TiE-ISB Connect 2006 - New Media and Entertainment Track Summary

Track Chair – Sadhna Seelam

Key Note Speaker – Prem Akkaraju (Sanctuary Artist Management)

Panellists – Rajesh Jog (Waygate Capital)

Rana Daggubati (Suresh Productions)

Alok Kejriwal (Contests2win.com)

Raj Atluri (DFJ)

Rahul Khanna (Clearstone)

Sekhar Kammula (Film Director)

Introduced as “The Classic blonde who dyes her hair black”, Ms. Sadhana Seelam, started the track with a short brief on an accomplished panel from the industry.

The talk actually centred along the line of new opportunities in media as an emerging industry, and also the technologies that would be replaced because of the evolution of the same. The point of debate therefore was would earlier modes of entertainment and media go extinct as a result of the evolution or would be sustain itself by complimenting the emerging trends.

There was one school of thought amongst the panellists which was a strong proponent of newer means of media like Internet, Mobile and Gaming. This was met with staunch views on the fact that there yet exists an elderly demographic that are still impacted by the traditional means of media like Television and Radio.

Prem Akkaraju, the key note speaker for the track, brought out the importance of evolving media tools like interactive marketing and music in a statistically rich presentation. He was ably supported by Alok Kejriwal, who attributed the success of his projects at Contests2win.com to interactive and consumer participative marketing.

One of the most candid speakers for the day was Mr. Sekhar Kammula, who stressed on the importance of relevant and consumer focused content in the media industry as opposed to the drive for monetary success. He highlighted the need to maintain the “Indianess” factor in the media and entertainment industry.

Rahul Khanna shed some light on the potential of the gaming industry and ably supported his stance with facts and figures.

Rajesh Jog brought a different perspective in a discussion which was interspersed with views conflicting with those held by others on the panel, conviction and a good sense of humor. He believes that the thought that the forms of new media displace the old is baseless and not true. Also while the concept of short content seems to be gaining importance, he feels that it is important for it to be revisited for relevance of content.

Raj Atluri reiterated the gaining importance of the media and entertainment industry from the perspective of a venture capitalist. He mentioned how despite being discounted as an area of investment, new media has now gone against the traditional views to actually sky rocket towards to an unexpected level. Justifying this statement was the fact that 15% of the investments across the world happen in the new media and entertainment industry.

We also had on the panel, Rana Dagubatti, who has seen his production house evolve from a traditional film content provider in to a enterprise also involved in the gaming and animation industry.

One topic of concurrence between all speakers for the day was the identification of a tipping point in any industry from an Indian context. Given the threshold at which the Indian media industry stands right now, this thought is best summarized by an excerpt from Prem Akkaraju’s the key note statement:

“There is no better time than NOW in India to capitalize and the future looks even better.”

Posted by Mahesh Shenoy