cable television, themed entertainment, photonics, virtual reality, events production, 3D animation and special effects for large-format film and video. >> MORE
	Paul Matthaeus Founder / Chief Creative Officer / Chairman Digital Kitchen TOPIC: EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: Creating Brand Theatre >>MORE With nearly two decades of experience in the advertising business, Digital Kitchen Founder, CEO and CCO Paul Matthaeus is on a never-ending quest to cultivate experimentation and creativity at his hybrid media company that creates TV commercials, Emmy®-award winning main titles, and non-traditional content for advertising agencies, marketers, and Hollywood. Joined by talented artists, filmmakers, musicians and animators, Paul built an experimental branding think tank, blending the best of a movie studio with the focus of a branding firm. Since then, Paul’s work has been shown in over 100 countries, and is part of the permanent collection at the MoMA in New York. >> MORE
	Scott Kveton Chairman OpenID Foundation VP of Open Platforms Vidoop TOPIC: Social Everything, Everywhere, All-the-time >>MORE Scott Kveton is the Chairman of the OpenID Foundation and VP of Open Platforms at Vidoop. He is a digital identity promoter and open source advocate. Scott has worked at Amazon, RuleSpace.com and JanRain as well as founded the Open Source Lab at Oregon State University. Working closely with projects like Mozilla, Linux, Drupal and Apache led Scott down the identity path and to JanRain in mid-2006. Scott was named to Red Herring’s list of ‘25 Titans in waiting’ in early 2007. >> MORE
	Richard Rosen President & CEO ROSEN author: Convergence Marketing TOPIC: Convergence Marketing: Where Brand and Direct Combine to Deliver Sustainable Brand with Unprecedented Profits >>MORE Richard Rosen is a world-renowned expert on convergence marketing and advertising. He is the originator and chief architect of the Brand-InteractionTM Marketing & Advertising method that fuses business school analytics with creative marketing and advertising. A passionate speaker at business and academic forums throughout the world, Richard was the keynote at Cannes Lions 54th International Advertising Festival for FEDMA. He has received numerous prestigious awards, including the Caples Organization’s Emerson Award for exemplary service to the marketing community, and the first “B-to-B Marketer of the Year Award” by the International Direct Marketing Association. >> MORE

* speakers and topics were subject to possible change

To create a unique business+culture experience for attendees, this conference was integrated with four other unique events happening in Portland over the same multi-day period:
+ Portland Creative Conference (focused on the creative process across categories)
+ Time-Based Art Festival (performance : dance : music : new media : visual arts)
+ MusicFestNW (over 150 indie bands)
+ First Thursday Gallery Walk (an evening of art, wine and music)

Sponsors for 2008

Sponsorships are available. If you are interested, please contact us.

PREMIER SPONSOR

PARTNER SPONSORS

SPEAKER SPONSORS

RECEPTION SPONSORS

MEDIA SPONSORS

ADDITIONAL SPONSORS

The Portland Visitors Development Fund

Schedule for 2008

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4th, 2008*

7:45am DOORS OPEN for registration and check-in

8:30am WELCOME messages, including Steve Gehlen, Inverge founder and producer

8:40am Renny Gleeson, Global Digital Strategies Director, Wieden+Kennedy

TOPIC: Connection: never closer together, never farther apart? >>MORE

9:25am Karl Long, Product Manager of Ovi Games, Nokia

TOPIC: Exploring The Motivation Behind Co-Creation >>MORE

10:10am — BREAK — (15 minutes)

10:25am Andy Mooney, Chairman, Disney Consumer Products, The Walt Disney Company

and

Chris Heatherly, VP/GM, Disney Electronics; CTO, Disney Toys, The Walt Disney Company

TOPIC: When worlds collide - Online worlds meet real world product >>MORE

11:15am Tony Uphoff, CEO, TechWeb

TOPIC: Media Business Trends In The Age of Convergence: What Happens Next…And How You Should Prepare >>MORE

12:00pm — LUNCH — (box lunch for paid registrants and registrants on a complimentary pass who opted to pay for the box lunch separately, see a list of area restaurants)

1:00pm William Swartout, Director of Technology, USC Institute for Creative Technologies

TOPIC: Toward the Holodeck: Integrating Graphics, Artificial Intelligence, Entertainment and Learning >>MORE

1:50pm Raven Zachary, Principal, raven.me: iPhone intelligence

FIVE MINUTE TOPIC #1: Why 2008 changes everything (in mobile tech) >>MORE

2:00pm Ed Lantz, immersive art & entertainment expert, President & CTO, Vortex Immersion Media, Founder & Chair of Harmony Channel

TOPIC: Immersive, Collaborative and Sentient Spaces: The Coming Revolution in Destination Entertainment >>MORE

2:45pm — BREAK — (15 minutes)

3:00pm Erin Holland, GM & EVP, Portland, Edelman

TOPIC: Channel Explosion: How Convergence Morphed PR into a Marketing Superhero >>MORE

3:40pm Raven Zachary, Principal, raven.me: iPhone intelligence

FIVE MINUTE TOPIC #2: 20 things you never thought you’d do with a mobile phone! >>MORE

3:45pm Scott Kveton, Chairman, OpenID Foundation, VP of Open Platforms, Vidoop

TOPIC: Social Everything, Everywhere, All-the-time >>MORE

4:30pm Wrap-up

5:00pm RECEPTION for all Inverge Attendees at Wieden+Kennedy, 224 NW 13th Avenue (walking distance from the conference venue)

6:30pm First Thursday Festivities in the Pearl District (free)

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH, 2008*

7:45am DOORS OPEN for registration and check-in

8:30am Opening remarks

8:35am Joshua Green, Research Manager, Convergence Culture Consortium, MIT

TOPIC: Restructure Time? Two Years in Convergence Culture >>MORE

9:30am Marc Scarpa, producer/director of the MySpace LIVE! series and several episodes of the Verizon VCAST Mobile performance series for Live Nation

TOPIC: Media Communities - Everything is Live and On Demand >>MORE

10:15am — BREAK — (15 minutes)

10:30am Richard Rosen, originator and chief architect of the Brand-Interaction Marketing & Advertising method, author of upcoming book Convergence Marketing

TOPIC: Convergence Marketing: Where Brand and Direct Combine to Deliver Sustainable Brand with Unprecedented Profits >>MORE

11:15am David Card, VP & Research Director, JupiterResearch

TOPIC: Cross-Media Usage Patterns and the Convergence of Content, Communication, and Marketing >>MORE

12:00pm — LUNCH — (box lunch for paid registrants and registrants on a complimentary pass who opted to pay for the box lunch separately, see a list of area restaurants)

1:00pm Amber Case, Cyborg Anthropologist and Social Media Consultant

TEN MINUTE TOPIC: From Telephone to Tweetup: an abbreviated history of technology and social exchange >>MORE

1:10pm Paul Matthaeus, Founder, Chief Creative Officer & Chairman, DIGITALKITCHEN

TOPIC: EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING: Creating Brand Theatre >>MORE

2:45pm — BREAK — (15 minutes)

3:00pm Speaker TBA

3:45 Wrap-up

4:00pm - CONFERENCE ENDS

5:00pm and later - Enjoy performances from event partners Time-Based Art Festival and MusicFestNW

* speakers, times and topics were subject to change