The GSM Association (GSMA) has announced that Black Eyed Peas front man, writer and producer, will.i.am, will be among the headline speakers at Mobile Backstage, a one-day, mobile entertainment-focused conference on Thursday 19 February, as part of the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Two-time Academy Award-winning actor and director Kevin Spacey will host the Mofilm Short Film Festival, while social networking entrepreneur Chris De Wolfe, the Founder and CEO of MySpace, leads the speaker line up for the one-day conference. Mobile Backstage brings together leading music executives, filmmakers, broadcasters and gaming industry insiders in a program that aims to get to the heart of the challenges and opportunities for the mobile phone as a global entertainment medium.
The event will feature case studies and panel sessions that explore the role of mobile entertainment within the vision of a mobile lifestyle. Topics will include how to harness the potential of the mobile device as the fourth screen; creating a new mobile gaming experience; the role of mobiles in the changing face of broadcast; innovative new business models; social networking on mobile; and the power and potential of Mobile Broadband to deliver multimedia digital entertainment.
In his keynote interview, Emmy Award-winning musician will.i.am will share his perspective as a world-leading music artist on the potential to reach a global fan base via the mobile phone. The role of mobile as a distributive, collaborative and creative tool for music will also be explored, as well as the political impact of music, with will.i.am drawing upon his experiences of writing and performing the Barack Obama song Yes We Can, using sound bites from Obamas speeches.
Mobile is the medium for the masses, said will.i.am. With nearly four billion mobile connections across the globe, the potential for mobile to change not only how the world consumes entertainment but also interacts with it is enormous. Mobile Backstage provides a unique forum for discussing both the business of delivering and the art of creating content.
Other confirmed speakers include Dan Keegan, Head of Games at Orange, Elizabeth Schimel, Head of Global Music at Nokia, Pete Watson, Head of Business Development at RIM, and Ty Roberts, SVP and CTO at Gracenote.