Back in June, I attended the Henry Stewart Digital Asset Management Conference in New York and posted a little recap on this very blog. So, I thought I’d do the same for LA conference which took place November 9th and 10th, 2009. Believe it or not, this was my first time out to Hollywood and the weather was not much different than what we’ve been having in Chicago this week. I was a little disappointed.

Overall, the vendor presence was largely the same as the New York show and many of the industry mainstays had booths. OpenText, Autonomy Virage, MediaBeacon, Canto Cumulus, North Plains, PageFlex, and our beloved Xinet (that’s the system behind checkout) were all out in force.

As you might expect, the LA show is slightly geared towards the media and entertainment industry. This was great for me as I had a chance to meet attendees from the various studios and production houses.
Warner Bros’ Technical Ops Manager gave an interesting presentation on the challenges of delivering metadata in a “complex distribution work flow.” I really enjoyed this seminar. If nothing else, it helped me gain some perspective on what we’re trying to accomplish with metadata and checkout. I’m trying to get job info and descriptive metadata on our production files. These guys have to manage pages of metadata for thousands of movies that needs to be packaged digitally and delivered differently to iTunes, Amazon, Best Buy, etc. Life ain’t so bad for us.

The Ad Agency world was well represented by my boy Evan Shore from Arnold Worldwide in Boston who is a fellow Xinet user. His preso focused on using DAM to automate work flow process and improve efficiency. Many of the tactics he presented, I’m happy to say, are already being used here at TMS and Boxer with checkout. Nice job, Evan. Folks from Arbonne International and Campbell-Ewald also gave presos on their DAM operations. SIDE NOTE: I found out that Campbell-Ewald and Chevrolet have one of the longest client /agency relationship in the world. It’s been standing since the late 1800’s!!!

One of my goals going into the conference was to see how we could better use SharePoint (myStore) and checkout together in a seamless work flow. The good news is: it can be done! I had some indepth conversations with our integrator and the Xinet reps to see how that could work. Speaking of SharePoint, Karuana Gatimu from Sketchers USA talked about their VERY robust SharePoint implementation at Sketchers. I’m working on obtaining a copy of that deck because anyone who is currently using myStore for projects or with clients will find it very useful. More to come on that.

Well that about does it. Sorry for the lack of pics this time…The only one I have is this crappy shot of Grauman’s Chineese Theatre. Uhhh…enjoy!

Till next time..
Rob

Something to think about for McDonald’s Monopoly 2010.

Posted by Durr

BU students find lecture was setup for new McDonald’s ad

This summer, some Boston University students thought they were attending a morning lecture by a renowned cultural anthropologist in an advertising class. But the 14 students unknowingly became stars in a new McDonald’s TV commercial for iced and hot coffees, which will begin airing nationwide Sept. 1.

“This is a new approach that we haven’t tried,’’ said Mark Carlson, senior creative director at McDonald’s. “Someone bringing you a fresh hot cup of coffee at 8 a.m. is the best environment to do this in.’’

The featured class was “Fundamentals of Creative Development,’’ taught by professor Judith Austin. The six-week summer course introduced students to creating concepts for commercials in various media and how those ads can affect consumer behavior. “I wanted to make this the most valuable experience . . . to immerse the students inside the process gives them a chance to do that,’’ said Austin. “They were literally inside the production.’’

Kyle

Kyle

“Ink Calendar” make use the timed pace of the ink spreading on the paper to indicate time.

The ink is absorbed slowly, and the numbers in the calendar are “printed” daily. One a day, they are filled with ink until the end of the month. A calendar self-updated, which enhances the perception of time passing and not only signaling it.

The ink colors are based on a spectrum, which relate to a “color temperature scale”, each month having a color related to our perception of the whether on that month. The colors range from dark blue in December to, three shades of green in spring or oranges, red in the summer.

The scale for measuring the “color temperature” that I have used is a standard called ‘D65’ and corresponds roughly to a midday sun in Western / Northern Europe.

The “Ink Calendar” was developed for “Gradual “, an exhibition featuring works, which were evolving during the exhibition time at the London Design Festival 2007.

-Cal