Jeffrey Katzenberg To Keynote BANFF Summit

By FYI Staff

Jeffrey Katzenberg, co-founder of Dreamworks, and currently Managing Partner of WndrCo and Chairman and Founder of Quibi, is the first speaker to be announced as part of the 40^th annual BANFF Summit Series.

The Hollywood superstar's keynote will serve as the kick-off event for the long-running festival, which will take place from June 9-12, 2019 at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in the Rocky Mountains national park.

“Jeffrey’s well-earned reputation as a world-class content leader presents such an exciting opportunity for all of us attending the Banff World Media Festival. We are honoured to have him join us,” commented Randy Lennox, Chair of the Board of Directors for BANFF.

The summer summit provides a platform and destination for media industries to develop, broker and create new business opportunities. It is aligned with BANFF’s Rockie Awards International Program Competition--one of the largest of its kind that attracts participation from more than 40 countries and 150 senior industry jurors to honour influential creators and executives in the industry.

Katzenberg and partner Meg Whitman successfully sold Hollywood on NewTV, their ambitious plan to create a kind of next-generation HBO or Netflix — with bite-size video programming designed for watching on mobile phones.

WndrCo, the holding company Katzenberg co-founded, secured a $1 billion seed-funding round for NewTV last summer. Backers include Disney, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Viacom, AT&T’s WarnerMedia, Lionsgate, MGM, ITV and Entertainment One.

Tech investors include Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group; strategic investors include VC firm Madrone Capital Partners, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase & Co. and John Malone’s Liberty Global.