Flix Premiere’s founder Martin Warner’s keynote at the 69th Festival de Cannes

Flix Premiere, CEO Martin Warner at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival

 

On Wednesday, May 18, 2016, CEO and Founder of Flix Premiere, Martin Warner addressed and discussed the future of online cinema during his keynote at the 69th Festival de Cannes and the Marché du Film’s NEXT program, the festival’s future of cinema forum. Warner was interviewed by Chief International Correspondent for Variety Magazine, John Hopewell.

During the discussion, Warner outlined new models for film distribution and online movie consumption. Warner also discussed how the new disruptive model of an online Cineplex will give movie audiences broader access to a greater variety of world-class movies and share updates on what Flix Premiere has achieved within the last year to democratize cinema.

This was Flix Premiere’s second event at the festival, following its debut at the 68th Festival de Cannes in 2015, when the company initially launched its mission to revolutionize the film industry by offering brand new movies anytime, anywhere.

Judith Davis in Cannes for the Flix Premiere launch

According to Warner, “Each year tens of thousands of movies are made worldwide, but only 5%of these movies find their audience or recover investment. The other 95%, albeit most of great movies, get lost in an archaic distribution system, without their audience knowing about them, Each great movie deserves a chance to be seen. Using an innovative movie curation system and marketing model that gives each of these films the spotlight they deserve, we can connect these movies to their audience worldwide and – at the same time – give online movie watchers broader access to the types of movies they crave to see.

In 2015, at the highly anticipated Flix Premiere pre-launch party, the company also announced their Democratize Cinema campaign. This campaign enables filmmakers, directors, producers, movie critics, and all movie-goers to become involved in a mission that aims to provide one true single point of discovery for great new movies. This campaign is truly driven to help all underappreciated and overlooked films finally realize their full potential. As of May 1, 2016, more than 105,000 people have signed the online petition, expressing their hunger for a single point to access a broad range of high quality films with a hotbed of emerging talent. “Great films should not be dependent on who is in the movie, which studio produced it, or how much it cost produce, but instead on the power of story, characters, resonance, relevance and much more,” stated Warner.

Flix Premiere is the brainchild of serial entrepreneur and film producer Martin Warner. The world’s first cineplex uses technology innovation to break traditional barriers and connect audiences with the work of talented filmmakers. Flix Premiere initiated its global roll-out with a soft launch in the UK, providing film viewers in the UK a new destination to discover movies across genres including drama, comedies, documentaries and animation. The platform is next set to launch in the US and other locations as well.

Beverly Bond partners with Google’s Made with Code for Girls Rock Tech

BLACK GIRLS ROCK!™ founder/CEO and creator/executive producer of the BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Awards on BET, Beverly Bond, teamed up with Google to continue her mission to empower the next generation of girls.

On Saturday, April 2, 2016 at 10 a.m., the BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Day of Service, Beverly Bond and Google’s MADE WITH CODE co-produced the inaugural GIRLS ROCK! TECH Summit at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC) in Newark, NJ. The program invited 100 girls ages 13-17 from Newark, NJ and the surrounding tri-state to participate in fun and engaging coding workshops lead by MADE WITH CODE, two STEAM-career panels curated by BLACK GIRLS ROCK! and several other surprise guest speakers.

In attendance was an extraordinary group of leaders in public policy, computer-science and technology including: Senior Policy Advisor of the White House Office on Science and Technology Policy, Dr. Knotakie Ford; Chief Digital Officer of the US Department of Education Lisa Gelobter; Assistant Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, Lauren Mims, spoke during the event in an effort especially curated to motivate and mobilize girls to consider computer science, coding and other STEAM fields as viable and reachable career paths. Also on hand was actress and education advocate, Tatyana Ali to discuss her association with the program. The GIRLS ROCK! TECH Summit guest speakers and program ambassadors offered motivational words and reflections on the unique ties between art and technology in their respective careers.

“I launched GIRLS ROCK! TECH because I believe it’s critical to give girls the tools needed to excel in the growing fields of coding and computational sciences,” said BLACK GIRLS ROCK! founder, Beverly Bond. “The inaugural GIRLS ROCK! TECH summit is designed to inspire girls of color to become leaders in this sector! I chose to focus on STEAM, because these fields offer girls the liberating and important opportunity to create, innovate and implement products or solutions that positively impact the world; but it is also a booming job market that needs to be diversified. Women and girls absolutely need to have a seat at the table when it comes to the tech revolution!”

Other participating partners included: the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, the City of Newark and the New Jersey Performance Arts Center. Other dynamos who joined the GIRLS ROCK! TECH summit were the American Association for the Advancement of Science Science & Technology Policy Fellow at the National Science Foundation Dr. Quincy Brown; Computer Scientist, Technical Fields Designer and Professor (UCLA and Howard University) Dr. Jamika Burge; 2015 BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Making a Difference Girl, App Developer and Coder Kaya Thomas, 2016 BLACK GIRLS ROCK! Making a Difference Girl and MADE WITH CODE mentor Maya Penn. .

“Coding is the new literacy, and we believe Black women and girls should be at the forefront of innovation,” said Valeisha Butterfield Jones, Head of Google’s Black Community Engagement. “As Google drives inclusion as a company and as an industry, it’s important for girls to be inspired by a diverse group of women already coding today and it is in that spirit that we partner with Black Girls Rock! to bring Google’s Made with Code program to Newark!”

The 1st GIRLS ROCK! TECH summit was a success and many of the young girls in attendance left for the day with quite a bit more education and inspiration. For additional information about the GIRLS ROCK! TECH Summit please visit the Black Girls Rock website.

TinyStic in NYC Helps to Turn Your Smartphone Into a PC

There is something new happening in a small startup office in New York City and if you don’t know about it now, you will in just a few months. It is a new product called TinyStic. What is TinyStic? TinyStic is a new technology that turns your smartphone into a PC. Based on core Miracast technologies, the new USB sized device (the TinyStic) allows users the ability to connect a Bluetooth keyboard (included) and a Bluetooth mouse (included) to a smartphone.

Users can then connect their smartphone to an external large display or big screen TV to access and enjoy all of their files, including office productivity tools,games, movies and more. “The smartphones of today are 30,000 times more powerful than the computer that I programmed on as a 7th grader” said Eric Hamilton, founder of TinyStic. “It only makes sense to use technology to unleash the true power of our smartphones.”

Traditional notebook computers are seeing less and less usage. Nonetheless, consumers still desire the use of larger screens and keyboards when performing certain computing tasks. The TinyStic is destined to be a hit among the mobile consumer.

Pricing and Availability – The TinyStic will be available fall of 2014 at an estimated retail price of $149. However, early adopters will be able buy the TinyStic in July on Kickstarter.com for $99 for a limited time. For more information on the TinyStic visit them at: http://tinystic.com.

And definitely tell your friends. This product will something all will be talking about soon.