Interactive Media
Lori Schwartz
As senior vice president and director of the Interpublic Emerging Media Lab, Lori Schwartz oversees the strategy of the Lab, driving innovation in the dramatically changing media landscape. She ensures that the Lab remains at the leading edge of marketing innovation, progressively piloting new brand interaction opportunities on behalf of Interpublic, as well as facilitating emerging media upfronts and exclusive deals for all the agencies and its clients. She has worked with a number of clients, including Microsoft, Avery Dennison, Intel, Nestle and Sony. An active industry participant, Schwartz was profiled as one of the “100 people to Have Lunch With” by MediaPost Publications and “30 Executives Shaping the Evolution of Media and Technology” by Variety. Schwartz sits on the board for NATPE, and participates in the AFI Digital Content lab. She has also produced and led panels for the AFI, Imedia Connection, AdTech, NAPTE, NAB and CES, to name a few. Prior to her role as director of the Lab, Schwartz served as an interactive/new media producer at McCann Worldgroup, providing interactive expertise for the agency’s Los Angeles client base. She worked with clients to create original content solutions across multiple channels. She also facilitated partnerships with entertainment, sports and other content providers, and served as the agency representative on all issues pertaining to emerging media.
Geoff Katz
Geoff Katz is a 15-year veteran of the interactive television industry. In 2006, his work on the TiVo service received a Primetime Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in interactive television. And in 2004, an interactive version of ABC Television's Celebrity Mole that he produced also received the Primetime Emmy for interactive television. Katz has been an active member of the Television Academy’s Interactive Media peer group since 2005. His experience includes serving as the 2007 and 2008 chairman of the Interactive Media peer group’s Awards Committee, responsible for defining areas of competition, and establishing and leading the judging process for awarding the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media. Additionally, in 2007 and 2008 Katz served on the Interactive Media Peer Group's Executive Committee, and in 2007 was a contributor to the Television Academy’s Brand Committee. Katz has held senior product management and user experience design positions at pioneering interactive television companies TiVo and DirecTV, and at breakthrough emerging media platform companies such as Liberate, Excite@Home and PacketVideo. He is a listed inventor on U.S. Patent 6,604,242 — filed in 1998 — combining television broadcast and personalized interactive information. Currently, Katz is vice president, business development at iWidgets, a venture-funded social network syndication tools and widget publishing startup based in San Francisco, a member of the Producers Guild of America, a strategic advisor to the American Film Institute’s Digital Content Lab and an advisory council member of the interactive television industry’s premier developer’s community OEDN.net.
