Key Headliners Set For NewsTECHForum

The NewsTECHForum, a new conference at the crossroads of technology and news storytelling, has confirmed five speakers for its opening panel session, “Perspectives in News Technology: What We Need.”

The panelists, who will identify key challenges they face and discuss how technology might meet them, are Michael Koetter, senior vice president of media technology and development at Turner Broadcasting; Frank Governale, vice president of operations at CBS News, Marty Faubell, vice president of engineering at Hearst Television, Del Parks, vice president of engineering and operations at Sinclair Broadcast Group and Steve Paulus, senior vice president of news and local programming at Time Warner Cable.

Set for Dec. 16-17 at the New York Hilton, the NewsTECHForum will discuss issues such as the rapidly changing world of ENG, the advent of news production in the cloud and news in a social media age.

The event has attracted sponsorships from JVC, Bitcentral, Volicon, Teradek, Mosart, TVU, Masstech, Vislink, Canon and AP/ENPS.

“NewsTECHForum is the first conference to bring together front-line managers and executives working every day in news and news-technology,” said Harry Jessell, editor of TVNewsCheck. “Our goal is to foster excellence in news production.”

NewsTECHForum will be co-located with the SVG Summit, making it possible for attendees at the two conferences to intermingle, added Ken Kerschbaumer, executive director of editorial at SVG. “There is significant crossover between the concerns of a CNN or a BBC with those at an ESPN,” he said. “NewsTECHForum and the Summit can tackle them together.”