Conference Hosts & Moderators
Keynote & Fireside Chat Presenters
Keynote
Beyond Mainstream:
Trends and opportunities in a segmented photo & video sharing landscape
About Hans:
Hans Hartman is chair of Visual 1st, a global conference focused on promoting innovation and partnerships in the photo and video ecosystem, and founder of Suite 48 Analytics, a market research firm for the photo and video industry. He also publishes the bi-weekly Visual 1st Perspectives newsletter, which includes analyses of trending imaging topics as well as a roundup of photo and video industry news.
Prior to founding Suite 48 Analytics, Hans was sr. director of market research at multimedia software company, Nero, and director of product strategy at desktop publishing software company, Quark. (more…)
Fireside Chats
Generative AI:
From Text to Image – and beyond
About Javier:
Multidisciplinary engineer, researcher, creative director, and artist, Javier is the author of internationally recognized AI projects, such as losslandscape.com. He is a member of the AI Research group Landskape and a speaker at reference AI Events, including the Executive AI Masters at iia.es.
Winner of numerous awards with creations showcased at galleries, festivals & institutions worldwide, Javier participated in 2021 for the second consecutive time at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the most prestigious event of its kind.
Creator of the Torch Innovation Methodology and associated ecosystem, Javier has (co)-founded multiple ventures from Silicon Valley to Europe. (more…)
Creating visual memories that resonate:
From prints to digital downloads to AR – and beyond
About Dan:
Dan is Director, Digital Experience within the Technology and Digital group of Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. In this role he’s responsible for the strategy and development of imaging platforms, products and services of Disney PhotoPass Service at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
He leads high-performing teams delivering immersive, innovative imaging products and experiences serving theme park guests in a rapidly changing consumer environment. (more…)
M&A Trends in the Imaging Industry:
What to consider when planning for an acquisition
About Rudy:
Rudy is a leading expert on M&A transactions within the technology sector. As the founder of Woodside Capital, he focuses on computer vision and imaging companies across multiple industry sectors.
Prior to Woodside Capital Partners, Rudy was the founding CEO of the MIT Media Lab Europe, a joint venture between MIT and the Irish government. Over the past 25 years, he founded five technology companies in the U.S., ran a European public company, and served as a senior executive for two global 500 companies. He is an effective, results-oriented professional with a proven track record in strategic planning, change management, and corporate development. (more…)
Panels
Seeing Double:
Turning photo-only apps into photo + video apps
Virtually everyone has a camera in their pocket that’s capable of taking both photos and videos, and consumers do in fact use their smartphone or digital camera to create both types of media. While best-of-breed apps to capture, edit, manage and share images have traditionally catered to either one or the other, more and more solutions now support both photos and videos.
While doing so sounds logical, in reality things aren’t that straightforward.
We’ll hear from four developers who have added video modules to their photo-first apps and succeeded in attracting new users without alienating their existing base. But how do they plan to succeed against competitors who invest all their efforts and resources into focusing on just one media type?
Fighting back:
Enforcing visual content rights in the age of deepfakes and rip-off NFTs
With powerful AI and blockchain technologies now at our fingertips, creating synthetic images is easier than ever, as is creating and marketing NFTs of all types of content.
But how does one ensure that a photo or video is authentic and that the purported owner, seller, or licensee does indeed own the rights they advertise? And, if there is illegal usage or representation of visual intellectual property, how can the rightful owners identify and locate the offenders in order to enforce their rights?
Coming to the rescue: industry initiatives developing enforceable standards, plus innovative developers of tools to help both consumers and businesses enforce their visual content ownership and licensing rights.
Turning green:
Taking photo print sustainability practices to the next level
At our Visual 1st Sustainability Spotlight event in June, companies from different parts of the photo print product supply chain shared a range of initiatives they’ve taken to reduce waste, pollution and carbon footprint.
After discussing the “what” (can you do) question at our Spotlight, we’ll now dive into the “how.” We’ll hear from sustainability experts how to reliably measure the environmental impact of photo print-related activities, what resources to deploy in order to most effectively and efficiently obtain results, and how to provide accountability and transparency towards one’s customers.
Empowering shopping:
Seizing emerging opportunities where visual content is king
Historically, photo and video apps have been monetized in a variety of ways such as advertising, in-app purchasing, subscriptions, API licensing, or photo print products. But monetizing imaging apps to bolster e-commerce is a relatively new use case – one with attractive economics and untapped opportunities.
Photo and video app developers are turning to the needs of SMBs and enterprises who increasingly require a combo of more powerful while easy imaging tools for their shopping applications, and a new generation of startups are also coming to market to meet these requirements in innovative ways.
We’ll hear from trailblazers who are pushing the envelope of e-commerce imaging tools through scalable photo editing, AR innovation, video clip creation, and integration of professional imagery with user-generated content.
Show & Tell Demo Judges
Andy Kelm is Managing Director at Palmarés Advisors, a boutique M&A investment bank. Andy has over 20 years of product, corporate development and general management experience in wireless, mobility, and cloud services. (more…)
Anna Dickson is a Product Manager at Google. Anna's work brings visual media content to many of Google's product teams (more…)
Jeff Herbst is Co-Founding Managing Partner of GFT Ventures. He brings three decades of venture capital, operational, business development and M&A experience. Prior to launching GFT, he spent 20 years as NVIDIA's Vice President of Business Development. (more…)
Sami Niemi is a general partner at Spintop Ventures, a Nordic early stage tech venture capital firm. (more…)
Show & Tell Presenters
Birds of a Feather sessions
Share your own perspectives with your peers in one of the Birds of a Feather roundtable discussions of your choice held during lunchtime on Oct. 5:
How to apply an ethical framework when developing AI applications? Moderated by IMAIGE.
Taking photo and digital print automation to the next level. Moderated by Viesus.
Using AI to automate photography workflows. Moderated by Zenfolio.
Capturing stories embedded in our photos and videos using computer vision. Moderated by Mobius Labs.
In a digitized world powered by AI and automation, what is the value of the printed image in the coming years? Moderated by GotPhoto.
Overcoming challenges of automated fulfillment across international photo print production sites. Moderated by Picanova.