Amateur Content

Tomorrow's Amateur Content: Boom or Bust?

Amateur content (personal media) has been one of the key drivers of the Internet 2.0 revolution. Is user-generated content yet another passing fad or is it here to stay? What will be the nature, scope and role of personal media in the business of technology in the next 5-10 years? What strategies should different players in the technology space adopt today to win in the future? Using a case-based approach, a 360 degree panel and interactive audience engagement, the Amateur Content Panel seeks to answer these questions.

Panelists:
Dan Burkhart, Director, Buyer Engagement , eBay Inc.
Ralph J. Folz, CEO, Molecular
Zia Zaman, Senior Vice President, Strategic Marketing, FAST
Damon Cronkey, Manager, Yahoo! Corporate Development

Panel Moderator: Robin Murdoch, Global Portal Industry Lead, Accenture

Wharton Panel Managers: Jesse Levey, Rajat Mishra

Sponsor:

Clean Technology

Here Comes the Sun: The Future of Solar Technology

From alternative energy generation to environmentally friendly consumer products, the Cleantech industry is booming and reducing mankind’s impact on the environment. The panel will focus on Solar technology. Industry leaders will discuss the growing acceptance, emergence, and new applications of solar technology and the future potential that it holds. With several recent solar IPOs and an overwhelming increase in venture financing, solar has again become the center of attention in the Cleantech space. However, many questions remain, ranging from whether producers can reduce costs to preserve margins and end the reliance on subsidies, to what future technologies and applications will drive growth, to how this technology will disrupt related industries. From producers to innovators to investors, the panel will look forward to shaping our future in a round-table discussion.

Panelists:
Rick Lewandowski, President and CEO, Prism Solar Technologies
Eric Daniels, Vice President of Technology, BP Solar
Andrew Chung, Associate, Lightspeed Ventures
Jigar Shah, CEO, SunEdison
Jack Peurach, Vice President of Product Development, PowerLight

Panel Moderator: Peter Lorenz, Associate Principle, McKinsey & Company

Wharton Panel Managers: Avnish Tiwari, Maz Sharafi

Collaborative Software

Transforming Industries through Collaborative Software

Peer-to-Peer collaborative software is transforming industries ranging from lending and job search to dating and music sharing. The panel will discuss the impact that online collaborative software and Web 2.0 technology have had on the way consumers communicate and transact with each other. Specifically, it will look at how user-generated content has proven superior in many ways to professionally-generated content and how the collaborative sharing of that content have given consumers access to a level of information and data unimaginable just a few years ago. The panel will also examine the key success factors of online collaborative software.

Panelists:
Keith Rabois, VP of Business Development, LinkedIn
Markus Frind, Founder and CEO, Plentyoffish.com
David S. Rose, Founder and CEO, Angelsoft
Rupa Modi, East Cost Development Manager, Kiva.org
Jordan Garbis, Founder and CEO, Haystack.com

Panel Moderator: Art Chang, President and Founder, Tipping Point Partners

Wharton Panel Managers: Raymond Aronoff, Michael Ye

Consumer Electronics

The Future of Consumer Electronics

Future technological advances will usher a high degree of integration among separate consumer electronic devices, particularly handheld PCs, cell phones, and media platforms. These innovations have the potential to greatly disrupt the current value-chains. The panelists will provide their opinions regarding future tends and new business models that will incorporate these changes.

Panelists:
George Bailey, Global Lead Partner, IBM
Foy Sperring, EVP of Customer Acquisition, Audible.com
Anil Vijendran, Director of Mobile User Experience, Motorola
Mark Pecen, Vice President Advanced Technology, RIM
Sean Rosenberg, Director of Mobile Marketing, RCA Music Group

Panel Moderator: Vish Chowdhary, Manager in Communications & High-Technology Strategy Practice, Accenture

Wharton Panel Managers: Michael Pachos, Youngjin Doh

Sponsor:

Digital Media

Brand Building in the Digital Age

Technology is making it possible, more than ever before, to reach the right audience via the right medium, at the right time, cost effectively. As content formats and media platforms proliferate, and as consumption fragments, brand building is becoming an interactive dialogue between marketers and consumers. Brand managers are no longer the sole custodians of brand equity. New technologies are disrupting traditional media value chains, business models and practices. Join panelists from major media companies, ad agencies, and leading analysts for an interactive discussion on brand building in the digital age.

Panelists:
Richard Cusick, Senior Vice President, Digital Media, Gemstar-TV Guide International
Jen Soch, VP Group Director of Advanced TV, MediaVest USA
Mike Church, Media Director, Diageo Plc
John Young, Vice President, Comcast Interactive Media
Hayley Nelson, Product Manager, NYTimes.com

Panel Moderator: TBD

Wharton Panel Managers: Neel Ketkar, Sanjeev Somani

Financial Services

Strategies in Combating E-Fraud

The premium financial institutions are placing on online security has never been higher. Recent high profile cases of e-fraud have banks reassessing their existing security measures and looking to new technology providers to help them address this growing insurgency.

Traditional models of one or two factor authentication, while an important first measure in this battle, cannot fully inoculate financial institutions and their retail and commercial customers from new schemes such as phishing, pharming , and malware. Backend transaction solutions, such as Transaction Anomaly Detection, are taking mindshare in the financial world, as a supplement to the traditional models.

This in turn is creating new opportunities for startup vendors. Given the rapid pace of change in fraud, the vendors signing up to combat it have to be nimble themselves, and larger systems integrators are looking to small startups to provide them with the necessary expertise in this market. This panel aims to bring together the leading startup players in the war against E-Fraud and to delve into what it takes to win in this high stakes market.

Panel Format:
360 degree discussion with Q&A – beginning with leading industry expert establishing the overall theme of the panel, followed by a round-table discussion with the other panel members on how new technology vendors are addressing the challenges posed and how financial institutions are dealing with these issues internally.

Panelists:
Bill Edwards, Chief Security Officer, TD Ameritrade
Gregor Bailar, Chief Information Officer, Capital One
Dr. Paul Judge, Chief Technology Officer, Secure Computing
Amir Orad, EVP and Chief Marketing Officer, Actimize Inc.
Sashi Reddi, Founder, Chairman & CEO, AppLabs Technologies

Panel Moderator: Manuel Barbero, Vice President & Chief Technologist, BearingPoint

Wharton Panel Managers: Elfreda Lau, Halsey Morris

New Tech Startup

The Challenges and Opportunities of Successfully Growing a New Tech Company in Today’s World

Developing a distinctive technology, obtaining financing, responding to regulatory and market pressures, and gaining scale are among the issues that face many new tech ventures in the post dot-com bubble era. We will explore how companies can successfully overcome such challenges in a discussion of CURRENT Communications Group.

CURRENT blends two of the hottest technology spaces, clean energy and the internet, into one company. CURRENT creates a Smart Grid for electric utilities by providing grid sensing, high-speed communications using an innovative broadband over powerline (BPL) technology, 24/7 monitoring and analytic software and related services in an integrated Smart Grid solution. CURRENT's solutions also allow consumers and business users to have high-speed internet access, voice and other internet services from any electric outlet.

You will learn how CURRENT - whose $130 million financing was tied for the third largest funding raising round in the country last year and whose investors include companies like Google, Goldman Sachs and General Electric - has successful navigated from an initial concept to overcoming technology challenges, found customers and financing, and evolved the business model while building a strong management team.

The panel will feature a broad portfolio of executives including a cofounder and former CEO, an early investor and the present CEO and VP of Corporate Development and Strategy and will be moderated by Wharton's own Kevin Werbach.

Panelists:
Thomas J. Casey, Chief Executive Officer, Current Communications Group, LLC
J. Brendan Herron, Jr., Vice President - Corporate Development & Strategy, Current Communications Group, LLC
Richard I. Goldstein, Managing Director, Liberty Associated Partners
Scott Ungerer, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, EnerTech Capital

Panel Moderator: Kevin Werbach, Assistant Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, Wharton

Wharton Panel Managers: Aydin Kadaster, Kiran Choudary

Sponsor:

Social Impact

Achieving the Double Bottom Line through Technical Innovation

The Social Impact panel will explore how for-profit companies are using technology to achieve a double-bottom line (profits and a positive impact on society). The discussion will focus on how these companies are benefiting society, how technology gives these companies a competitive advantage, and how their use of technology helps them be both sustainable and profitable. Additionally, the panel will explore how emerging trends in technology could enhance these companies’ business models. Most importantly, we hope to address how other companies can learn from these examples.

Panelists:
Rodger Desai, Senior Advisor, Kiva.org
Olufemi Omojola, Co-Founder, United Villages, Inc.
Ryan Mickle, Co-Founder, dotherightthing
Lisa Friendly, Senior Product Manager, The Benetech Initiative

Panel Moderator: Ram Rajagopal, Senior Manager, Communications and High-Technology Strategy Practice, Accenture

Wharton Panel Managers: Stella Loh, Komal Rathi

Telecommunications

Convergence: Redefining Boundaries in the New Telecom Era

Consumers today are demanding access to information anytime, anywhere and on any device. They want their mobile, television, home phone and internet to seamlessly work together as one service. The communication industry responded with yet another buzz word: “Convergence”. However, the pursuit for convergence has resulted in a seismic shift in the telecom landscape. With traditional telephone, cable, internet and mobile companies all competing to provide the same ubiquitous service, boundaries between these industries are fast evaporating and are rendering current business models obsolete. This Panel will explore the opportunities and challenges that lie in front of service providers and equipment vendors in this new world of convergence. The panel will also discuss the strategies companies across the globe are undertaking to thrive in this new competitive landscape.

Panelists:
Margaret Bouline, Head of Strategy and Market Insights, Chief Marketing Officer - North America, Nokia
Rashesh Jethi, Chief Information Officer, Visage Mobile
Nicola Palmer, Vice President of Video Network Services, Verizon
Ed Paradise, Vice President & General Manager of Mobile Wireless & Broadband Services Applications Business Units, Cisco/RTC Site Executive, Cisco
Richard Cho, Director, Voice Product Management, Time Warner Cable

Panel Moderator: Martin N. Kon, Director, Head of Media, Entertainment & Customer Analytics, Mercer Management Consulting

Wharton Panel Managers: Prabjot Jaaj, Eleftheria Mourtzanou

Venture Capital

Globalization in Venture Capital

Some of the biggest exits of late have come from overseas, in particular China and India. How will that shape the venture capital industry in the future?

This panel will discuss the opportunities and challenges of global expansion in the venture capital industry, hot geographical sectors, and what this means for US-based start-ups. Specifically, the panel will focus on the following tangible ideas:

• How are VCs benefiting from a global marketplace? What are the challenges?
• How much should venture capital firms expand to keep up with the global trends?
• Should venture capital firms build or partner in new regions?
• What are the implications for the next generation of general partners in the venture capital industry?
• What are the implications for businesses trying to raise funds in the US?

Panelists:
Larry Bohn, Managing Director, General Catalyst Partners
Peter Bollier, Partner, 3i
Ashmeet Sidana, Venture Partner, Foundation Capital
Jonathan Grabel, Partner, Baker Capital
Nikunj Jinsi, Principal Investment Officer, IFC

Panel Moderator: Anupendra Sharma, Partner, Siemens Venture Capital

Wharton Panel Managers: Baris Aksoy, Zoran Martinovic