CONNECTIONS™ speakers address challenges and opportunities that come with converging products and services

Digital Living Conference features executives from controls, networking, entertainment, and CE companies --

Parks Associates has announced the speakers for CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference & Showcase, including keynotes from Austin Energy, AT&T, Sony Pictures, and Verizon.

The 13th annual CONNECTIONS™, June 2-4 at the Santa Clara Convention Center, features interactive panels with over 80 speakers and consumer and industry research presented by Parks Associates’ expert analysts. This event attracts senior executives from industries associated with the digital home, new media and content distribution, and mobile applications and services.

“CONNECTIONS™ speakers offer an array of expertise covering CE, digital media, content and access services, home controls, and energy management,” said Kurt Scherf, vice president, principal analyst, Parks Associates. “The number of broadband households worldwide will reach 650 million by 2013. These connections will have a ripple effect throughout multiple industries, impacting communications, entertainment, and home management.

CONNECTIONS™ features an excellent lineup of speakers covering both the visionary and practical challenges in forging new business models for this changing consumer culture.”Parks Associates reports the number of mobile TV subscribers worldwide exceeded 30 million in 2008, while more than 26 million U.S. consumers use the Internet at least monthly to catch up on TV programming. Both findings show the growing appeal of place- and time-shifting features and are early indicators of the future directions of the mobile and video markets.

Keynote Speakers:
Joseph Ambeault, Director, Product Development and Management, Video Services, Verizon
Andres E. Carvallo, Chief Information Officer, Austin Energy
Glenn Lurie, President of Emerging Devices and Resale, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets
Mitch Singer, CTO, EVP of New Media & Technology, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc.; President, Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE)

Panelists:
Sanket Amberkar, Marketing Manager, Network Systems Solutions, Cisco
Bruce Anderson, General Manager, Global Electronics Industry, IBM
Sean Besser, VP, Business Development, Macrovision
Stephen Blum, President, Tellus Venture Associates
Jeff Bonin, Vice President & GM, Alticast
Brandon Brown, CEO, Zodiac Interactive
Geoff Burke, Senior Director, Corporate Marketing, Calix
Jon Burr, VP, Customer Experience and Operations, CrossLoop, Inc.
Duane Carvalho, Sales Director, North America, Jungo
Steve Cashman, Chief Strategy Officer, Exceptional Innovation
Chenyi Chiu, Strategic Program Manager, HD-PLC Alliance
Paul Dawes, CEO, iControl Networks
Rolf De Vegt, Director, Technical Standards Qualcomm
Jim Denney, VP, Product Marketing, TiVo Inc.
Vijay Desai, Founder, CEO, Aceurity, Inc.
Christopher Deutschen, Senior Manager, Product & Business Development, Direct Energy
Chris Dobrec, Sr. Director Strategy & Business Development, Cisco Systems
Brian Donnelly, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Icron
Ajay Dugar, Executive Director, Paramount Digital Entertainment
Mike Ehlenberger, Vice President of Channel Sales, Actiontec Electronics, Inc.
Jaime Fink, Vice President of Technology and Strategy, 2Wire
Meir Friedlander, CEO, Eyecon Technologies, Inc.
Jonathan Gaines, Senior Vice President - Sales, Xeriton Corporation/BluePhone
Jackson Gates, Director of Business Development, Pandora
Ben Geller, Senior Director of Marketing, Motive Product Group, Alcatel-Lucent
Noam Geri, Co-founder, Vice President Marketing & Business Development, AMIMON
Andrea Goldsmith, Co-Founder and CTO, Quantenna Communications
Pankaj Gupta, Manager, Market Management - Service Providers, Cisco Systems
Mike Harris, CEO, AnySource
David Henry, Sr. Director of Product Marketing, Home Products, NETGEAR
Chris Hock, Senior VP, Product Management, BlackArrow
Jim Hunter, CTO and Chief Architect, 4Home
Brent Hurley, Strategic Partner Development Manager, YouTube
Richard Irving, Managing Partner, Pond Venture Partners
Vipin Jain, President and CEO, Retrevo
Braxton Jarratt, CEO, Clearleap
Brian Johnson, Senior Vice President, Americas and Asia Pacific, mBlox, Inc.
Jim Johnson, President & CEO, uControl
Scott Kelliher, Category Director, Telecommunications & Technology, Platform A/AOL
Fred King, VP, Sales & Marketing, PlumChoice, Inc.
Kazuhiro Kitagawa, Vice-Chairman, PUCC
Art Lancaster, CTO, Affinegy
Michael Lantz, CEO, Accedo Broadband
Craig Lee, Vice President, Marketing and Business Development, Ortiva Wireless
Michelle Leyden Li, General Manager, Home Control Business Unit, Zilog
Alex Limberis, COO, Syabas Technology, Inc.
Ellis Lindsay, Director, North American Strategy, Alcatel-Lucent
Ken Lowe, Vice President, Strategic Marketing, Sigma Designs
Robert Malnati, Director, Business Development, Broadband Solutions Group, Home and Networks Mobility, Motorola, Inc.
John Marshall, VP of Sales and Marketing, SiBEAM; Chairman, WirelessHD
Wilfred Martis, Director of Platform Strategy and Planning, Digital Home Group, Intel
Theodore May, VP, Content & Value-added Services, Synacor
Steve McKay, CEO, Entone Inc.
Travis Misterek, Technical Analyst, Best Buy
Seale Moorer, CEO, Exceptional Innovation
Mike Noonen, Senior Vice President, Sales and Marketing, NXP Semiconductors
Bogdan Odulinski, Director - Product Management, Enterprise Services Group, SupportSoft, Inc.
Ravi Raj, VP of Product Development, Kosmix
Len Rand, Managing Director, Granite Ventures
Mostafa Reza, Product Line Manager, IP Video Solutions Group, Motorola
Micha Risling, VP of Marketing, Valens Semiconductor
Anthony Rodio, Chief Operating Officer, support.com
Avner Ronen, CEO & Co-Founder, BoxeeVibha Rustagi, CEO & President, itaas, Inc.
Russ Schafer, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Connected TV, Yahoo!
Rick Schwartz, Product Manager, TwonkyMedia Manager, PacketVideo
Loren Shade, VP Marketing, Allegro Software Development Corporation
Parag Sheth, Vice President of Corporate Marketing, Hillcrest Labs
Eric Smith, CTO, Control4
Jason Spero, VP & Managing Director NA, AdMob
Kevin Spier, Director of Business Development, Bunchball
Singu Srinivas, VP, Sales and Marketing, Radialpoint
Bill Stanley, Director, Operations Solutions, Telcordia
Jan Steenkamp, Founder Member, Head Market Development America, Irdeto
David Sykes, CEO, ProVision Communications
Rob Tobias, Director, Market Development, Silicon Image
Steve Tranter, VP Interactive and Broadband, NDS
Derek Turner, Senior Product Manager, TV, Video & Music Business, Microsoft
Edgar Villalpando, SVP, Marketing, ActiveVideo Networks
Dr. Kenneth Wacks, Member, GridWise Architecture Council, U.S. Department of Energy
Fred Wang, General Partner, Trinity Ventures
Lior Weiss, VP Marketing, Celeno
Stephen White, Director, Business Development, VIZIO
Ken Wirt, Vice President Consumer Marketing, Cisco Systems
Daniel Wong, Director of Product Management, D-Link
Steve Yum, Sr. Director of Marketing, Synerchip
Scot Zarkiewicz, CEO, SingleClick Systems

CONNECTIONS™ 2008 to Feature Keynote Address by Comcast Interactive Media Executive Amy Banse

Comcast Keynote to discuss on-demand content and multiplatform delivery

Parks Associates and CEA® announced that Amy Banse, President of Comcast Interactive Media, will be the luncheon keynote for CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference & Showcase, where she will discuss Comcast’s role in the evolving on demand distribution models.

CONNECTIONS™: The Digital Living Conference and Showcase will take place at the Santa Clara Convention Center, June 24-26, 2008. The event, produced by Parks Associates in partnership with CEA, brings together 900+ executives to examine all issues critical to the converging digital living industries.

Banse will deliver her keynote “Entertainment in the Multi-Screened World” on June 25 at 12:15 p.m. She will discuss content delivery and media consumption across platforms as consumer demand puts more emphasis on the “On Demand” model and on providers to provide content over the most popular platforms.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Keynote Topics

CONNECTIONS™ Europe
December 4-6, 2007
Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin
CONNECTIONS™ Europe

Opening Keynote: Embracing IPTV Services and Deployment
Andreas Mueller-Schubert
Microsoft TV

Description: Europe has now taken the lead in IPTV deployments, and the market for television on the European continent is highly dynamic. With cable, satellite, and digital terrestrial joining IPTV as options for digital TV, how do video services differentiate in order to grow and retain their customer bases? This panel examines the trends, technologies, and the “next big thing” that will characterize television in Europe.

Lunch and Keynote: Smart Pipes, Smart Devices, Smart Players
Sponsored by Zensys Inc.
Saul J Berman
IBM Global Business Services
and
Paul R. Brody
IBM Global Business Services

Description: The challenge for all players in the ecosystem is the degree to which they will capture or lose to others the future growth and economic value opportunities in IPTV. Changing consumer behavior, an evolving regulatory environment, the advancement of technology and innovation of new solutions all combine to create potential business models for IPTV. This presentation, based on IBM’s experience with IPTV technology development and working with the world’s leading CE companies, will address the impact of these different forces and provide suggestions for future development as well as new business modes and strategies.

Keynote: Changing Entertainment Options
Didier Zwierski
PHILIPS Consumer Electronics - BU Home Networks

Description: Entertainment options for consumers have grown tremendously as broadband and digital services mesh with technology advances and convergence. This Keynote addresses how consumer electronics devices such as set-top boxes and televisions are bridging the gaps between the traditional entertainment world and the online services. In addition, Philips will share perspectives on how interactive features and new value-added and revenue-generating services are bringing further enhancement to consumers’ entertainment options, and allowing CE vendors, together with their partners from the digital entertainment ecosystem, to play a role in driving new revenue streams.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Keynote

Please welcome keynote speaker at CONNECTIONS™ Europe, Didier Zwierski, Vice-President, Americas General Manager & Technology and Development Manager, PHILIPS Consumer Electronics - BU Home Networks.

Biography coming soon.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Keynotes

Please welcome keynote speaker at CONNECTIONS™ Europe, Paul R. Brody from IBM Electronics Industry Strategy Practice.

Paul R. Brody, Partner, IBM Global Business Services, Global Lead, IBM Electronics Industry Strategy Practice

Paul Brody is a Partner with IBM Global Business Services. He brings a decade of consulting experience to the position as the global leader of the electronics industry strategy practice. Mr. Brody has worked extensively with business strategy, supply chain management and product life cycle management, including planning & scheduling, logistics, and procurement solutions.

His experience includes the full range of activities from value assessment/business case development through business process change, software implementation, and joint software development. Paul’s main industry experience includes discrete manufacturing, high tech electronics, semiconductors, and logistics and healthcare.

CONNECTIONS™ Europe

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Keynotes

Please welcome Saul J. Berman from IBM Global Business Services, as a keynote speaker at CONNECTIONS™ Europe

Saul J. Berman, Global Lead Strategy Partner, IBM Media and Entertainment Practice
Global Strategy & Change Services Leader, IBM Global Business Services

Saul J. Berman is the Global Lead Strategy Partner for the Media and Entertainment Practice as well as a Global Strategy & Change Services Leader at IBM Global Business Services (GBS). Prior to joining IBM, Saul was the Global Strategic Change Leader at PwC Consulting. He was also previously with The Boston Consulting Group, and a divisional Vice President with Broadway Department Stores and an Assistant Professor of Management at the University of Southern California.

Dr. Berman has more than 25 years of consulting experience advising senior management of large corporate and start-up organizations. He has directed engagements addressing issues of strategy, organization, and operations. He has worked extensively on issues of competitive positioning, differentiation, new business plans & strategies, new business models, growth, operational & cost improvement, operations/manufacturing strategy, organizational design and enterprise transformation. His clients have included most of the major media companies as well as internet companies, telecommunication companies, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers and automotive companies in the United States, Japan, Europe and Australia.

Dr. Berman holds a Ph.D. in Management and Information Systems and a MBA in Production Systems and Operations Research from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University in New York. He obtained a Bachelor of Science in Economics at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
CONNECTIONS™ Europe

CONNECTIONS™ Europe Keynotes

CONNECTIONS™ Europe is proud to introduce Andreas Mueller-Schubert from Microsoft TV, as a keynote speaker at CONNECTIONS™ Europe.

Andreas Mueller-Schubert, General Manager, Global Solutions, Microsoft TV, Microsoft Corporation

Andreas Mueller-Schubert brings more than 12 years of telecommunications experience to his current role as General Manager of Global Solutions at Microsoft Corporation’s Microsoft TV division. In this position, Mr. Mueller-Schubert is responsible for the deployment of all worldwide customer projects using Microsoft’s TV solutions platform. He is responsible for directing approximately 170 solution experts worldwide and for managing Microsoft TV’s internal and external system integrator partners within their customer deployment sector.

Prior to joining Microsoft TV at the end of 2006, Mr. Mueller-Schubert served in several senior management positions within Siemens’ telecommunications division in Germany and Canada. He is most notably recognized for initiating the Siemens’ telecommunication business in Canada.

Andreas Mueller-Schubert holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering as well as a bachelor of business degree in business administration. He is an active member of VDI Germany, VDE Germany, and the Society of Industry Leaders for Vista Research in New York.
CONNECTIONS™ Europe