Powerful Media and the Future of Content

My first visit to Georgia Institute of Technology took place a little over a year ago on a cool, crisp fall day in Atlanta.  Michele Petochi, head of academic relations at the Forum, and I flew down from New York, not entirely sure what to expect.  But by the time we said goodbye to the faculty and students of GeorgiaTech, we knew we wanted to do more with the school which was buzzing with energy, innovation and cutting-edge thinking.

Fast forward to Fall 2011. We have established a set of strategic collaborations with the Georgia Institute of Technology, among them FutureMedia Fest 2011, the annual event exploring media’s disruptive power on people and business, from November 15-17, 2011 in Atlanta.

FutureMedia — Georgia Tech’s global collaborative initiative whose focus is to explore, enable, and transform new ways of how Content is Created, Distributed and Consumed—is led by founder & executive director Rénu Kulkarni, also Georgia Tech’s principal research associate serving on the Steering Committee of the year-long project  – “The Future of Content” –  led by the Forum’s Media, Entertainment & Information Industries community.

Last year’s Fest attracted 800 people, reached 7900 viewers in 77 countries.  As importantly, many created personal success stories from attending the Fest ranging from startups that raised funding to new business ideas that were germinated.

person name Executive Director FutureMedia At this year’s Fest, participants will touch, feel and play with next-generation technology, products, and solutions. They will be inspired by the panels topics such as Media Revolutionizing Sports, Future of Television, Computational Journalism and more.

There will be a panel titled Media Across the Globe on which I will serve as a panellist. This will be a cultural dialogue featuring an international panel of experts examining trends in media around the world, exploring such questions as: How is media disrupting your part of the world? What are some common themes in media across developed, emerged, and emerging nations? What are the differences in consumer behaviour? How will media companies adapt? I will share the highlights from a two-year study led by my team and our industry partners on evolving media landscape in fast-growing and frontier markets such as India, Africa and Southeast Asia.

Participants will have the opportunity to preview Georgia Tech’s bi-annual FutureMedia Outlook 2012, outlining megatrends that will likely shape the future of media, content, and information in the next five years, before its release in December 2011.

About the Festival: http://futuremediafest.gatech.edu/.

We invite you to follow us on Twitter:  Renu Kulkarni (@renuvate),  Annie Luo (@WEF_Content)

*Mengyu Annie Luo is Associate Director, Media, Entertainment & Information Industries, Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum.