The Single Biggest Reason Why Startups Succeed
Bill Gross has founded a lot of startups, and incubated many others — and he got curious about why some succeeded and others failed. So he gathered data from hundreds of companies, his own and other people's, and ranked each company on five key factors. He found one factor that stands out from the others — and surprised even him.
William Nix, Chairman of Creative Projects Group®, has joined the Advisory Board of International Cinema Education™
International Cinema Education, Inc. (I.C.E.) was launched in 2003 as a United Nations "Global Classroom" to which New York City public high school students were invited each month for a free tour of the UN and screening of a foreign film. More than 50 films have been shown to more than 10,000 New York City students from over 100 public high schools. With the help of Ambassadors, U.N. tour guides, actors, directors and producers, these students have been "transported" into worlds beyond their imagination and learned about countries they never knew existed.
The Jazz at Lincoln Center Ragtime Symposium
Jazz At Lincoln Center is presenting a symposium on Ragtime, hosted by Terry Waldo and featuring a number of the most historically important revivers of Ragtime. It is taking place at 7:30 p.m. on April 24, 2015, in the Irene Diamond Education Center at Broadway at 60th Street, on the 5th Floor. The Symposium's participants include:
Max Morath, who created a national interest in Ragtime beginning in 1959 with his popular TV series, The Ragtime Era, and continued for over five decades with recordings, live shows, radio and TV.
Joshua Rifkin performed on several wildly popular classical albums that created an international interest in Scott Joplin in the 1970's.
Dick Hyman, the multi-talented jazz player, arranger, studio musician and composer performed on a number of historically important recordings of ragtime starting in the 1950's.
Mike Lipskin, master Stride piano player, not only studied with the masters such as Willie "The Lion Smith," Donald Lambert, Cliff Jackson and and Luckey Roberts, he also produced record albums for RCA and other labels which revived interest in the older players.
Terry Waldo, the protégé of the legendary Eubie Blake, is a virtuoso ragtime, stride, and blues pianist and has produced over 40 albums. He is also a vocalist, composer of show tunes, film and TV scores, and has led many highly regarded musical groups. His book, This is Ragtime: The Birth of American Music, was recently republished with a new introduction by Wynton Marsalis by Jazz at Lincoln Center Library Editions. It is the definitive book on the subject. His 26-part radio series of the same title was produced for NPR and fueled the 1970's ragtime revival. He has performed in numerous theatrical projects and concerts all over the world and has produced over 60 albums.
UCLA Symposium: Adapting to Massive Media Change: Technology Fundamentals and Industry Trends
On April 4th, Marty Schindler, creator of The Shindler Perspective, which provides management and business expertise to a wide range of creative and technology companies, Steve Klinenberg, General Manager of Gravillis, a visual communications company that designs advertising campaigns for the entertainment industry, and William Nix, CPG Chairman, spoke on the subject of the Future of TV. Their panel was part of a day-long UCLA symposium entitled Adapting to Massive Media Change: Technology Fundamentals and Industry Trends. The symposium was organized and led by CPG Advisory Board Member and UCLA Instructor, Stuart Volkow. It addressed the following topics: "The global media landscape is changing at an accelerating pace. Creative decisions, careers, companies, and entire industries are becoming obsolete. How will you keep up and adapt? Will your job exist next year? Can your start-up idea succeed? This one-day symposium consisted of lectures and guest speakers who provided insights into the trends in technology and consumer behaviors needed to understand to succeed in the global media and entertainment industries. Topics included mobile and social media, the future of TV, movies, music and gaming, the global impact of online video, and the changing habits of media consumers around the world. Panels addressed controversial issues around digital advertising, privacy, piracy, security, and business models." Other speakers at the symposium included: Flint Dille, Creative Director, Niantic Labs, Writer and Game Designer; Guy Bendov, President and CEO, Sidekick Games; Nancy Bennett, Chief Content Officer, Two Bit Circus; Ryan White, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Cyber and IP Crimes Section; and Bryan Ellenburg, Security Consultant, Content Delivery and Security Association.
Pepperdine University's School of Communications and Business Center hosts Professor Jack Shaheen and "A is for Arab" Exhibit, and Screening/Panel Discussion of "Reel Bad Arabs" documentary feature film.
Pepperdine Graphic Media and the Center for Entertainment, Media and Culture will be hosting Media: Representation and Responsibility. The first-ever event of its kind on Pepperdine's campus, it will be a week filled with movie screenings and seminars led by industry leaders who care deeply about the role the media plays in our lives and its effect on society. Driven by the students of PGM, Media Week is hoping to ignite a conversation that will transform the ways in which we produce and consume media. Media: Representation and Responsibility events will run from March 23-27. The week will kick-off Monday, March 23rd with a screening of Jack Shaheen's documentary, "Reel Bad Arabs" and Creative Projects Group® Chairman and Straus Institute Adjunct Professor and Entertainment Industry Advisor, William Nix, will moderate a panel entitled "Middle East Stereotyping and the Media." The Panelists will include: Jack Shaheen, Author/Professor; Lorraine Ali, Senior Writer, Los Angeles Times; Rob Shalhoub, Screenwriter / Producer/ Media Entrepreneur; Renee Tajima-Pena, Documentary Filmmaker, Professor; Director of UCLA's Center for EthnoCommunications and Ahmed Ahmed, Actor/Comedian/Producer/Director.
2015 Kahlil Gibran “Spirit of Humanity” Awards Gala
Salma Hayek Pinault will receive the Award for Individual Achievement at the 2015 Kahlil Gibran "Spirit of Humanity" Awards Gala on April 29th in Washington, D.C. Along with Ms. Hayek-Pinault, the AAI will honor The Honorable Michael E. Barood with the Najeeb Halaby Award for Public Service, John Sexton with the Award for Individual Achievement and Lawrence Wright with the Anthony Shadid Award for Excellence in Journalism.
GKIDS Acquires North American Rights for Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet
Salma Hayek's Animated Passion Project Based on the 100 Million-Selling Masterpiece By Lebanese Poet Kahlil Gibran is Slated for Summer 2015 Theatrical Release
New York, NY – February 5, 2015 – GKIDS, a distributor of award-winning animation for both adult and family audiences, announced its acquisition of North American rights to KAHLIL GIBRAN'S THE PROPHET, the animated feature produced and spearheaded by Salma Hayek-Pinault, based on the classic, internationally acclaimed and best- selling book by celebrated Lebanese author, Kahlil Gibran. The film was an official selection at Cannes, made its North American premiere in Toronto, and is slated for a summer 2015 theatrical release by GKIDS.
Bound by Law? Tales from the Public Domain
This is a comic book about intellectual property law and the public domain published in 2008 by Duke University Press. Written by Keith Aoki, James Boyle and Jennifer Jenkins and supported by the Center for the Study of the Public Domain at the Duke Law School, the book was first released in a free digital edition under a Creative Commons license in 2006. The 2008 edition has an introduction by Cory Doctorow and a foreword by Davis Guggenheim. The comic follows a fictional filmmaker named Akiko who struggles with the practicalities of applying the fair use doctrine while making a documentary film. The book is "illustrated with a mix of hand-drawn artwork and collages of pop culture images".
CPG Board of Advisors Member Jeffrey Grant Honored at JustLeadershipUSA Benefit & Launch
CPG Board of Advisors Member Jeffrey Grant was honored in New York on November 12, 2014 as one of the country’s fifteen leaders in criminal justice at JustLeadershipUSA's benefit in NYC. Glenn E. Martin is the Founder/Exec. Director of JustLeadershipUSA; Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black, was the Honorary Chair of the event. Please click image for more information:
CORDAY PRODUCTIONS PARTNERS WITH BROADLIT, INC. FOR NEW TV PROPERTY
William Nix, Chairman of Creative Projects Group®, advised the TruLOVE® Network on the intellectual property, media rights and business aspects of a media venture created to develop exciting original television properties with Corday Productions. Since 1965, Days of our Lives has been produced by Corday Productions Inc. in association with Sony Pictures Television. The series has aired over 12,000 episodes in the United States and global markets since its inception. BroadLit, Inc. was founded by partners Cynthia Cleveland, Nancy Cushing-Jones and Barbara Weller as an extension of their longstanding branding and consulting company BroadThink®. TruLOVE® is a digital network with a new focus on global romance and programmed to capture the powerful female audience with a wholly owned original library of content developed by an award winning marketing, branding and production management team. The new television properties being developed in this new partnership, will be based on TruLOVE's extensive library of romance stories. This new partnership with TruLOVE® comes on the heels of Corday's most recent announcement of its digital media company, Net Soaps/Net Novelas, which is set to launch at the beginning of 2015.