Now that the #Eclipse is over, back to our regularly scheduled Monday!
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TODAY!
Monday August 21, 7p
CTRL Collec
tive Playa Vista
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LA is a hot spot for successful subscription-based businesses but overcoming obstacles in customer acquisition, fulfillment and new product sourcing can be a real challenge. Chat with local experts as they discuss how they came to build a concept, find customers and ultimately, ship to their first subscriber, engage fans, build community, grow internationally and more.
REGISTER http://subscriptionla.eventbrite.com
SCHEDULED SPEAKERS
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- Lucy Liu, FabFitFun, Director of Product. FabFitFun members receive a glam gift box stuffed with over $200+ in full-size beauty, fashion, fitness, tech, and home essentials. The fast-growing subscription service reaches hundreds of thousands of women in the US and Canada, and the editorial content, videos, and social posts entertain millions of women around the world each month.
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Sean Kelly, SnackNation, Founder. SnackNation delivers healthy snacks from innovative food companies to employers so their employees can have healthy snack options while at work. Employers sign up to order a monthly box including a rotating selection of bars, chips, jerky, granola, trail mix, dried fruit and more, customized for office snacking preference. Each box contains 150 single-serve snacks, starting at $249 per month. @snacknation
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Matt Gallagher, Watch Gang, CEO. WatchGang delivers mystery timepieces to over 15,000 subscribers once a month. With membership levels starting at $25, WatchGang allows casual enthusiasts and committed devotees to own new watches at a value that exceeds their monthly cost. WatchGang generates over #1 million dollars in monthly revenue with 13 full time hires in its Studio City headquarters.
REGISTER:
http://subscriptionla.eventbrite.com
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Monday, August 28, 7-9:30p
CTRL Collective Playa Vista
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In our next monthly VR panel series, we focus on VR Games. Join us for this discssion where industry experts will discuss how to design and develop games in VR. We will discuss why you would make a game in VR as opposed to other environments, how game VR is similar and different from first person shooter and other point of view games, how scoring mechanics and objectives differ in an immersive world, how to best handle interactivity with the game, and more with games VR experts.
SCHEDULED SPEAKERS so far
- Eric W. Shamlin, Secret Location, SVP Managing Director
- Adam Sullivan, Square Enix, Director, Head of Business & Legal Affairs
- Penaka Kouvena, composer, The Mummy VR
CALL FOR SPEAKERS: If you have a Game VR already out on the market with insights to share, email info@digitalla.net with GAMES as subject.
REGISTER http://vrgamesla.eventbrite.com
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LA Tech News
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HollyShorts Film Festival
concluded this weekend with its closing party on Saturday featuring a keynote with director Brett Ratner (photo right). The festival included short film
screenings, panels, and nightly parties at TCL Chinese Theatres and nearby
venues. Our founder Kevin Winston moderated the Web Series panel on Wednesday, featuring several short filmmakers an more.
At the Project Greenlight digital pitch, filmmaker Matt Hayes' web series pitch won $5K, and a meeting with Project Greenlight and Adaptive Studios. See our article recap of the festival including digital, VR, AR in films.
Disney quits Netflix. Disney will launch its on streaming service in two years, stop Netflix distribution of its content
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Disney and The VOID launch Star Wars VR experience. Disney and The VOID announced launch of Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire VOID VR experience at Disneyland and Disney World later this year. In the experience, you will be able to look around in VR, socially interact with friends, and touch objects. The experience will be venue-based VR at Downtown Disney, replacing the Vault 28 art gallery and Fossil. It likely be a $20+ experience, open to the public, not requiring theme park admission. See
THR article. That was quick! We predicted a Star Wars / Disney / Marvel branded VOID experience right after the VOID was announced as a Disney Accelerator company.
SIGGRAPH Panels, Show Floor, Parties
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Thousands attended the annual SIGGRAPH conference in downtown LA this week. The digital animation conference featured panels on the VFX of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2, Spider-Man Homecoming, and Overwatch animated features; VR demos and exhibits on the show floor, and parties by AMD, Pixar RenderMan, and more.
Our SIGGRAPH coverage includes:
- Overview: panels, show, parties
- VFX of Guardians 2 panel on making Rocket, Baby Groot, and Ego's Red Planet
- Overwatch Animated Shorts on how the Blizzard team created six shorts based on its popular game
- AMD announced AMD Studios to connect to Hollywood to make sure its CPUs and GPUs and cloud servers meet Hollywood filmmakers and game publishers needs.
- Our Digital LA mixer connected VFXers at the award-winning CTRL Collective DTLA
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JOBS
Get or post a job on our job board http://digitalla.net/jobs
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NEW: AdvertiseMent is looking for a
Digital Marketing Manger in SaMo
- Universal Music Group looking for a
Director of Interactive Media
Digital LA Association Launches
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Powered by Venice-based startup Purple Squirrel, the Digital LA Association is a unique networking and employee referral platform that helps job seekers hack the job search by connecting with insiders (instead of recruiters) at top companies.
If you already have a job, join and earn $ by meeting with job seekers, or donate to charity or meet for free:
https://digitalla.purplesquirrel.io/why
https://digitalla.purplesquirrel.io/why
If you are looking for a job, you can sign up to schedule meetings with advocates who work at LA tech companies, Silicon Beach startups and Hollywood studios and agencies
https://digitalla.purplesquirrel.io/signup
https://digitalla.purplesquirrel.io/signup
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OUR RECENT EVENTS
Esports: LA is epicenter for publishers, teams, events
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Esports athletes can make $50K - $300K a year, with more including brand deals, and winning championship prize money, like the $24M at the recent Doda 2 tournament, said esports experts at our first Digital LA - Esports panel at CTRL Collective in Playa Vista. Speaker included Noah Whinston, CEO of The Immortals, a top LA-based team, Brian Kim of Damage agency which helps traditional sports companies and brands work with esports athletes, and Darren Yan of Everyday Influencers which helps place Twitch streamers, YouTubers and esports players in games and mainstream publications like Rolling Stone. Esports is rapidly growing, with increased prize money, sponsorship dollars and attendees at tournaments. Panel highlights, photos, and video of top esports trends in our
article.
Hollywood Movie Marketing: VR, AR, VFX, Superheroes
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At our post-Comic-Con pre-SIGGRAPH panel on Wed, speakers from Fandango, VNTANA, 8i and Framestore,
discussed how Hollywood studios are increasingly partnering with digital companies to provide never-been-done-before content, AR, VR and VFX for superhero movies and other projects.
AR company VNTANA has even developed "Hologram Best Practices"! Yes what a time to be alive! See how these companies create AR holograms, VR, VFX, and other
digital
campaigns to promote superhero and other movies. Article. Video.
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Our Digital LA - Anime PokeParty.
We celebrated the one-year anniversary of Pokemon Go with our Anime PokeParty during Anime Expo.
We celebrated with Pokemon Go Club LA, Cuddli dating app, and Bionic Buzz at CTRL Collective DTLA. Attendees chose red, yellow or blue trainer candy, dressed up, played Jenga, and compared notes on Anime Expo. Pokemon Go
remains one of the most downloaded game apps ever, with hordes of Pokemon trainers packing parks and piers around the world. The app made AR mainstream, and has helped AR companies raise funding, because people are familiar with AR now. Companies are using AR in movie marketing, like the Spider-Man Homecoming app, where you can use the AR Suit Explorer to make Spider-Man appear next to you and your friends.
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AR Panel: Augmented reality experts discussed AR applications, games, access and revenue models after Pokemon Go at our Digital LA - AR panel at IgnitedSpaces in Hollywood last night. Ben Conway of VNTANA discussed creating branded HOLLA-gram kiosks at events that fans can interact with to make videos sharable on social media. VNTANA has created hollo-grams with Marvel Disney to wear Doctor Strange's cape, and with Spongebob Squarepants to throw him a football at the Super Bowl. Drew Minock described how DAQRI's AR helmets help construction workers learn maintenance and repairs. Josephine Munis of Candy Labs AR creates location based AR games using GPS, or beacons when there's no wifi/service. She said that for her Texas Rope 'Em location based AR card game, she asked her engineer to create three card stops near our panel so people could play. Philippe Lewicki of AfterNow described AR as part of a mixed reality continuum, exemplified by his Microsoft Hololens egg hunt demoed at VRLA Expo. Allyson Cunha of Image Metrics described creating face-filter digital makeover apps, working with L'Oreal and other cosmetics brands. See our summary
article and what speakers are most excited about in the future of AR in this
FB video.
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Digital LA in Hawaii. We talked drones, clean tech and LA - Hawaii tech connections at our second Silicon Beach meet Startup Paradise: Digital LA - Aloha Digital Drinks at the Moana Surfrider Beach Bar in Waikiki on
Wednesday. We enjoyed sunset views of Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head, as we ate poke nachos and sipped strawberry pina coladas and mai-tais.
Attendees included a digital branding agency based in Santa Monica that just opened up an office in Hawaii; Samantha Kimsey, Program Director at Computational Thinkers, which teaches programming courses in Hawaii; and developer who's done work for Sony Pictures, Riot Games and Dog Vacay. We also talked
future LA - Hawaii tech connections. See our article with upcoming Hawaii Creative Lab bootcamp and details to get involved at http://digitalla.net/aloha
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Our Digital LA - EdTech panel featured Silicon Beach startups discussing tech sites and apps, and tech and entrepreneurship tools at schools and universities. Panelists described AI, AR, and VR applications for EdTech. Thanks speakers from CreatorUp, Flocabulary, Cue Career, GoGuardian, and LMU Leeds student group. See our
article and video including Flocabulary's Ike Ramos' history/geology
rap that got panelists standing up and audience clapping along (can we do music raps at all our panels?) in the last five minutes of this
video
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HR Tech Panel.
We hosted LA's first panel on HR Tech with speakers from Hired, ZipRecruiter, Comparably, Purple Squirrel and TriNet on how to create and develop tools, platforms, and apps for
recurring
and comparing salaries, and recruiting, as well as HR operations.
We also discussed how to get a job and find talent in Silicon Beach. Thanks to Hired for sponsoring, and CTRL Collective for hosting.
Article.
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Silicon Beach Meets Silicon Valley.
We discussed how tech ecosystems in LA, SF and San Diego can increase communication at our panel at WeWork Golden Gate in San Francisco. Speakers included Cam Kashani of CoAccel, Matt Kosko of Service, Tim Ryan of Lab Fellows and Desirae of Rewardopoly discussed what they do, and increased communication of tech ecosystems in LA, San Francisco, and San Diego. Many LA and SD startups go to SF for investors or accelerator programs.
Article
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Digital LA - Meet the New Funds panel
Investment dollars continue to pour into LA, with the launch of several new VC funds already in 2017.
While the funds are new, the VCs have extensive experience investing in LA Tech and Silicon Beach.
VCs shared info about their funds and advice for investors at our Digital LA - Meet the new VC Funds panel at CTRL Collective in Playa Vista.
Speakers gave 10 Dos and Don'ts for startup founders looking for funding - see
article
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Digital LA - VR Access panel. Our VR experts described 15 ways to increase access to VR for mainstream, women and kids, diversity groups and more at our Digital LA - VR Access panel at CTRL Collective Playa Vista.
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Women Gamers panel. Thanks to our Digital LA - Women Gamers speakers for an inspirational discussion! Seven top game influencers described how they started to game for a living, build their audiences, engage fans, and work with brands. Thanks LolRenaynay, Mari, Emuhleet, Brizzy Voices, Amber Plaster, Briana White, and LilyPichu. Watch entire panel via our
Periscope. Article soon
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LA is the #1 city for dating apps and online dating, with a large number of single, busy, attractive people who like to date frequently.
LA's online dating companies help people connect from short term dates to long term relationships.
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Our Digital LA - Music Startups panel featured speakers from Techstars and Silicon Beach music startups. Music investment and startups are slowly coming back pianissimo, focusing on revenue from music services transactions and subscriptions, rather than actual song licensing. In LA, Troy Carter's SMASHD Labs accelerator had some music startups. And new Techstars Music accelerator will invest $1.2M in its first class of expected 10 startups to be announced later this month. After our panel, band
FOXTRAX, an official SXSW 2017 showcase band,
performed
. See our highlights recap in our
article.
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Chinese investors have increased interest in Silicon Beach, especially in entertainment, AR/VR, influencer data, and more, said speakers at our annual Chinese - LA Tech panel to celebrate Lunar New Year, held at Cross Campus Downtown LA. Speakers included Jiyuan Hu of ArcheMatrix Investment Group, and Stella Poon of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. Speakers discussed how startups can open operations in Hong Kong as a gateway to expanding into China. Silicon Beach startup Milk & Honey custom shoes did just that before founder Dori Howard sold it. We also talked what's hot in China, including eSports, games, and more, in our
article.
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Digital LA - Digital Health is increasing in LA and worldwide, said speakers at our annual Digital Health panel, timed to New Years health and fitness resolutions. Attendees included startups, PR, developers, and a cardiologist at CTRL Collective Playa Vista. See our
article.
Since our Digital Health panel last January, Techstars Cedars-Sinai Healthcare Accelerator has invested more than $1.2M in 11 startups. Eight of them were from the LA area. Techstars held a demo day with 600 attendees at the Wallis Annenberg Performing Arts Center in Beverly Hills, the largest digital health event in LA, with physicians, health and HMO administrators, entrepreneurs and more. Nearly all of the 11 startups announced deals with Cedars-Sinai hospital or affiliates at the demo day.
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Silicon Beach Fest celebrated 5th anniversary
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Thanks to speakers, sponsors, volunteers, organizers, vendors, and attendees for making our fifth summer Silicon Beach Fest such a success! Several attendees said and tweeted they found the panel topics that continued into engaging hallway and mixer conversations both information-packed and inspiring. Watch for our Silicon Beach Fest one-day event this fall.
Read article with SBF HIGHLIGHTS
Kitterly wins SBF Startup Showcase 2016 Title
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Kitterly won the Silicon Beach Fest Startup Showcase 2016 title. The crafting site is an alum of 500 Startups, and is founded by Mari Bower, CEO. Kitterly wins the prize package including the SBF 2016 title, $5,000 courtesy Media Temple, a Surf Air flight to its California destinations, two Air New Zealand tickets on its LA - London route, ten hours transactional legal services from Sheappard Mullin, and three months membership at CTRL Collective, at either its Playa Vista or new Downtown location (for a tour email tm@ctrlcollective.com) . Kitterly was first of the 20 startups pitched at the Silicon Beach Fest 2016 Startup Showcase. Five judges choice and one audience choice advanced to the finals on Friday. The six finalists were: Kitterly, Markett, Heal (doctor on demand), Heartbeat (women millennial marketing network), Canny (cannabis directory), and audience choice Vampr (music networking). Markett, an on demand marketing company that is part of Amplify accelerator, placed second. Watch the Friday Final pitches in this replay video.
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Silicon Beach Fest receives Certificate of Recognition from LA Mayor Eric Garcetti. At Downtown Day on Monday, Office of LA Mayor Eric Garcetti city officials presented Silicon Beach Fest founder Kevin Winston with a Certificate of Recognition, on the 5th annivesary of Silicon Beach Fest this year (photo right). Then, LA City Officials described the Mayor's tech initiatives, including attracting tech companies to move to LA, open data hackathons, digital divide programs, opportunities for startups to bid on city projects, and a huge job fair in January, which Jason Nazar is spearheading as LA City Entrepreneur In Residence.
