Pushbutton Summit 2010 has now concluded and what a huge success it was! In case you missed it, the Summit was Utah’s premiere Digital Media Summit for digital animation, gaming, mobile distribution, web development, movies and entertainment. Over 400 people attended this two-day conference which brought together world-class industry and technology leaders, entrepreneurs, students and community executives to discuss the latest in what’s pushing the creation and use of digital media.
As for the content, John E. Warnocks keynote address has been added above. Other keynote addresses will be uploaded soon so check back in a few days. Also, check out the news section for all the news coverage as well.
Also, if you attended the summit and want to leave feedback, please fill out the evaluation survey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/pushbuttonsummiteval . This will greatly help us in planning for next year.
The Salt Lake Film Center and the Sundance Institute are sponsoring two movie screenings, “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today” and “Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade” at the Pushbutton Summit 2010.
One of the greatest courtroom dramas in history, “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today” shows how international prosecutors built their case against the top Nazi war criminals using the Nazis’ own films and records. The trial established the “Nuremberg principles,” laying the foundation for all subsequent trials for crimes against the peace, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
The 1948 documentary was widely shown in Germany but government officials suppressed the U.S. release. The English version was left in rough form, and the negative disappeared. Filmmakers Sandra Schulberg and Josh Waletzky created a new 35mm negative (made from the German Bundesarchiv’s best “lavender print”) and reconstructed the soundtrack using original sound from the trial.
Milt Schefter will moderate the Pushbutton Summit panel talking about the storage dilemma for digital media. He’ll use Nuremberg as his case study to demonstrate best practices for securely storing digital media content.
In the eighties, video games were synonymous with arcades, and games were bringing in enough quarters to fill the Rose Bowl. This led Iowa entrepreneur Walter Day to declare himself the sole authority on high scores. In 1982, Day launched his Twin Galaxies International Scoreboard. Teenage superstars came from all over North America to join Walter in a LIFE Magazine feature spread, which recognized them as video game world champions. This led to the nationally televised 1982 Video Game World Championships, a touring National Video Game Team, and the promise of fame, fortune and groupies.
“Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade” is a documentary about the “Golden Age of Arcade Games.” The film premiered January 22, 2007 at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.
Nuremberg is for Pushbutton Summit attendees only and will be viewed on Tuesday, March 9, 2010. “Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade” is free to the public compliments of the Pushbutton Summit organizers and will be shown on Wednesday, March 10, 2010. Attendees must register in advance on the Pushbutton Web site at http://pushbuttonmovie.eventbrite.com/.
We recently announced a Digital Media “Concept to Company” Contest for Pushbutton. I thought it might make sense to provide some additional information and background about the contests. The “Concept to Company” Contests (www.concepttocompany.org) are ongoing innovation contests held in various regions across the state of Utah and were created as a way to encourage entrepreneurism and stimulate business growth in the state. Each contest focuses on the strengths of the specific region in which it’s being held.
In 2009 Grow Utah Ventures, its partners and sponsors hosted four “Concept to Company” Contests and gave away over $200,000 in cash and services. More than 250 entrepreneurs submitted ideas to the four contests. Contests included:
Southern Utah General Technology contest
Salt Lake City Medical Device Technology contest
Vernal contest focusing on responsible energy production
Ogden based contest targeting outdoor recreation products and services
Contest winners have benefited from the cash that comes from winning the contest as well as the consulting services. In fact, here are some of the things past winners have said about their experiences:
Last year’s winner of the Southern Utah general technology “Concept to Company” contest grand prize winner, Efficient Fuel Systems used the prize from the contest to finish prototyping its products and get it ready to market and sale to potential customers.
“What helped us most in winning last year’s contest was the instant credibility it provided us,” said Jared Loosli, president and CEO of Efficient Fuel Systems. “The credibility we gained legitimized us and helped open doors for us and gave us the ability to talk to people, specifically customers. The money was useful as well because it enabled us to take our product to the next level and finalize our prototype sooner and get us to the point we needed to be to demonstrate our products potential.”
Other contest winners have had similar experiences, including:
“My experience with USTAR has been overwhelmingly positive! Their expertise and resources have proven invaluable during a critical growth stage of my company,” said Annette McClellan of InVectus BioMedical, grand prize winner of the Salt Lake Medical Devices contest. “InVectus BioMedical is a business focused on medical device technologies to improve women’s health. USTAR helped me strategically assess my business and provided me with research and feedback that greatly increased my ability to market the daisy-clip product to investors. I truly wish there were more programs like USTAR.”
“The Concept to Company contest experience was absolutely invaluable to the start of Flixify,” said Josh Aikens and Jeff Poulton, co-founders of Flixify and runner’s-up in the Southern Utah General Technology contest. “This competition helped us refine our concept to the point of successfully launching our company.”
We’ve officially launched Pushbutton 2010 Digital Media Summit. The Summit will be in Salt Lake City on March 9-10. We’ve compiled some of the brightest and best minds from the digital media world and hope you’ll join us for the event. Also remember to follow us on twitter at pushbutton2010 and on facebook too.
PushButton Summit 2010 is Utah’s premiere Digital Media Summit for digital animation, gaming, mobile distribution, web development, movies and entertainment. The purpose of this two-day event is to bring together world-class industry and technology leaders, entrepreneurs, students and community executives to discuss the latest in what’s pushing the creation and use of digital media. It is also to create awareness in Utah’s digital media and entertainment industry and allow local talent, business leaders, investors and others to share ideas and collaborate around this growing industry.
Register to attend PushButton Summit 2010- Utah's premiere Digital Media Summit for digital animation, gaming, mobile distribution, web development, movies and entertainment.
