TVN’s Women To Watch To Offer 2022 Predictions

This year’s distinguished class of TVNewsCheck’s Women in Technology Awards winners will share their predictions for next year’s likeliest and most influential industry trends in technology during “Technology in a Changing Media Ecosystem: Predictions for 2022,” a TVN Working Lunch webinar on Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. ET.

Leaders from the Walt Disney Co.; Universal Pictures; Freewheel; ScreenHits TV; and KNSD San Diego will offer their views, analysis and predictions in a relaxed, wide-ranging, conversation moderated by TVNewsCheck Publisher and Co-Founder Kathy Haley.

From television to cinema to streaming to advertising buying and selling, the media and entertainment world is undergoing steady, transformational change. Panelists will discuss how well technology is keeping up this. They’ll also examine which trends currently underway will prove most influential next year and what new trends will emerge.

“We learned two things last year when we decided to feature the Women in Technology Awards honorees in a webinar about evolving technology issues,” Haley said. “The event was fascinating, forward-thinking and high-energy and it reached many more people than the 200 or so who gather with us each year in Las Vegas to celebrate the achievements of these extraordinary technologists. We look forward to another terrific event in September, and this year, it will serve as a preview for the Oct. 12 Awards Presentation Ceremony and Reception at NAB Show in Las Vegas.”

Watch last year’s Technology Predictions webinar here.

Paticipants in “Technology in a Changing Media Ecosystem: Predictions for 2022,”:

Marcy Lefkovitz, VP technology and workflow strategy, The Walt Disney Co. — Lefkovtiz, winner of the 2021 WIT Leadership Award, is a successful television news producer who transitioned to technology. She has built a reputation as a leader in developing and implementing workflows. Her groundbreaking work marrying state-of-the-art newsroom technologies with smart efficient workflows during the launch of the Fusion joint venture between Disney and Univision identified her as an important, emerging technology mind in the television news industry.

Her leadership in quietly establishing a cybersecurity working group at ABC News was years ahead of its time. And her ongoing, pivotal assistance in the launch of DC3, Disney’s massive new technical hub near Houston, put her at the forefront of pioneering technology development for the media and entertainment industry.

Lefkovitz is a 20-year veteran of ABC News, where she began her career in its political unit, later spending six years as an independent producer before returning to ABC in 1994 as an editor and then producer of World News Tonight. She is a graduate of Brown University and received her master’s in broadcast journalism from NYU.

Donna Stewart, news operations manager, KNSD San Diego — Stewart, a 2021 WIT Futurist Award winner, transitioned from electronic journalism into operations in a long career. She anticipated the rise of IT and earned a bachelor’s degree in it in 2008, building on an associate’s degree in liberal arts she’d earned in 1998. Donna is the recipient of many awards and played a key role in the relocation and rebuild of KNSD in 2016. In her current role, she acts as a liaison between the news and engineering/IT departments.

Annie Chang, VP creative technologies, Universal Pictures — Chang, a 2021 WIT Futurist Award winner, is an important player in the postproduction industry. She has been VP technology at Universal Pictures; Walt Disney Studios; Marvel Studios, VP technology and standards at Walt Disney Studios; senior engineer of digital mastering at THX Ltd. editor at KBTX Media; and master control operator at KAMU TV.

Yushi Xu, Senior Architect, FreeWheel — Xu, a 2021 WIT Women to Watch Award winner, is changing the future of TV advertising.  She is one of the leading minds behind FreeWheel’s industry-changing unified ad decisioning technology, including TV and digital video campaign planning and optimization. Xu holds a Ph.D. and master’s in computer science from MIT and takes the helm of multiple teams to drive technologic advancements in the TV ecosystem and foster a culture of excellence. As a technical architect for FreeWheel, Xu spearheads a major initiative on bridging the technology gaps between traditional linear TV and digital video when scheduling and tracking ads across FreeWheel’s tech platforms in an effective, results-driven and automated way, which benefits not just Comcast, but also because of FreeWheel’s broad customer base, many other MVPDs and programmers.

Rose Adkins Hulse, founder and CEO, ScreenHits TV — Hulse, a 2021 WIT Women to Watch Award winner, has led the charge in the English M4 Corridor, the U.K.’s version of Silicon Valley, when she formed the B2B ScreenHits platform in 2012. She has been an innovator in streaming technology, and today is best known for establishing ScreenHits TV, a platform that allows users to combine multiple streaming subscriptions at no cost. Though talked about by some of the largest platforms, ScreenHits TV has brought to life the technology that provides consumers access to favorite programming from multiple platforms to be streamed with relevant suggestions. This all takes place in one app, eliminating the headaches of toggling between different streaming platforms.

As a woman of color in tech, Hulse has dedicated much of her time to breaking barriers of entry in the funding and tech worlds. She believes that she has a responsibility to give back to the community and the industry that has supported her venture. Her pivot from a B2B platform to a B2C platform was not about competing with the larger streaming platforms but supported by consumers who wanted their viewing options in one place.

Kathy Haley, publisher and co-founder, TVNewsCheck (moderator).