A session entitled “The Blockchain Wave: What Might this Technology do for - and to - the Media Industry,” will be featured during Media Outlook 2019, a seminar offered by Media Financial Management Association (MFM).
Scheduled for Wednesday, September 12, from 7:30 a.m. to noon at the mid-town Manhattan offices of Lowenstein Sandler (1251 Avenue of the Americas), the educational seminar will address the top challenges and opportunities facing media companies in the coming year.
Moderated by Richard Taub, the session’s panelists are Andrew Levine, content director of Steemit and a member of the team that developed the Steemit Blockchain; Peter McAliney, Ph.D., executive director of continuing and professional education at Montclair State University (MSU) and 30-year veteran in implementing new technologies at private sector organizations; and Prakash Santhana, managing director of Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics and co-leader of Deloitte’s blockchain and cryptocurrency community.
“Blockchain technology is being recognized for its potential to streamline many of the transactional processes inherent in media business operations, from buying and selling advertising to facilitating payments for licensed content,” said Mary M. Collins, president & CEO of MFM and BCCA, the media industry’s credit association. “As its title suggests, this featured session at Media Outlook 2019 will provide the industry’s financial management executives with valuable insights on how to harness the technology’s potential for improving the effectiveness of core business functions and enhancing their competitiveness in an increasingly automated ecosystem.”
About the blockchain panelists:
Andrew Levine is a member of the core team of developers behind the Steem blockchain, the first decentralized content management system on a blockchain and the only one which autonomously distributes cryptocurrency rewards to anyone who creates a free account and contributes valuable content. To date, the Steem blockchain has distributed over $40 million in rewards to its 1 million + accounts. Levine currently serves as content director for Steemit.com, a social blogging platform built on the Steem blockchain. Beforehand, from 2012 to 2016, Levine served as founder and principal architect of GiverHub, the first online social network to integrate a cryptocurrency. Levine previously worked in the real estate sector, where he served as general counsel for Hudson View Associates.
Peter McAliney, Ph.D., is executive director of continuing and professional education at Montclair State University (MSU), the second largest public university in New Jersey (USA). Prior to his work at MSU, Dr. McAliney spent thirty years in the private sector, where he focused on the application of technology in financial services, utilities, supply chain, manufacturing, media, and healthcare. He continues to advise senior leadership in designing organizations to accommodate the requirements of provisioning a 21 century workforce.
Prakash Santhana a managing director in Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP and leads Payments Risk & Integrity for financial services, retailers, and service providers. He also co-leads the Deloitte blockchain and cryptocurrency community. For more than 20 years, Santhana has worked in the fraud/risk management groups of large credit card issuers and payment startups. In his current role at Deloitte, he also focuses on deploying the blockchain infrastructure for entities across different sectors and is the inventor of an out-of-band mobile fraud prevention solution to help card-issuers combat non-face-to-face fraud worldwide.
Session moderator Richard Taub a chartered financial analyst (CFA), currently serves as managing director of the Pequan Group. A past chair of MFM’s board of directors, Taub was senior vice president of broadcast and digital services for Media Audits International from 2014 until earlier this year. Beforehand, he spent 20 years working with television programming networks on their distribution and financial capitalization strategies, including serving as senior vice president and chief operating officer (CFO) of Vme Media Inc., a Grupo Priso Company, from 2010 to 2013.
About Media Outlook 2019:
The registration fee for the event is $99 for individual members of MFM, and $79 for MFM corporate members. Non-members pay a $250 registration fee that includes a one-year trial membership (a savings of up $304). These rates will increase by $25 for registrations received after September 7. MFM is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. Media Outlook 2019 attendees will be eligible to earn up to four (4) CPE credits. A registration form and additional information concerning the event may be online at www.mediafinance.org/media-outlook.
About MFM and BCCA:
Media Financial Management Association (MFM) is the premiere resource for financial professionals for media industry education, networking, and information sharing throughout the U.S. and Canada. More information about MFM is available on its website and via its updates on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. Its BCCA subsidiary serves as the media industry’s credit association. BCCA’s revenue management services encompass a variety of credit reports on national and local media advertisers, including Media Whys, a credit report for media businesses which offers a credit score based on industry-specific aging combined with trade data from Experian or D+B. More information about BCCA is available at www.bccacredit.com as well as its updates on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter.
