2024 IDMLC Recap
By Mark Miilstein, DMLA Board Member and Co-founder, vAIsual
With the iconic Intrepid Museum as our venue, DMLA returned this year to New York City in a big way for its 2024 conference. With more than 200 combined in-person and virtual registrations, and sponsorships from ImageRights, Shutterstock, Orange Logic, Adobe, Google, CNN Collection, Wirestock, Cowen, Debates and Shephard (CDAS), iSpy Visuals, DMLA once again showed that it remains at the center of the media production, distribution and licensing industry.
On “Zero Day,” DMLA held its AI Summit at the office of Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP in New York's financial district, with attendance from Google, Orange Logic, Press Association/ Alamy, pocstock, Shutterstock, Steg.ai, Envato, Covision, CAI/ Adobe, CDAS, PicVario, MediaViz, vAisual, Danita Delimont, CEPIC, 201 Creative, ImageRights, Getty, Gado Images, Vista Print, Wirestock, and iSpy Visuals. The Summit was a lively, interactive discussion on the continuous impact of generative AI on the media licensing space; with content provenance, authenticity and compliance taking center stage.
With summer-like weather and a conference location like no other, Day One kicked off with a welcoming address by newly elected DMLA president Joe Naylor of ImageRights International; which set the stage for the keynote address presented by Ashish Jaimain, Product Leader, Bing Multimedia (Microsoft).
A series of great panels followed, with DMLA President Joe Naylor leading speakers Andy Parsons from Adobe's CAI, Tristen Norman of Getty, Misti Vogt of Orange Logic, and Clement Wolf from Google in a discussion on “Building Trust in the Age of AI: Protecting Content Integrity.”
This was followed by DMLA Board Member and Executive Director Leslie Hughes moderating a panel on “Creativity and Commercial Content (in the age of AI),” featuring speakers Kevin Bassett, the Creative Director of Avanade Creative Lab, DeSean Brown, Co-founder, Chief Relationship Officer, at pocstock, Stewart Cohen, the CEO/ Co-owner of Superstock and SC Pictures, and Shannon Fagan, Owner, Shannon Fagan Photography.
Following lunch on the Intrepid's fantail, Tom Smith of Gado Images led the Hot Topics in Marketing panel. With Tom moderating, speakers James Allsworth, the Head of Content at Alamy, Jared Bauman, the CEO of 201 Creative, Randal Cumming, the CEO of CGI.Backgrounds, and Noelle Kim, Chief Marketing Officer of Envato, talked branding, search, market trends, solutions and the impact of AI.
We wrapped up Day One, with Stacey Tyrell, head of business development at Covision, moderating “Digital Twins: Clone Me.” With panelists John Engstrom, Founder and CEO of Flug 3D, Shawn Landgraf, CEO of Holovision, and Elena Piech, Account Director at ZeroSpace, attendees got a first-hand view of how 3D is the new 2D, and how digital twins are not the future of imaging, but a growing part of today's licensing landscape.
Day Two opened with one of the conference's most talked about panels, “In the Trenches - The Best of Editorial Content.” Led by Jonathon Wells, President of Sipa USA, the panel featured eye opening images and backstories from Oliver Contreras, White House Photographer, photojournalist Xyza Cruz Bacani, AFP staff photographer Tim Clary and photojournalist Andrew Kelley.
Panel two focused on “Digital Asset Management and Sustainability.” Moderator Jake Athey, VP, Go-to-market Sales at Acquia, together with Misti Vogt, Orange Logic executive and adjunct instructor DAM and AI at Rutgers University, DAM Program Lead Kathleen Cameron of Google, CoStar Group DAM Specialist Matthew Mann, and AVP Managing Director Kara Van Malssen, talked about how Digital Asset Management (DAM) systems play a pivotal role in promoting sustainability and supporting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives.
After a morning caffeine fix, the conference featured insights focusing on generative AI and content authenticity from the “Hot Topics in Technology” panel. Led by Mark Milstein, DMLA's Technology Chairman, the panel featured Mikayel Khachatryan, CEO of Wirestock, Troy DeBraal, founder of MediaViz.ai, Eric Wengrowski, founder and CEO of Steg.ai, and Paul Melcher, noted technologist and spokesman for Bria.ai.
The afternoon began with a fascinating session on “Information Literacy and Generative AI,” led by Google's Katharina Familia Almonte, and after a short break segued into the conference's perennial favorite and final session, “Legal Hot Topics.” The legal panel was moderated by Margaret Vincent, VP Legal & Advocacy, Stocksy United, and featured panelists Nancy Wolff, Partner,Cowan, DeBaets, Abrahams & Sheppard LLP, Katherine Briggs, General Counsel, Envato, Louise Irwin, Group General Counsel and Company Secretary, PA Media Group, and Amanda Perrot, Director, Associate General Counsel, Adobe.