We’re very pleased to share with you, in advance of its public announcement, the agenda and speakers for the inaugural CLOUD COMPUTING CONFERENCE being presented by the Distributed Computing Industry Association (DCIA) at the 2012 NAB Show on April 16th.

This event will include Digital Watermarking Alliance (DWA) Chairman Graham Oakes as a featured speaker. The full-day conference will demonstrate how software developers are addressing two major concerns with respect to cloud-based solutions for video delivery — reliability and security.

Experts will provide a senior management overview of how cloud-based solutions positively impact each stage of the content distribution chain. From collaboration and post-production to storage, delivery, and analytics, decision makers responsible for accomplishing their content-related missions will find this a must-attend event.

The opening keynote will feature Bill Kallman, CEO, Scayl, who will introduce “The Latest Trends in Cloud Computing Solutions for the Audio/Video (A/V) Ecosystem.” How are innovative cloud-based technology developers impacting A/V content creation and distribution with a host of new strategies, products, and services?

The first panel will continue this top-line overview of “Advanced Capabilities, New Features, Cost Advantages of Cloud Computing Solutions.” What are the very latest ways that cloud computing is being applied throughout the creation and distribution chain for television and radio programming, motion pictures, corporate A/V production, and user-generated content (UGC)?

Panelists will include Mike Alexenko, Senior Director of Market Development, Cloud & Mobility, G-Technology; Scott Campbell, Principal, Media, Entertainment, and Telecoms, SAP; David Frerichs, Strategic Consultant, Pioneer Corporation; David Hassoun, Founder, RealEyes Media; AJ McGowan, CTO, Unicorn Media; Samir Mittal, CTO, Rimage; Michelle Munson, CEO, President, and Co-founder, Aspera; and Robert Stevenson, EVP, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships, Gaikai.

Jim Burger, Member, Dow Lohnes, will step back from the exuberance of such trends in the next keynote to examine “The Key Pitfalls Associated with Cloud Computing in High-Value Content Implementations.” How are safety and predictability considerations as well as related liability factors affecting cloud adoption for A/V by content creators, rights-holders, and distributors?

The follow-on panel will further explore “Privacy Issues, Reliability Questions, Security Concerns in the Cloud Computing.” What are the different but inter-related hurdles to overcome for consumers, content companies, software providers, broadband network operators, and related cloud services vendors in migrating to the cloud, and what steps is the distributed computing industry taking to address these problems?

Panelists will include David Cook, SVP, RES Sales and Content Licensing, Rovi Corporation; Dave Asprey, VP, Cloud Security, Trend Micro; Tom Mulally, Consultant, Numagic Consulting; Graham Oakes, Chairman, Digital Watermarking Alliance (DWA); Dan Schnapp, Partner & Chairman of New Media, Entertainment & Technology, Hughes, Hubbard & Reed; Yangbin Wang, CEO, Vobile; Marvin Wheeler, Chairman, Open Data Center Alliance (ODCA); and Vic Winkler, Author, “Securing the Cloud.”

The next keynote by Jonathan King, SVP, Joyent, will outline “Various Ways that Cloud Computing Is Being Applied to the Content Creation Process — from Pre- to Post-Production.” How are Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and even Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) solutions strategically being brought to bear to improve key aspects of file-based workflow for A/V content?

The subsequent panel will delve further into “Audio/Video Pre-Production, Production, Post-Production Clouds.” What are leading examples and key case studies of ways that cloud-computing solutions are accelerating processes, improving quality, and/or reducing costs of such functions as collaboration, editing, animation, applying metadata, formatting, and transcoding?

Panelists will include Jim Cady, President & CEO, Slacker; Tony Cahill, Chief Engineer, CET Universe; Guillermo Chialvo, Gerente de Tecnología, Radio Mitre; Kirk Punches, VP, Business Development, Sorenson Media; Chris Kantrowitz, CEO, Gobbler; Ajay Malhotra, EVP, North America, Prime Focus Technologies; Jason Roks, Digital Alchemist, TV Asia USA; and Jostein Svendsen, CEO, WeVideo.

Shahi Ghanem, SVP, Strategy & Marketing, BitTorrent, will present the next keynote on “Alternative Approaches for Implementing Cloud Storage of Content Catalogs and Libraries and Leveraging Cloud-Based Distribution.” How is this most publicized area in the implementation of cloud computing for A/V — storage and delivery — progressing? What are the technology policy/rights considerations and economics behind such concepts as “cloud media lockers” and the newest peer-assisted hybrid solutions in “quantum computing?”

Exploring this more deeply will be the “The Cloud Media Storage & Delivery” panel. What are leading examples and key case studies of ways that cloud-computing solutions are accelerating processes, improving quality, and/or reducing costs of such functions as managing fungible inventories of high-value A/V content, including at the edge of the Internet, and delivering it to listeners and viewers?

Panelists will include Kris Alexander, Chief Strategist, Connected Devices & Gaming, Akamai; Saul Berman, Lead Partner, IBM Global Business Services; Bang Chang, VP, Server and Storage, SeaChange International; Stephen Condon, VP, Global Marketing Communications, Limelight Networks; Stephen Ehrlich, Dir. Media & Ent., Verizon Digital Services; Gianluca Ferremi, VP Sales & Marketing, Motive Television; Kshitij Kumar, SVP, Mobile Video, Concurrent; and Monica Ricci, Dir. of Product Marketing, CSG Systems.

The following keynote, “New Levels of Media Performance Data Enabled by Cloud Computing &mdash and Impact on Other Sectors,” will be presented by Scott Brown, GM & SVP Strategic Partnerships, Octoshape. How will marketers, sponsors, and advertisers respond to the ability to access “dashboards” that provide anonymized listener and viewer behavior in an unprecedented level of detail in real-time? How will this affect programming, scheduling, and sell-through services, as well as related industries?

The panel that succeeds Scott, “Cloud Measurement, Analytics, Implications,” will cover this topic in greater depth. What are leading examples and key case studies of ways that cloud-computing solutions are accelerating processes, improving quality, and/or reducing costs of such functions as aggregating demographic and psychographic data, audience flow trends, and additional behavior information? What are the implications of cloud computing deployments in the A/V ecosystem on the consumer electronics (CE) and telecommunications industries?

Panelists will include Thomas Coughlin, President, Coughlin Associates; Dick Csaplar, Senior Research Analyst, Virtualization and Storage, Aberdeen Group; Steve Hawley, Principal Analyst & Consultant, TVStrategies; Jonathan Hurd, Director, Altman Vilandrie & Co.; Jeff Kim, COO, US & EMEA, CDNetworks; John Schiela, President, Phoenix Marketing International (PMI); Nick Strauss, Director of Sales, Verizon Digital Media Services; and Mike West, CTO, GenosTV.

The final keynote, presented by Ashish Gupta, Strategist, Cloud Infrastructure, Huawei, will provide an overview of the ways that the “Disruptive Effects of Cloud Computing Will Continue.” How will cloud computing technology continue to disrupt the A/V ecosystem, and where and when will we see the most profound changes to current business models and operations?

And the closing panel. “Years Ahead for Cloud Computing,” will more thoroughly examine this provocative topic. What do the most credible forecasts and projections indicate about the ways that cloud-computing solutions will continue to impact the A/V ecosystem over the long term, and what will this mean for the underlying businesses that are based on content production and distribution?

Panelists will include Ian Donahue, President, RedThorne Media; Chris Haddad, VP, Technology Evangelism, WSO2; Wayne Josel, Counsel, Media & Entertainment, Hughes, Hubbard & Reed; Steve Mannel, Senior Director, Media & Communications, Salesforce.com; James Mitchell, CEO & Founder, Strategic Blue; Michael Smith, Professor of IT and Marketing, Carnegie Mellon University; David Sterling, Partner, i3m3 Solutions; and Chuck Stormon, CEO, Attend.

Please register early for the 2012 NAB Show and the CLOUD COMPUTING CONFERENCE to take advantage of discounts. This promises to be the DCIA’s most valuable and stimulating conference to date.