Talk: Pre-Visualizing a Road for Financing and Expansion
Speaker: Chris Edwards, CEO & Creative Director, The Third Floor, Inc.

For most leaders in our community, offshore competition and tax credits have already affected their traditional business models. Meanwhile, for those who want to pivot or grow their businesses, the scarcity of financing has presented an additional set of ever-growing challenges. The Third Floor’s Chris Edwards describes his decision to expand the pre-viz company into the Chinese market along with his expectations for that venture and the lessons learned so far. He also explains how his team has turned rapid prototyping into a tool for his clients to raise capital and pre-sell films (and other entertainment projects).

Talk: Reactive Content Creation
Speaker: Richard Chuang, CEO and Founder, Cloudpic

As a co-founder of Pacific Digital Image and a recipient of a Scientific and Technical Academy Award, Richard Chuang was at the forefront of creating the graphics technology and systems that were used to create the Shrek series of animated films as well as landmark VFX films such as "Batman Forever." After leaving DreamWorks, he had the insight that content creators would need to service individuals instead of an audience, and a world of connected mobile users would demand content that is reflective of the speed and convenience of the consumer. Instead of creating compelling content in years and months, the timeframe for production is now hours and minutes. Richard will discuss how he and his team at Cloudpic are building the tools and advising clients to entertain this new audience by pushing the limits of the creative process.

Partnering With Academia
Speaker: Mark Bolas, Associate Director, USC Institute for Creative Technologies

While R&D departments have been substantially reduced or eliminated at most VFX facilities and game developers, research in academia continues to thrive. More importantly, many researchers are hungry to partner with industry to drive their work beyond the lab to ensure it has impact long after publication. Mark Bolas of the USC’s Institute for Creative Technology will provide a crash course as to how researchers approach industry partners, what our attendees need to know to successfully collaborate, and how companies small and large can leverage and integrate R&D into their businesses to help differentiate themselves.

Crash Course: Building the Symposium Community with Intro Networks
Speaker: Mark Sylvester, CEO, IntroNetworks

As we look to build a community that benefits Business Symposium attendees well after the conference, we have partnered with IntroNetworks to bring our attendees the same software that NASA, TED, and the Clinton Global Initiative use to help their attendees develop meaningful business connections with other attendees throughout the year. Mark Sylvester (a co-founder of Wavefront Technologies) will give a crash course on how symposium attendees can use their smartphones to get the most out of IntroNetwork’s unique technology before, during, and until the next Symposium. (We encourage all attendees to complete a profile at IntroNetworks.com as soon as they register for the symposium.)

Optional Workshop: Executive Mentoring
Speaker: Robert C. Berger, Principal, Robert C. Berger Consulting

In listening to our attendee feedback last year, we learned that while there are many events for executive networking, the opportunities to develop leadership skills are few. With this in mind, this year the symposium is pleased to introduce an opt-in opportunity to participate in a mentoring program as a mentor, a mentee, or both. Bob Berger, ACM SIGGRAPH’s Organization Development and Leadership Consultant, along with our partner IntroNetworks, will provide a framework for establishing and supporting mentoring relationships among our attendees.

At registration, attendees will be able to sign up to attend the Mentoring Information and Mentoring Networking sessions. The information session will provide a brief summary of best practices for mentors and mentees, and an overview of the support provided by the SIGGRAPH Business Symposium mentoring program after the conference. The Mentoring Networking session will provide an opportunity to meet with others interested in the program to find potential matches based on common interests and objectives. If you are interested in participating in the program, please be sure to complete your IntroNetworks profile prior to the symposium or bring 10 copies of a short (one-page) bio describing your professional career, interests, and goals to share during the Mentoring Network session.

About SIGGRAPH 2013

SIGGRAPH 2013 will bring thousands of computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from five continents to Anaheim, California for the industry's most respected technical and creative programs focusing on research, science, art, animation, music, gaming, interactivity, education, and the web from Sunday, 21 July through Thursday, 25 July 2013 at the Anaheim Convention Center. SIGGRAPH 2013 includes a three-day exhibition of products and services from the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from 23-25 July 2013. More details are available at SIGGRAPH 2013 or on Facebook and Twitter.

About ACM SIGGRAPH