The Envision Symposium Sets the Stage for the Entertainment Industry to Unlock the DNA of Storytelling, Design & Technology

NEW YORK, July 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Envision, a high-end design and technology think tank for the most creative cutting-edge innovators and trendsetters in the live entertainment industry, has announced its 2014 Envision Symposium. The symposium is aimed at decoding the helix of live entertainment and its interaction among the three strands of storytelling, design and technology. The event is designed to look at what works today and what the ideal sequence of the future is to keep live theatre and storytelling alive for decades to come.  Envision, produced by Penton's Live Design, will be held, September 11–13, at the Steinbeck Forum, in the seaside town of Monterey, CA.

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The Envision symposium will be led by creative directors Bran Ferren, of Applied Minds, and Bob Bonniol, of MODE Studios.  The novel concept behind Envision is to unite the different mindsets and niches within modern entertainment to discuss and define the next array of transmedia, real-time media, codex, as well as theater, audience narrative and creative expression - in our wired world. 

"Any individual thinker and doer looking to impact future of entertainment first hand should be at Envision," says Bonniol. "The setting will provide opportunities to network with speakers, peers and colleagues, and a forum to meet and exchange ideas with the brightest minds working in the entertainment industry, from designers to directors, writers, producers, and game-changers."

The agenda for Envision will include industry innovators and visionaries leading sessions devoted to:

WHY THEATER MATTERS, AND WHY IT DOESN'T—WHAT'S NEW?
Is there something fundamentally important about experiencing a performance live? Or is it like the debate of "is it photography" if it's digital rather than photochemical? And the real question is, as professional live storytellers, why should we care - and what are we going to do about it?

THE NEW FRONTIER OF REAL-TIME MEDIA
What is entertainment storytelling becoming? Will our grandchildren regard watching movies on a rectangle as quaint as we regard "gathering around the radio" on Sundays?

TRANSMEDIA
Telling the story across multiple channels. What is the narrative of brand? How do we weave the audience's perspective and story into the larger narrative?

CODE MEETS CODEX
How is the current culture of "makers" and "coders" contributing to the storytelling landscape? What tools are coming from this direction, and how does code help the story be real-time, and really present.

WHEN AUDIENCE IS THE NARRATIVE
How will spaces and converses be created that put the focus on each participant's narrative?

THE CREATIVE URGE — NEW METHODS OF EXPRESSION
When the interface is the mind, when we've moved past the mouse into biometrics, haptics, gaze tracking, out and out neural control… What is the future of our own input into the stories we tell and experience?

Envision Symposium speakers include:

Bran Ferren, chief executive officer of Applied Minds and founder of Associates & Ferren, is a technologist, artist, architectural designer, vehicle designer, engineer, lighting and sound designer, visual effects artist, scientist, lecturer, photographer, entrepreneur, and inventor. 

Bob Bonniol is a visualist, video designer, screens producer, projection designer, pixel mapper, video content designer, interactive artist, and VJ. He creates live experiences for concerts, broadcast events, operas, musicals, and permanent architectural installations. 

Butch Allen has spent decades in concert touring as lighting director, lighting designer, production designer, and production manager for such varied artists as Van Halen, No Doubt, Black Keys, Nickelback, and New Kids On The Block.

Christopher Barreca is a scenic designer with over 200 productions, including Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Search and Destroy, Three Days of Rain, Neon Psalms, and Rocky, for which he won the 2014 Tony Award for Best Scenic Design For A Musical.

Surya Buchwald, also known as Momo the Monster, is experienced in motion graphics, interactive/Realtime design, and web design and programming. Surya creates extraordinary visuals for concerts and designs interactive computer things.  

Jasmine Ellsworth, executive vice president of True Edge Pictures, has worked on projects as diverse as video game trade show and event representations for Disney, Imagi Studios, Comedy Central, and 20th Century Fox. 

E. M. Gimenez is a cutting-edge sound designer whose recent work includes the site-specific opera Invisible Cities at Union Station in Los Angeles.

Peter Guber is an American film producer and chairman/CEO of Mandalay Entertainment. He has produced or executive produced numerous hit films, from Rain Man to Batman, by way of The Color Purple. 

Sandra Tsing Loh, an LA-based writer, actress, performance-artist, pop-culture analyst, and radio commentator, is the host of the radio show The Loh Down on Science as well as a regular commentator on NPR's Morning Edition, and PRI's This American Life. 

Alex McDowell is a British production designer and film producer who has worked with, among others, directors Tim Burton, Steven Spielberg, and Alex Proyas. He has won awards in production design for his work in Minority Report and The Terminal. 

Peter Schneider, is an American film and theatrical producer/director who produced the Tony Award-winning "The Lion King" on Broadway and was the first President of Feature Animation for The Walt Disney Company, best known for his work on The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Toy Story, and The Lion King.

Neal Stephenson is an American author and game designer known for his works of speculative fiction. His novels have been categorized as science fiction, historical fiction, or "post cyberpunk."

Amy Tinkham is a director, producer, and writer of theater, dance, music concerts, tours, film, television, video, and art installations. She has worked on the choreography for Madonna, The Dixie Chicks, Aerosmith, and Motley Crew. 

Bora Yoon is a composer, vocalist, and sound artist who explores the connection of sound to the subliminal. To create music, she has used everyday objects such as violin, water, ancient Tibetan singing bowls, cell phones, and kitchenware. 

The premier sponsor of Envision is SenovvA, design and management group.

About Live Design
Live Design is a family of multimedia offerings for designers, programmers, and technicians involved in visual design and production for the entertainment and related industries. Live Design publications and events cover the latest news, tools, and technology that fuel innovation across live entertainment, corporate events, theatre, concerts, houses of worship, clubs, and more. The Live Design family includes Live Design magazine; Live Design Wire, livedesignonline.com, and Live Design Master Classes, LDI Tradeshow and The Envision Symposium.   www.livedesignonline.com

About Penton
Penton drives performance for more than sixteen million professionals each and every day. They rely on us to deliver: Insights, information & workflow tools to inform critical business decisions; networking & community to engage them with industry peers & partners; and data & marketing services to advance their business performance & deliver ROI. They look to Penton to power the possibilities.

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MEDIA CONTACT:

Heather Smith
Envision Symposium
[email protected]
303-998-9232                                              

SOURCE Penton