The highly-anticipated 2025 Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) Tech Retreat will celebrate three decades of influence this year, with an extensive schedule of activities and an exceptional round-up of experts and presentations.
Registration is open for the Retreat which takes place February 16 to 20, 2025, at the Westin Rancho Mirage Golf Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, California. For three decades, the HPA Tech Retreat has been known for its in-depth and inventive approach to covering the critical topics facing the media creation industry. The Retreat is an uncommon gathering of thought leaders, technology trendsetters and creatives who gather in a non-marketing setting to discuss and explore the most important topics that face the industry during 4-plus days of sessions, roundtable discussions, conversation and technology demonstrations.
The HPA Tech Retreat consistently sells out well in advance of the event and registration is expected to reach capacity quickly; securing a spot is highly recommended. Attendance is strictly capped to foster an atmosphere that promotes discussion, debate, and connection.
Over the carefully curated days, Retreat programming takes on areas of crucial interest to the industry: TR-X (Monday) will focus on Affordable Production, Supersession (Tuesday) for which details will be announced shortly, and Wednesday and Thursday’s program, detailed here. The complete schedule is available here.
Mark Schubin has been a guiding vision of HPA Tech Retreat programming for more than 20 years. As ever, he brought his knowledge and unique perspective to the program, commenting, “There are topics that make us pace the floor. As they always do, things in our industry are changing, and there’s concern and interest in that change. We got more submissions than ever this year and the committee was impressed with not just the number, but the sheer quality of those submissions. Of course, AI is a consistent thread, but there is so much more, voices from the music industry and live events, sports, pure explorations of storytelling, business cases and cloud workflows all showed up. There was an abundance of riches. Reading these proposals is an honest behind-the-curtain view of what is happening in our industry and from those, we’ve come up with what I think is a bang-up program.”
HPA Tech Retreat programming opens on the morning of Monday, February 17th, as the doors open for the Innovation Zone and the Welcome Brunch. TR-X follows in the afternoon. Details for the HPA Supersession, set for Tuesday, February 18, will be announced shortly.
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Sessions for Wednesday and Thursday’s program include the following:
Wednesday, February 19
What CES 2025 Means for the Media Industry
- Mark Harrison, DPP
What do CTOs really think? Key findings from the DPP Media CTO Survey
- Mark Harrison and Rowan de Pomerai, DPP
Deploying an UltraHD Broadcast Experience Through HDR and SDR Infrastructures
- Moderator: Michael Zink, LG Electronics and the Ultra HD Forum
- Panelists: Bill Baggelaar, UHD Alliance; Annie Chang, Universal Pictures
Joshua Pines Opines
- Josh Pines, Picture Shop
Is the industry sitting on an AI goldmine or a ticking time bomb?
- Rich Welsh, Deluxe
How entrepreneurs can successfully launch, fund, and grow a start-up tech company in the M&E sector utilizing advanced technologies including AI
- Moderator: Ethan Jacks, MediaBridge Capital Advisors
Behind the Screens: Pushing the Boundaries of Live Entertainment at Sphere
- Moderator: Jonathan Martin, WEKA
Live Event Tech: Tours, Festivals & Residencies – IMAG to Streaming
- Moderator: Mark Chiolis, Mobile TV Group
- Panelists: Jim Toten; Jeff Carman
Olympics Open and Coverage 2024: Advancing Live Production Technology
- Renard Jenkins, I2A2 Technologies, Studios & Labs
AI in Live Sports Production: IBM and Wimbledon’s Sustainable Tech Revolution
- Barbara Lange, Kibo121
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment’s Journey in Adopting Video Foundation Models for Content Creation
- Ryan Khurana, MLSE; Travis Couture, Twelve Labs
Harnessing Gen AI to Elevate Accessibility, Inclusivity, and Compliance in Media, Entertainment, and Sports
- Carin Forman, AWS
Re-Thinking Fast Turnaround Workflows for the Cloud
- Chris Swan, AWS UK
Transforming Archives into Active Content Libraries: Unlocking the Potential of Legacy Media
- Moderator: Soyoung Lee, Twelve Labs
- Panelist: Heidi Shakespeare, Memnon Archive Services
Thursday, February 20
Navigating the New Normal: Production Trends and Industry Shifts in TV and Film
- Alex LoVerde, ProdPro
AI Was Not the Great Disrupter
- Moderator: John Footen, Deloitte Consulting
- Panelists: Jason Williamson, Deloitte Consulting; Seth Hallen
Love Hurts – But It Doesn’t Have to in the Cloud!
- Moderator: Annie Chang, Universal Pictures
Harmonizing Virtual Production and Visual Effects
- Mathieu Mazerolle, Foundry
Understanding the Threat Landscape of AI Workflows in Localization, Digital Film, and Dubbing
- Mathew Gilliat-Smith, ConvergentDS
- Panelists: Ben Stanbury, The Walt Disney Studios; Keith Ritlop, ConvergentDS (formerly Disney, NBCU, Fox)
Standards, SMPTE, and ISO
- Sally-Ann D’Amato, SMPTE
- Panelists: Thomas Bause Mason, SMPTE; Renard Jenkins, I2A2 Technologies, Studios & Labs; Andy Maltz, General Intelligence
From Stone Age to Screen Age: The Epic Tale of Visual Storytelling
- Seth Hallen and Alan Lasky
AI Applications in Media Workflows
- Moderator: Thomas True, NVIDIA
Bridging the Uncanny Valley: Artificial Individual Intelligence (Aii)
- Dave Ginsberg and Jerry Rees, Artificial Individual Intelligence
Shaping Stories with Media Intelligence: From Search to Storytelling
- Morgan Prygrocki, Adobe
How Do I Deal With All These Live Streams?
- Chris Lennon, Ross Video
Media Cyber Security and Trust
- Hans Hoffmann, European Broadcasting Union
Vid2Vec: The First AI-Driven “Narrative Grammar” for Film & TV
- Yves Bergquist, Entertainment Technology Center – USC Cinematic Arts
Creative Flow or Friction? Exploring Artists’ Emotional and Cognitive Responses to AI in Media Production
- Renard Jenkins, Clayton Moser, I2A2 Technologies, Studios & Labs
- Panelist: Holly Beavon, Fielding Graduate University
Post-Retreat Treat: The “Ghost Army” That Fooled Hitler
- Anne Brooker-Grogan and Ed Grogan
