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L.A.'s Tech and Startup UpFront Summit Kicks Off
It was day 2 of the influential Upfront Summit at the Rose Bowl, a chance for top names in media, tech and finance to share their projects and go scouting for partners.
We got a peek behind the scenes of Netflix's efforts to expand their local language television output, and Star Wars' push to add diversity to its staffing and talent pool. Quibi CEO and former California gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman divulged some of the new byte-sized mobile streaming service's $1.4 billion gamble, and its very generous terms for creators. Snap announced its own animation series, personalized for each user, using the popular bitmoji feature. Our reporters Ben Bergman, Rachel Uranga and Tami Abdollah were there to cover it. We'll have more takeaways from the summit tomorrow. Read on, and stay tuned.
Today's stories
Lee, speaking at the eighth-annual Upfront Summit, said she found fewer people who looked like her as she climbed the ranks at the Viacom-run network. And that led Lee to create the conference which draws power players like Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton as keynote speakers. >>
With the highly-anticipated launch of the byte sized mobile streaming service Quibi a little more than two months away, CEO Meg Whitman defended the company's massive $1.4 billion fundraising total in front of a roomful of investors and company founders in Pasadena.
"There's no question it's a big bet," she said. "We had to raise enough money to create at launch a completely immersive experience." >>
Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, walked into the Upfront Summit tent in the middle of sunny and bright Pasadena Thursday morning and brought a hush over the crowd as he spoke passionately against President Donald Trump, urging the audience to go out and vote him out of office.
"I've come to a conclusion that whatever your specific issue you care about, for your family and the world is, the No. 1 way to get there in nine months is to have a different president," Bharara said." So don't forget the forest for the trees, think about that in November." >>
Snap Inc. is launching itself anew into the short-form videosphere in 2020 with Bitmoji TV, upping its popular avatar feature to present personalized live-action comic strips of you and your friends. A spokesperson says Thursday that their global release will start in February; it's an effort that may help Snap counter the surging use of TikTok, especially among Gen Z users
When asked to direct "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," the filmmaker said he felt a responsibility to cast actors who were as diverse as possible. "I'm not preaching, but we'll bring our values as much as we can to a project," he said. >>
The Upfront Summit heads into its second day on Thursday. But, there's still a bit of buzz from an unlikely speaker who closed out last night's roster of keynotes -- a surprisingly shy Paris Hilton, who said she was intimidated speaking to a room of hundreds of investors.
"I'm very nervous up here," she said. "I'm used to being at Tomorrowland or Ibiza with a thousand people dancing. Everyone is so serious here." >>