Innovation
SummiT
PROGRAM GUIDE
Our Urbanworld Innovation Summit convenes industry experts sharing insights on the evolving landscape of content creation, financing, distribution, and marketing, all through the lens of digital opportunity.
October 27 – 28, 2022
DAY 1
All Day – Hudson A
Ally Activation
Ally Financial presents a bespoke Creators Studio Experience
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Plug in and Power up with new creator technology, tools and solutions with financial experts and creative collaborators.
Screening Room 1
Ally Film + Finance Panel
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The Future of Film Finance for Filmmakers and Creatives – Demetrius Scott, Ally’s director of Corporate Citizenship, will moderate a discussion on new and effective ways to finance films post pandemic. He will be joined by entertainment industry executives who will weigh in on the new financial tools and strategies advancing production and distribution for today’s storytellers.
Moderator: Demetrius Scott- Director, Corporate Citizenship, Ally Financial
Panelists: Ramfis Myrthil, JC Barros
Screening Room 2
Future of Short Docs Panel
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The rise of short documentaries as a tool for effective storytelling, social impact and innovative collaboration with journalists and filmmakers is a deep study in long term strategy. The leaders of venerable filmmaker networks and media leader LA Times discuss opportunities, strategies and historic drivers in the advancement of short documentaries and their creators.
Featured Guests:
Leslie Lindsey
LA Times
Cynthia López
New York Women in Film & Television
Leslie Fields-Cruz
Black Public Media
Cecilia R. Mejia
NYU
Monika Navarro
Firelight Media
Screening Room 1
Visa Fireside Chat + Premiere of “Anyone Can Change the Game”
A brand documentary created by Visa and Urbanworld
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Intimate conversation with Mary Ann Reilly, Head of North American Marketing and Sharese Bullock-Bailey, Chief Innovation Officer at Urbanworld, in conversation around storytelling, technology and the world premiere of “Anyone Can Change the Game” a brand documentary created by Visa and Urbanworld.
Screening Room 2
Visa FinTech Pitch Competition
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VISA and URBANWORLD will provide a stage to promote local best in class, Multicultural and/or LGBTQ FinTech founders and entrepreneurs. The pitch competition provides financing and feedback from a panel of jurors and stakeholders from Visa and the Venture Capital Community. Five finalists take the stage and pitch for a chance to win $25K in investment support from Visa.
Finalists:
Demetrius Curry
College Cash
Su Sanni
Dollaride
Calvin Williams, Jr.
Freeman Capital
Reed Switzer
Hopscotch
Eli Farhood
Katsh Digital ID
Screening Room 1
Adventr
Lab Rat – Interactive World Premiere
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A groundbreaking interactive film in which the audience is part of the experience. An unsuspecting medical volunteer participates in a neurotechnology experiment, being controlled by the film’s audience. When the experimental technology starts to go rogue, what will you do?
Screening Room 2
Stacy Spikes Presentation
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Stacy Spikes is an award-winning entrepreneur and inventor who USA Today named one of the 21 most influential Blacks in technology. He holds several technology patents and is the co-founder and CEO of the nation’s first theatrical subscription service, MoviePass. In addition, Spikes is the founder of Urbanworld, the largest international festival dedicated to nurturing Women and BIPOC filmmakers.
Spikes has a business memoir titled Black Founder, The Hidden Power of Being an Outsider on Kensington Press coming this fall.
Screening Room 1
Patronage vs. Consumption: The Power of NFTs for Artists
Ed Young and Kris Graves
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Ed Young, co-founder of the legendary The Source Magazine and creator of NFT.hiphop, is a tech entrepreneur focused on revolutionizing the role of technology in the publishing, marketing and entertainment industries. In this session we’ll explore the power (and potential pitfalls) of NFTs to help artists realize their full potential with Kris Graves, NatGeo photographer and Co-Founder of digital art collective Quantum Art.
Screening Room 2
The Feature Presentation Live Podcast
Powered by Urbanworld
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Storytelling expands through the power of voice and technology and podcasts have cleared the path for many new voices to be heard, globally. Urbanworld hosts its first ever live podcast with The Feature Presentation, hosted by DJ Suss One and Sharese Bullock-Bailey.
Featured Guests
Suha Araj- 150 and Overstand Artist, Nightmare on the H Page
Devo Harris- Founder of Adventr.io, Grammy Award Winning Producer
Kris Graves – NFT Artist and NatGeo Photographer
Ed Young – Co-Founder of The Source Magazine & Founder of NFT.hiphop
DAY 2
Hudson A
Ally Activation
Ally Financial presents a bespoke Creators Studio Experience
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Plug in and Power up with new creator technology, tools and solutions with financial experts and creative collaborators.
Screening Room
“Shake the Bank”
Chris Surrey & Branden Thompson featuring Nigel Caldon
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Chris Surrey, Executive Creative Director at Universal Orlando Resort and Branden Thompson, former Boeing electrical engineer turned multi-talented entrepreneur, bring their traveling pop-up style metaverse show (in development) to the stages of Urbanworld to talk all things Web3, metaverse and financial literacy. Nigel Caldon, Co-Founder of Ballstar joins as a guest.
Chris Surrey
Branden Thompson
Nigel Caldon
Screening Room 2
Urbanworld Screenwriting Staged Reading
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Urbanworld’s feature narrative screenplay competition and screenwriter-focused programming has supported emerging writers for decades. Four screenplays have been selected as finalists in this year’s competition from over 100 submissions. The Live Screenplay Readings event features professional actors performing in 10-15 minute excerpts of each finalist script. Key talent includes actress Persia White (GIRLFRIENDS), who will perform in her screenplay ADULT ADOLESCENT opposite Andrea Patterson (2022 Drama Desk Nominee). A moderated Q&A with the screenwriter finalists will follow the performance. For more on Urbanworld’s Official 2022 Screenplay Selections and the writers behind them, click here.
Screening Room 1
Web3 Storytelling & the Conscious Business of Content Creation
Ben Arnon, Carl Jones & Michelle Vincent (moderated by Chris Rodriguez)
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In this session, we explore innovations in storytelling across multiple platforms and the implementation of “conscious business” in content creation on the pathway to Web3.
Ben Arnon
Carl Jones
Michelle Vincent
Chris Rodriguez
1Hudson B/C
Deep Focus Luncheon
Presented by 
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Dive Deep with the experts from Black TV and Film Collective and Distribution Advocates in a workshop focusing on Distribution for independent storytellers and navigating festival season- Invitation Only.
Screening Room 2
The Stand
Presented by Overstand Partners
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The Stand is produced in partnership with Urbanworld Film Festival, we vet and select creative teams to engage with a curated group of committed investors. Investors and filmmakers have introductory meetings, providing a foundation for inquiry, relationship building and knowledge share. With the creative partnership of best in-class artists and partners, we will highlight an inclusive cohort of storytellers at a cultivation and live event, The Stand at Urbanworld 2022.
Featured Filmmakers
Native Sisters
Louisa Brown
Kat Croft
Kansas Begaye
SexYZ
Cecilia Mejia
Katrina Puertollano
Deuce Bolt: Father Eye Stretch My Hands
Timothy Offor
Ian McClellem
Screening Room 1
Tay Powers in Conversation with Asante Bradford & Hanifah Walidah
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Tay Powers–serial entrepreneur, DJ/Producer, and music executive–hosts this session with two of Georgia’s finest, Asante Bradford and Hanifah Walidah, who will discuss their shared interest in Web3 related content in music and entertainment.
Tay Powers
Asante Bradford
Hanifah Walidah
Screening Room 1
150 Presents: A First Look
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Warner Bros. Discovery is a powerful portfolio of iconic entertainment, news, and sports brands that brings people, technology, and the world’s best storytellers together to drive culture and meaningful connection.
As part of Warner Bros. Discovery, 150 develops innovative content to be leveraged across these brands.
150 PRESENTS will showcase presentations by the creative teams behind these projects on the mainstage during the Urbanworld Innovation Summit.
Projects:
gATES, created by Letitia Guillory
An adventurous skateboard kid cracks his head in the crossroads, opening the gates between the living and the dead, discovering his father is stuck between the worlds. Now, bullies aren’t the only ones chasing him up Brooklyn’s Gates Avenue as he struggles to maintain the balance, bring his father home, and save his neighborhood from doom.
Presentation of the series and on stage Live Interactive Demonstration with a key character from the show
The Girls Are Alright, created for Taylor K. Shaw for Black Women Animate
A millennial emo-comedy about four ambitious college girlfriends who share a Brooklyn brownstone in hopes of conquering the world together. As shit continues to get real, they quickly learn how hard adulting is.
Immersive pilot reading from the mainstage
Galaxy and the Greater Good, created by Dawn Lye-Gardner and Daniel Spurgeon for Black Women Animate
In a world gone #insane, 10-year-old scientist Galaxy sets out on a quest to learn the science & practices of happiness and teach them to her adopted 8-year-old sister Stella, who’s quarantined in the hospital with leukemia. Her one goal: to help her sister be happier.
Visual presentation of series proof of concept.
Screening Room 2
Mental Health & Wellness
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Managing creative and business life can present both opportunities and challenges, both energetically and emotionally. Model, actor, entrepreneur and wellness leader Sekou Carradine gives his personal testimony to staying successfully balanced as a creative multi-hyphenate and founder of We Have MS.
Sekou Carradine
Screening Room 2
The Download – Metaverse of Creative Careers
The Download Live presented by
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Join us as we discuss the many paths creatives can take to build a career in TV & Film! The conversation will be moderated by Emmy-nominated producer and director @OkemaTMoore.
Screening Room 1
Future of Sports Film
Featuring Osahon Tongo
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NFL Films Director and Producer Osahon Tongo always knew he’d make it to the NFL. This intimate conversation shines a light on the power of storytelling in sports and creative career planning. Tongo started out as a football player, and flipped the script by gaining an MFA from USC. View recent NFL Films projects and hear his story live.