MAM
It’s ‘Agility’ for festival of Media Asia Pacific
MUMBAI: The Festival of Media Asia Pacific (FOMAP), the largest gathering of media leaders in Asia Pacific, is back for its third year.
“The theme of this year’s event is ‘Agility’, and will see influential speakers sharing unique regional perspectives on how businesses can be more ‘agile’ in adapting to the ever-changing media landscape,” said, Founder of Festival of Media and Chairman of C Squared Charlie Crowe. “Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about some of the most topical issues affecting the industry today, whilst getting the chance to network with a broad range of media companies from across Asia.”
Topics being discussed at the 2014 event include the future of Native Advertising in Asia, virtual media trading, social media in the newly-opened up Myanmar, unlocking the potential of Indian consumers and understanding Bitcoin, among others.
The Festival will attract over 700 delegates from across 22 countries in Asia, who will be coming together to hear from some of the media industry’s most agile and forward-thinking leaders.
Charlie Crowe added, “A stellar line-up of exciting industry speakers, excellent awards programs, and thought-provoking content, all within the larger Asian media context, means that FOMAP 2014 is set to be the most exciting yet.”
Some of the speakers for the event include:
Linda Yueh, Chief Business Correspondent, BBC World News
Rita Nguyen, Co-Founder and CEO, SQUAR
Vipul Chawla, VP and CMO, Yum! Asia
Mark Laudi, Former CNBC presenter
Daryl Lee, Global CEO, UM
Leo Liang, Senior Director of National Business Development, Youku Tudou
Steve Mosko, President, Sony Pictures Television
Scott Lamb, VP of International, Buzzfeed
Lakshmi Pratury, Host and Curator, The INK Conference
Rose Tsou, Senior Vice President, APAC, Yahoo!
Peter Vessenes, Founder and CEO, CoinLab, Chairman Bitcoin Foundation
Manmeet Vohra, Marketing Director, Tata Starbucks
Jerry Wind, Professor, Wharton Future of Advertising Program
The festival will take place from 16-18 March at the Capella Singapore.
MAM
Sameer Nair shares heartfelt note as he exits Applause Entertainment
After nine years building the streamer’s content engine, one of India’s best-known TV men is moving on
MUMBAI: Sameer Nair is out. The chief executive of Applause Entertainment, the content studio backed by Kumar Mangalam Birla’s media empire, has announced his departure after nearly nine years at the helm, closing the chapter on one of Indian entertainment’s more quietly consequential careers.
Nair, who built Applause from the ground up in its current avatar, oversaw a slate that spanned Indian originals and international adaptations, threading together a hub-and-spoke business model that partnered with streaming platforms, broadcasters and production houses alike. The results were uneven, as they always are in content, but the ambition was not.
In a post on LinkedIn, Nair was generous to his outgoing patron. He thanked Birla for being an “inspirational boss and a great patron of the arts,” and signed off with a cheerful “Au Revoir” and a promise to remain Applause’s biggest cheerleader. Whether that sentiment survives the next chapter remains to be seen.
No successor has been named. Applause Entertainment did not immediately comment.
Nair built the machine. Now someone else has to run it — and in a streaming market that is simultaneously consolidating and convulsing, that is no small ask.
