I couldn't attend all the Internet Week New York events that I wanted to, but I did have the chance to attend the Digital Content Newfront 2009 that was put on by Digitas. Now, full disclosure that I was invited and attended because we were working directly with the team getting the word out about the event and thus I was there on company time. I took a few photos while there, and was very impressed by the line up of speakers. Mark Beeching kicked it off and instantly got my attention.

I'm not much of a celebrity guy, but it was funny all the little encounters I had during the day:

I had a nice long conversation with Justine Bateman who I grew up watching on Family Ties and who is now doing great stuff with her production company FM78. We compared some war stories about how hard it is to get executives to understand this space.
I was editing this photo of Tom Green when in my ear I heard, "Is that really what my hair looks like today?" and I turned around and it was Tom Green doing the asking. He is everything you'd imagine him being and then some. He left me to go over and check out all the technology powering the stream from Revision3.
Finally, I noticed at one point that Milo Ventimiglia was standing out in the hallway just chilling so I went up and said hi. I think I surprised him a little when of all the projects I could mention to him I lead with It's a Mall World. We chatted for a couple of minutes and he introduced me to his producer from Divide Pictures.

All in all it was a really powerful event. I wish that there were more success stories and examples presented, but perhaps next year we'll have more of that.

It was great to hear so many people talk about how the media landscape is changing, but it wasn't so great to hear that so few have figured out how to monetize. I guess if I was to look for a silver lining about this it would be that no one has fully figured it out so it isn't just the independent little guy and girl who can't make a living doing this quite yet.

I was also very impressed by Al Gore and everything he has going on at Current right now. I knew he was a great speaker, but seeing him in person was extra cool. For some reason we were not allowed to take photos during his speech, which is why you won't see any here.

The entire event was steamed live and I know that a lot of people were watching from their homes and offices based on the comments throughout the day. I've had more then one person ask me if any of the content will be archived and available to view at some point and I've been told that "it is being worked on." I'm sure that if and when some clips are the first place to find out will be @TheThirdAct twitter account.

I hope I get a chance to attend next year. I left psyched about the future of this space. (not that I wasn't already *grin*)