TVN Honors Annie Chang And Donna Stewart With 2021 Women in Technology Futurist Awards

TVNewsCheck will present its annual Women in Technology Futurist Award to Annie Chang, VP creative technologies, Universal Pictures, and Donna Stewart, news operations manager at NBC O&O KNSD San Diego.

The award will be presented during the NAB Show on Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Chang and Stewart will also join this year’s other Women in Technology Award honorees in a webinar on Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. ET looking toward the industry’s technology future and the most pressing challenges they face.

TVNewsCheck Publisher and Co-Founder Kathy Haley said: “Annie Chang’s leadership in developing the SMPTE Interoperable Master Format standard set her apart as an innovator in creating and implementing advanced broadcast and film technologies. Her more recent efforts to preserve creative intent in filmmaking by advancing standards such as the Motion Picture Academy’s Science and Technology Council’s ACES format and the UHD Alliance’s “filmmaker mode” setting underscore her place as a technology futurist.”

KNSD’s Stewart started out as a video editor before moving to the station’s technology team and a management role. “As an award-winning television journalist who transitioned into management while also creating a role as liaison between the news and technology departments, Donna Stewart has played a vital role at KNSD, not just in helping to evaluate and select new technology and train staff on new systems, but in anticipating emerging news technology trends,” Haley said. “Her decision to earn a degree in information technology in 2006 prepared her to anticipate vast impending changes in news technology and her talent for managing people led to her appointment in 2020 to the station’s senior leadership as liaison between staff and upper management.”

The Women in Technology Futurist Awards recognize women who have pioneered new technologies or who, although not working in the sciences, have significantly influenced the development of media industry technology. The award supports the National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation’s Technology Apprenticeship Program, which places graduating engineers, who are women or people of color, in broadcast industry internships.

Register here to attend the 11^th annual Women in Technology Awards Presentation Ceremony and Reception at NAB Show in Las Vegas.

Register here for a TVNewsCheck webinar featuring all five 2021 honorees offering their thoughts and predictions about the most important technology trends shaping up for 2022.

Previous Women in Technology Futurist Award honorees include:

• Janet Gardner, president, Perspective Media Group
• Jade Kurian, co-founder and COO, Latakoo
• Madeleine Noland, who played a critical role in shepherding development of the ATSC 3.0 standard and is now president of the ATSC
• Abby Auerbach, who has played a major role in moving local television advertising sales toward automation platforms and is now EVP and chief communications officer of the Television Bureau of Advertising,