Speaking at the Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum in Hong Kong
March 3, 2007 by Ken Bautista - Today was the big day. Digital Entertainment Leadership Forum day. It was a long one - started off with an early morning breakfast with the other DELF speakers. Flash back a few months ago when I was invited to present at DELF by my friend Hal Josephson who was producing the event. I gladly accepted because it was a great opportunity.
DELF speakers - Front: Hal Josephson, Nicholas Yang (CEO, Cyberport), Me, Lorraine Justice (Director, School of Design, Hong Kong Polytechnic University); Middle: Rita Cahill (Principal, RTC Productions), Michael Stephens (Lawyer, Wingnut Films), Paul Wang (Executive VP, Imagi), Lifeng Wang (Founder, Eastar Digital), Andrew Senior (Head of Creative Industries, British Council), Ivan Yau (Formal Principal Anchor, TVB News); Back: Lawrence Behrs (CEO, South Park Media Company), Scott Ross (CEO, AWOL Pictures, Former CEO, Digital Domain), Warren Franklin (CEO, Rainmaker Studios), Edward Jones (Principal, The Light Exchange)
And what an opportunity it was. DELF is an international event that links up Hong Kong's digital creative industries with the global digital content industry to exchange ideas, share experiences, and forge collaboration. This year's theme for DELF was "The Future of Digital Storytelling". The speaker line up was loaded with international award-winning presenters in special effects, digital film, animation and interactive entertainment. I spoke on a moderated panel called "Content Creators: The Changing Face of Content" as we talked about what the next generatation of content creators bring to global entertainment markets?" I got to talk a lot about what we're doing with projects like C.I.E. and why developers and producers need to think in multi-platforms to engages today's connected audiences.
The DELF luncheon celebrated the "Digital Pioneers" program, which is an initiative between the British Council and Hong Kong Cyberport. The program is focused on supporting the development of young creative entrepreneurs in Hong Kong and the UK via international mentorship, overseas work placements, industry-specific capacity building activities and peer activities. I got to know the six winners of the program over the last few days - they are definitely ambitious young entrepreneurs working on some really interesting and creative things in the world of digital media. I look forward to keeping in touch with them all.
Me crashing the Digital Pioneers photo shoot
The day was capped off by one last dinner with all the DELF speakers and other dignitaries. In reflecting back on today, it was definitely a success and a great opportunity to meet and interact with world-class creators, producers, entrepreneurs and leaders. My thanks again go out to Cyberport CEO Nicholas Yang and Hal Josephson for inviting me to participate in such a great event.