The role of production companies continue to change as media channels proliferate, leading to increased outlets for advertising messages in the motion image. As the business model evolves, it has become apparent that new ways of thinking are necessary to better reflect the environment in which production companies, agencies and clients are now working. The AICP and its AICP.next committee have created new business tools that will work more effectively in these developing spaces. Matt Miller, President and CEO of the AICP will introduce the workshop, which will be presented by Don McNeill of Digital Kitchen and Chairman of the aicp.next committee, and Eriks Krumins of Backyard, and a committee member. You will have the opportunity to ask questions, and hear real-world examples.

The Integration Imperative

The integration of interactive work into "traditional" production departments is well underway with many established agencies unveiling new-fangled structures and leadership roles. But what does it really mean? How different are the processes of these departments and what new capabilities do they possess? How are creative, planning and account departments affected by this change and are they evolving in step? And with new in-house abilities in place, how does this affect relationships with creative partners? This session will explore how the traditional agency production department is responding to the digital revolution.

Processing is an open-source programming language and software environment that allows new levels of creative flexibility for motion design, animation and interactive work. Join The Barbarian Group's Robert Hodgin (creator of the flight404 blog) and Andrew Bell as they show mind-blowing examples of digital art, installation work and audio-reactive music video projects that make use of the ever-evolving creative tool.

Much television advertising originates outside the conventional agency paradigm - so why are you focusing your biz dev efforts on conventional advertising agencies? From network campaigns to client-direct, television promos to brand-driven content, panelists discuss how networks are absorbing creative agency duties and how traditional production companies will find creative, calling-card and cash opportunities outside the current advertising domain.

With Sway's proprietary Drive-a-Tron driving simulator technology, VFX artists and animators can literally sit behind the wheel and drive their CG-created cars through a spot, closing the gap between chrome and steel automobiles and photo-real CG cars. Join Sway's Mark Glaser as he demonstrates the capabilities of the technology, and take it for a spin yourself!

Production Company 2.0

The :30 spot is far from dead, but in today's multimedia messaging landscape, it's sitting at a pretty crowded table. With audiences increasingly turning to the Internet for entertainment as well as information, and with smaller multi-disciplined shops rising to prominence, the production company of the 21st Century needs to be flexible and forward-thinking. "Production Company 2.0" will illuminate the range of ways in which companies are moving into the new content production age, and the different paths of evolution available to prodcos today.

Everyone needs a little music in their day. With that in mind, Boards and assorted music houses present some top singer-songwriters creating music for ads today to serenade you and perhaps provide the soundtrack for your next spot. This session is perfect for music supervisors, or anyone else who appreciates a good tune.

A detailed discussion about producing and editing in 3D. Join Bluerock's Olivier Wicki, one of the nation's foremost 3D editors, and Encyclopedia Pictura executive producer Mark De Pace as they highlight recent 3D projects and discuss the fundamental differences in creating content for 3D viewing.

This unique session brings together agency producers, from junior to the most senior, to discuss common issues, best practices and innovations in filmed advertising production. This moderated closed-door session, open only to agency producers, will facilitate a free-flow of ideas and will provide a forum for networking and making connections.

Join BBDO New York and the Women Presidents' Educational Organization (regional affiliate of the Women's Business Enterprise National Council "WBENC") to learn how woman/minority owned certification can open doors to new potential business opportunities. If you are a woman- and/or minority-owned business you won't want to miss this opportunity to hear first hand from the nation's leading advocate of women-owned businesses and the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned by women in the United States. Find out how to qualify for certification, the benefits of certification and how to leverage your certification to take your business to the next level.

Using no markers or makeup, Image Metrics' facial animation solution captures an actor's performances with video, and then analyzes that video with its proprietary performance analysis technology, creating an incredibly lifelike animation. Join Image Metrics' Patrick Davenport as he explains the process and showcases recent eye-popping work.

The Creative Challenge is back by popular demand, this time focusing its efforts on GLASS - the advertising/post/production endeavor to decrease waste in the environment and increase clean water supply in the world. Selected companies will present creative solutions to the goal of eliminating plastic waste and contributing to clean water resources. Who will emerge victorious in this years endeavor to create effective, innovative, integrated and entertaining messaging?

Breakfast with the Producers
Our new roundtable format is a structured networking session over breakfast, designed to make connections happen. Meet with up to two top Agency Producers, find out how they work and how you could work with them.

Spaces for both breakfast and lunch are limited and will be available to registered delegates on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign-up begins October 2nd.

Breakfast with the Producers
Our new roundtable format is a structured networking session over breakfast, designed to make connections happen. Meet with up to two top Agency Producers, find out how they work and how you could work with them.

Spaces for both breakfast and lunch are limited and will be available to registered delegates on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign-up begins October 2nd.

The Screening Room: Directors to Watch

Our popular, standing-room-only Directors to Watch presentation returns to the Boards Summit this year, spotlighting the new talent you need to know about as selected by the extremely discerning Boards editorial staff. Combing through hundreds of reels to find the best and boldest of the new breed, we'll present the highlights of their reels at this screening. Popcorn optional, an open mind a must.

Economy VS Ecology examines the economic and practical realities for businesses to be "green" in today's marketplace and will serve as a practical conversation exposing the difficulties and the benefits of sustainable business practices within business and production. Whether the insight comes from a company that has been green from day one or a mammoth organization that has decided to adopt green business practices, no truth will go unexposed panelists will leave their thumbprint on the minds of those seeking to be enlightened as to what it truly means to make money and be green in today's global societies.

This panel is the third in a series of Ebeling Group led discussions on the topic of "Economy VS Ecology" with international corporations and industry leaders. Past panels have included veterans such as Ken Wall (http://liveearth.org/), Marc Mathieu (http://www.coca-cola.com/) and Bruce Mau (http://www.brucemaudesign.com/).

We're all aware of the shift in advertising and the impact on the big idea, but there is an equally important shift on how the work is getting produced. This panel looks at what happens when the Big Idea collides with the Tapeless Workflow, affecting everyone involved in the creative process from start to finish. Online reels and digital postings have dramatically changed how we produce and promote work, but are we making the most of these new toolsets? How connected are we? Join us as we examine assumptions of how we work today in order to manage the expectations of tomorrow.

In 2007, New York-based MegaPhone took over MTV's Times Square billboard with an interactive, multi-player game that could be played with a phone handset - any phone handset - as a controller. Since then, the team has been chosen as one of Wired's 'Faces of Innovation' and has created unique games for adidas and the NBA among others. Join MegaPhone's Jury Hahn and Dan Albritton as they demonstrate their technology, and be sure to leave your cell phone on!

A hands-on showcase of the latest, most mind-blowing technology impacting creative advertising and filmed content. Experience first-hand the tech that will help make your messaging stand out.

The Ones and Zeroes of Digital Production

Just as broadcast producers face myriad challenges in steering the process that turns creative into commercial gold, digital producers also have their own unique paths to navigate in producing engaging digital content. Shepherding non-linear narratives, technical innovations and potentially limitless possibilities into a digital campaign that works for both the user and the client requires fast thinking and an up-to-the-second grasp of what does and doesn't work online. This panel will bring together top digital producers to shed light on the ins and outs, or ones and zeroes, of the ever-evolving discipline.

The accolades heaped upon Coca-Cola's recent commercial work (including a Gold Lion at Cannes for "Videogame" and a Silver Lion for this year's Super Bowl favorite "It's Mine") have signaled a creative renaissance, one that's also shared by other brands under the Coke umbrella, including Sprite and Coke Zero. Join Pio Schunker, SVP of Creative Excellence at Coca-Cola, North America and agency partners that have collaborated with the company as they discuss the process of ushering an iconic company into a new, globally lauded creative rebirth.

Campfire presents the innovative social media strategies and executions used in launching HBO's latest series, True Blood. From blogs, webrings and message boards to rather more arcane methods of communication (such as letters written in Babylonian!), find out more about how this campaign got all the right people talking.

The GO animation system, available exclusively in North America through FlickerLab, is a digital puppet platform featuring real-time performance of animated characters in any style, including 2D, 3D, and stop motion. Join FlickerLab's Harold Moss as he provides a live, real-time demonstration of the system.

Lunch with the Creatives
At lunch, be sure not to miss your chance to meet up to two Creatives and Creative Directors much like our breakfast with Agency Producers. Sign up to meet-and-greet these influential Creatives.

Spaces for both breakfast and lunch are limited and will be available to registered delegates on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign-up begins October 7th.

Lunch with the Creatives
At lunch, be sure not to miss your chance to meet up to two Creatives and Creative Directors much like our breakfast with Agency Producers. Sign up to meet-and-greet these influential Creatives.

Spaces for both breakfast and lunch are limited and will be available to registered delegates on a first-come, first-served basis. Sign-up begins October 7th.

With the hoopla and feverish consumer response that accompanied the iPhone and the emergence of more Smartphones on the market, it's never been a better time for brands, their agency and production partners to move into the mobile space. This panel will explore the most exciting innovations in mobile, from cool apps to creative content tailor-made for the third screen.

Alternate Reality Games, interactive narratives that live in both the real and virtual worlds, are the subject of intense buzz these days. Join Alex Lui from 42 Entertainment and creatives from AKQA's Lost Ring project as they decipher the ins and outs of this burgeoning form of entertainment through the lens of detailed case studies.

It's a common lament in the communications world of 2008: "It's so hard to find good help these days!" With media platforms fragmenting and evolving almost hourly, it's hard enough to keep abreast of the new channels of communication, let alone find talent conversant, not to mention creative, within all of them. Combine that with an increase in creative minds snatched up by sexy and media-savvy brands, and the talent you want (and need) to hire gets even scarcer. Where are the future stars of advertising coming from, and how can agencies and production companies use them to their fullest potential? What can your company do to be attractive to the best talent and, once you have them, how do you keep them? Our panel, pulled from the front lines in the War for Talent, will share tips, insights and strategies on how you can compete, and win, on this often-bloody battlefield.

As TV becomes fully digital, the move towards 3D-enabled broadcasts will be made that much easier, and viewers won't need to leave their homes to have an immersive, 3D-filmed experience (and they may not even need the glasses!). Join Angela Wilson Gyetvan of 3ality Digital (U2 3D) as she showcases 3ality's work in the 3D broadcast space.

New developments in the digital messaging landscape - whether interactive installations, web-based applications, gaming, or entertainment environments - are dramatically transforming the way brands communicate to their audiences. Fiction meets science when interactive content, emerging media, cinematic storytelling and architecture come together to create Experience Design. Re-imagining both media content and screens, Experience Design challenges traditional forms of content creation and expands the art of the digital into the realm of the physical. This session will illustrate how the present and future of design and branding will reside in this new discipline.

Creative strategist Alan Wolk shares his perspective on what he sees as the critical mistake brands make when entering the social media space: the assumption that they too can enjoy the cult-like following of a "Prom King" brand like Nike or Apple. This session will discuss what to do if you aren't among the 1% of brands who achieve Prom King status; the effects of The Real Digital Revolution (the ability of consumers to research products online and how this shifts the focus of advertising); and the pitfalls of NASCAR blindness (the tendency to view the world through the prism of the educated coastal elite).

The Big Idea? All well and good, but unless you get it out it there to consumers, it's worthless. New media platforms, fragmented outlets and ADD consumers mean that digital strategy is taking an increasingly crucial place in agency thinking. Hear from some of the digital world's top strategists as they discuss how to get your creative to go global.

For some agencies, the modifier "advertising" is hardly relevant anymore. From product development to musicals, video game production to feature films, the only boundaries to some creative capabilities seem to be the extent of imagination. In this inspiring session some of the industry's most innovative and pioneering thought leaders will share their experiences in flexing their creative muscles beyond conventional borders.

With Visible World's intelliSpot solution, campaigns can increase relevance and engagement by allowing real-time changes to offers, products, and creative context based on geography, programming, time of day, weather, and other data-driven conditions. Join Visible World president Tara Walpert-Levy as she showcases what creative professionals need to know about the latest innovations in addressable and targeted TV advertising.