MIPTV—the world’s renowned content market and creative forum—will be celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Join Doug Scott and Abby Marks at the four-day event starting April 8th in Cannes, France. Bringing together the entire entertainment ecosystem, the annual event showcases the newest programs, freshest formats and latest technologies to hit television, web, mobile, online games, and all video-rich platforms. It brings together 12,000 entertainment industry stakeholders hailing from over 100 countries. MIPTV 2013 will feature topical conferences, keynote sessions, trade show exhibitions, networking events, exclusive screenings, and so much more. Check out the jam-packed agenda at www.miptv.com. At the heart of MIPTV is MIPCUBE – the ultimate creative platform and business forum for content creators, producers, and distributors.

Now in its seventh year as a MIPTV partner, Ogilvy & Mather will continue to demonstrate its industry leadership in branded entertainment with several sponsored events. In partnership with Hyper Island, Ogilvy will be sponsoring a Brands and Content Masterclass on Tuesday, April 9th from 8:00am to 11:00am (at the Majestic Hotel). Attendees can also catch Doug at the Best of Brands & Content Screening alongside Panos Sambrakos, Executive Creative Director of OgilvyOne Worldwide, on Tuesday, April 9th from 2:30 to 3:00pm (Esterel Level 5). And, don’t miss Abby at these key events: Matchmaking: Meet The Branded Content Experts on Tuesday, April 9th from 4:30 to 5:00pm and The MIPTVWrap on Thursday, April 11th from 2:00 to 3:00pm (both located on Agora Level -1).

Happy 50th Anniversary, MIPTV!

This week’s data issue of Adweek prominently features our touching 4-minute film “Solutions for An Aging Population” for IBM. Internally, we fondly refer to the work simply as “Bolzano”, the name of the Italian city where the story was captured. Adweek author Tim Nudd tracked us down after seeing the work on IBM’s Smarter Ideas Huffington Post hub. For his column “The Spot”, Tim explores how the branded content piece came together – from ideation to execution – and the collaborative partners involved. In particular, Tim was keen to uncover why we used longer-form storytelling to showcase the client’s technology in action. As Doug Scott remarked, “Short form film, or long-form content, really lets you open up a topic…A storyteller can truly allow the topic, the character and the story to give a full view of what the brand is trying to convey.” The article is even featured front-and-center on Adweek.com, so check it out online here or pick up your hard copy today (page 11!).

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Watch and engage with Escape Fire this Sunday on CNN

Event television – the Oscars, the Super Bowl, the Presidential Debates – whether you love watching Hollywood in couture, a well-run West Coast offense, intense political banter, or just want to know what the next meme will be, ‘must-see TV’ has morphed to ‘must-engage TV’.  A starlet’s stumble, a 105-yard punt-return touchdown, a terrible analogy and social snafu, all are vastly improved when shared; when that sharing can shift from passing along a good laugh to fostering ideas for change, the engagement is even more fruitful.

But how much can TV and film catalyze social change? A recent article in the Atlantic highlighted the impact of moviemaking on social causes throughout the world, referencing the most memorable in recent history – Al Gore’s 2006 Oscar winner ‘An Inconvenient Truth’.  The film had so much of an impact on our conversation about global warming, it’s difficult to imagine just how resounding the amplification of a social media roar like Twitter or Facebook, at the time both nascent to their current scale, could have been.

It may have caused noise something to the degree of Wednesday’s 12-hour marathon filibuster by Rand Paul. Regardless of your politics, it is fascinating to see democracy in action (or more appropriately democracy ‘inaction’) calling the people to rally on a social network – and elevating the conversation on drone policy in the US. The filibuster itself was unique, but when you layer on the simultaneous twitter stream (presumably run by one of Paul’s staffers) you see a call to the people to engage with government proceedings.

The good news is that other more recent films featured in the Atlantic article now have that opportunity. Our very own film, Escape Fire, directed and produced by Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke, will air on CNN this Sunday, March 10^th at 8pm. Following the film, Dr. Sanjay Gupta will dive into the topic with a panel of experts and invite viewers to join in. Please follow @escapefire and use the hashtag #rescuehealthcare to weigh in on the debate.

In the words of Dr. Andrew Weil, we need a whole new kind of medicine. But this step-change for an industry that doesn’t want to stop making money won’t be achieved without a grass roots movement for the people by the people.  Pledge to join us at EscapeFireMovie.com/CNN.

For more on the film, please visit www.escapefiremovie.com and support the film on facebook at www.facebook.com/escapefire.

We’re going to Hollywood!

More accurately, Digital Hollywood is coming to us right here in the Big Apple.

Next week on March 5th and 6th, the Digital Hollywood crew (over 1000 of the Media industry’s top executives) reconvenes for its 10th Annual New York Media Summit. This meeting is the premier conference on Digital, Mobile, Advertising, Television, Film, Cable & Satellite, Publishing, Radio, Magazines, News & Print Media and Marketing – and anything else media-related.

Since 1990, over forty-thousand industry executives have attended Digital Hollywood in Los Angeles, New York, San Jose and in Las Vegas, including representatives of every major studio, technology company, cable, satellite and communications company, retailers as well as content developers and programmers for all entertainment industry medias and market segments.

Next week’s event will include even more members of the media brain trust gathering to tackle the biggest challenges our industry faces today, running the spectrum all the way from financing and investing to transmedia storytelling.

On Tuesday, you can catch me moderating a panel on Contextual Media & Advertising: Transforming and Redefining the Relationship Between the Consumer, Advertising and Media Platforms. Our panel includes a diverse range of expertise from agencies across the media spectrum, which reflects just how fragmented its all become.

Register to join me and this prestigious group at digitalhollywood.com.

Event Details:

2013 Media Summit New York, March 5-6, McGraw-Hill Building (49th St & 6th Ave), New York City.

Contextual Media & Advertising Panel: Tuesday, March 5th at 10:45am to 12pm. Session B: Room 209. Learn more here: http://digitalhollywood.com/13MediaSummit/Sum13-Tues2.html.

Thank you so much for your support of the theatrical release of ESCAPE FIRE last year.  We’re happy to announce that the DVD is coming out on Feb 26 and is now available for pre-order!  It would be greatly appreciated if you could spread the word to your community.

The ESCAPE FIRE DVD will feature never before seen footage, including  a “making of” featurette, deleted and extended scenes from the film, updates on some of the main stories, clips from the Sundance World Premiere, and audio commentary with the directors.

You may pre-order your copy of the DVD here:  http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Fire-Rescue-American-Healthcare/dp/B00AJLHU80/

The trailer may be viewed on the website:  http://www.escapefiremovie.com/