We do have full videos and you will soon be able to see all of them. Until them here is a slide show of many different moments at >play.

It’s become clear to me over the past three years that >play is a totally unique event: an all-day party for digital media fanatics in the guise of an industry conference.

We had a special moment while planning this year during which we realized we’re not an industry conference (those multi-day, over-priced events in giant conference halls where everyone’s looking to sell something).  We’d been comparing our pricing to industry conferences, but suddenly realized we don’t need or care about the money: we want to attract the best and the brightest one day a year to catch up on all the changes from the previous year (April’s words from >play 2006 still ringing in my head).  Thanks to the incredibly generous support of our sponsors, we’re able to offer registration fees at a significant discount from per capita costs to run >play.  I hope every participant appreciates each sponsor’s support in making >play possible.

We are also not a conference designed specifically for students (although we do give them a break on registration fees - we’re students too so we understand the value of beer money).  We attract the professionals out there doing the real thing and making the people happy with the digital media technology.

To me, the surest sign of our success has been all the familiar faces in the crowd.  They’d had so much fun the year before - an annual dose of >play has become a staple in their lives.

It’s been such an honor and a pleasure to work with everyone involved in making this one day a year happen.  It’s amazing what we’ve been able to accomplish and I’m eternally grateful to our founders for the vision they had of DMEC and >play 2005.  DMEC has been my defining experience of grad school.  I’m continually blown away with the passion and organization of each of our members.  As thankful as I am to each of the organizers who took >play to the next level this year, I won’t attempt to mention each of them for fear of forgetting another.

I will offer one shout-out…as hard as we’ve all worked for the past few months, there’s one individual who’s been working hard for the past year and took the load upon her shoulders to make >play 2007 a success.  Without Myah’s leadership, there’s no doubt in my mind >play 2007 would not have happened.  Myah’s a remarkable talent - full of optimism, organizational perfection, and persistence.  I will miss being on her team and envy her future colleagues.  Here’s to you Myah!

There were several attendees at the >play conference today who did know that >play is completely conceived and managed by the Berkeley students. Quite a few people I talked to were really surprised that students can put together such a streamlined conference. A reporter from Current TV , Joslyn, said that looking at the professional quality of EXPO and panel setups she had assumed that we were all some professionals working for a fee or something.

Every bit of >play organization work was done by students, we set the agenda, the panels, selected the panelists and topics. The sponsors with their generous support trusted us fully and did not even try to nudge us in one way or other.

On a side note, Current TV is the famous Al Gore created TV. You should expect to see >play on it. I saw the reporters shooting interviews of panelists and EXPO exhibitors.

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At >play conference today, the advertising panel talked about the embedded Ads, the Ads that are somewhat embedded and integrated into the content. Do you feel turned off by those or do you like the cheekiness and the irreverence. AdBrite’s Phil Kaplan talked about the Taco Bell integrated into the World Series. In cases like these  people will see clearly these are Ads and won’t be confused about Ad and content but will we be turned off by this blurring of lines? Attik’s David Murphy opined that in your face advertising will soon die off but if the Ads are irreverent they capture people’s mind and imagination.  Here is the Taco Bell plug in World Series.

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I was running the microphone today at >play mobile panel’s Q&A session. I did not get to ask the question I was dying to ask our Nokia panelist. Tico was sitting next to Google Mobile’s Steve Lee. So is Google Nokia’s friend or foe?

I think definitely foe.
What do you think?

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Today at the >play conference, Mr. Rick Robinson of Sprint spoke about Xohm, Sprint’s WiMax effort. In answering to an audience question about walled gardens and the restricted access to mobile Internet, Mr. Robinson categorically said, “Xohm will teardown this wall. We will provide complete access to Internet from a WiMax enabled device”.
Sprint Nextel is clearly not afraid of being reduced to a bit-pipe (a reason most often attributed for the restricted Internet access from your phone). They are confident that a new content delivery model that is Ad supported, will let them earn from the Ad delivery and distribution.

It will be interesting how Nokia and Google’s Ad delivery to mobile will play into this. Google has the most effective Ad distribution system for Internet and will leverage it for mobile Internet. Nokia is taking all the steps necessary for Mobile Ad delivery and it is doing it mostly through acquisitions. Nokia’s new initiative “mosh” (short for Mobilize Sharing) was at display at the CTIA. When I talked to Nokia representative driving mosh at the CTIA, he said they have figured out a business model that delivers free content to the phones and supported by Ads. This Ad delivery is done using Enpocket’s framework. So what will Sprint’s Ad framework be?

As a side note, the way Mr.Robinson said it reminded me of President Reagan’s, “Mr.Gorbachev tear down this wall”.

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Mike Mohan won’t be holding back on today’s entertainment panel.  As a writer and director for monkeywithacamera.com, he has some heartfelt thoughts about the evolution of today’s content online.

My goal is to inspire people to remember that no matter what your role is in bringing some sort of content out into the world, there is an immense responsibility to the characters we create, and the more blinking things that take away from a user’s experience in enjoying that content, the more we are breeding a culture of disrespect.

I just read about a company finding ways to monetize their embedded clips from YouTube by adding ad banners on top of it.  Stuff like that actually makes me physically ill, because as a content creator you’re trying to give a user a very specific and controlled experience.   If you make a baby, and Budweiser will pay you 50 bucks to tattoo its logo on her forehead, would you do that?

Mike has some fantastic content on his site, and I’m looking forward to hearing more of his thoughts today at >play.  If you can’t make it to the conference, check back here for playbacks of all the panels and keynotes after the event.

some of the action from the day before >play 2007!

I wanted to welcome another esteemed member to this year’s >play music panel.  Andrei Marinescu is the Director, Marketing and Business Development at MOG, an “online community where music lovers can discover people through music and music through people.”  In a recent blog post, Andrei lays down a few insights on what’s going on in the online content and media space–I’m sure we’ll be hearing more about this at the conference on Saturday.  Welcome Andrei!

Hi, I’m Roderick Alemania and I’ll be moderating the gaming panel at the >play conference on Saturday. Casual gaming and console/pc video gaming have traditionally addressed different audiences (casual gaming – females, console/pc gaming - males). Recent trends show that console/pc gaming companies are shifting resources and investing in casual gaming. How will this affect the gaming marketplace and in what timeframe? I’m looking forward to a great discussion with the panelists.

A little bit about me: as VP Business Development at IGN Entertainment/Fox Interactive Media, I am responsible for creating original content/IP that lives across multiple platforms: online, TV, live events, etc. A few projects include founding and incubating News Corp’s video game league Championship Gaming Series and Executive Producing content for ATT Blue Room Gaming.