President Leslie Hughes kicks off the 26th Digital Media Licensing Conference’s educational line up with a fresh perspective on the industry now and in the future.

Non-fungible Tokens (NFTS) have taken the art world by storm, becoming a $300+ million market for digital content practically overnight. Join our experts to learn about the business of NFTs—how they’re created and sold, who’s making them (and making money from them), and how your business can benefit.

With the rise of contributor networks and distributed, remote production, the studio model is experiencing a major overhaul. In this session, Head of Shutterstock Studios’ Aiden Darné will share lessons from building a studio from scratch in today’s creative and production environment, the new modes of content creation that are succeeding, why it’s critical to service any AOV, and how upstarts can level the playing field.

Coming out of what was an unprecedented year, 2021 has been nothing short of eventful. From the events of January 6, to virtual award shows and a gradual re-opening around the world, photographers have been on the front lines of it all. Join us for a conversation with four world-leading photographers across News and Entertainment. See their imagery and hear from them directly about how their work has changed and trends they see as a result of the events over the past couple of years.

Long gone are the days when agencies acted as warehouses for photos and video. Today’s visual media licensing platforms are expected to offer customers both authentic content and transformative tech. This panel will introduce attendees to four of the hottest, easily deployed editing and processing solutions that can easily take any library from passive hub to launchpad.

Join Santiago Lyon, Adobe’s Head of Advocacy and Education, for the latest updates on the Content Authenticity Initiative. Santiago will recap how the CAI works, how membership has grown and offer proofs of concept in the works and an update on C2PA.

Long promised and much misunderstood, licensed synthetic content is finally here. Platforms generating lensless media from algorithms are rapidly pushing photo realistic content into distribution channels and onto surfaces that until recently were the exclusive domain of organically created photography and video. This panel of industry pioneers and industry experts will offer a deep dive into the current state of the art, the power of clean, biometrically released datasets, the technology behind all of this and how this big bang moment will impact our industry and beyond.

Approximately 1.5+ billion smartphones are sold throughout the world annually, compared to only 15+ million dedicated cameras. Mobile photography isn’t just another younger-cousin subset of traditional photography — it’s now setting the pace for photographers and creatives worldwide. Hear from Jack about his own switch to mobile and the rapidly advancing mobile photography revolution.

From streaming images, to subscription-based pricing, to user generated media, to social commerce to open-source advertising, new models for monetizing content are exploding onto the scene. Join our expert panelists as we discuss these new models, and share success stories of companies who found new ways to monetize and distribute their content.

During the pandemic, short-form vertical content has exploded in popularity. TikTok has 80 million active monthly users who spend 52 minutes per day on the platform, and YouTube is committing $100 million to expand vertical video on its platform. Vertical content is often highly story-driven, and is seen as more authentic and engaging by users than traditional formats. If your clients aren’t already demanding vertical photos and videos, they soon will be. Join our experts to learn about the market for vertical content, hear perspectives from creators who tell stories in this unique format, and learn about the tools and platforms driving vertical content’s explosive growth.

When our industry discusses DAMS, we mean systems for managing assets we’ve made available for licensing. When our buyers discuss DAMS, though, they’re referring to systems that do so much more. Especially for Fortune 500 companies like Coca Cola and Nike, DAMS are used to track how images perform on social media, to update outdated language around diversity, to value companies’ assets during mergers/aquisitions, and to ensure product images are described in the terms consumers actually use. Hear from David Lipsey, a world-leading expert, about the exciting world of enterprise DAMS and how we can leverage knowledge of our buyers’ DAMs to better serve the needs of our customers (and make our own assets more valuable in the process).

The pandemic and a tumultous political environment have driven major changes in the Editorial world. More sports and entertainment photographers have pivoted to news, buyers are increasingly seeking to use Editorial materials for commercial purposes, and archival content is surging in popularity as advertisers focus on nostalgia and seek materials which don’t require in-person shoots. Join us for a lively discussion of business trends in the Editorial space, and what they mean for photographers and media licensors.

In today’s world, image metadata and alt text are absolutely crucial. Well-written metadata makes images more accessible, drives inclusion, and also enhances SEO value. In many cases, alt text is now a regulatory requirement, driving organizations like IPTC to incorporate accessibility into photo metadata standards. DAM vendors are adapting, too, and creating the software needed to manage and surface metadata and alt text. Join our experts for an interactive discussion of metadata, DAMs, and image accessibility.

Congress passed the CASE Act (Copyright Alternative in Small Claims Enforcement Act) in December 2020 establishing a three-member tribunal, the Copyright Claims Board (CCB), to evaluate copyright infringement small claims where the disputed amount is less than $30,000. How will the process work? How will it affect photographers and copyright enforcement services? Will it encourage copyright trolling or create incentives to resolve disputes without litigation? All this and more will be discussed by a noted content creator and representatives from the Copyright Alliance and the CCB and moderated by DMLA legal counsel Nancy Wolff.

With the prolific rise of deep-fakes, misinformation, and fake news — seeing is no longer believing. It’s more important than ever for creators to protect the credibility of their content. Platforms need to verify the provenance of the content that they publish to maintain trustworthiness. And the public needs to know what is real and what isn’t. Our panel of authenticity experts will discuss next-generation tools and AI-powered technologies to combat the forces of misinformation. Come share your perspective on the emerging ecosystem of trust.

Achieving diverse and authentic representation is absolutely essential for our industry. Sourcing and creating diverse content provides opportunities to a broad range of creatives, and serves customers by ensuring that people of all backgrounds are represented in our imagery. After engaging with diversity-related topics in many of our other sessions, join our experts for a discussion of diversity and authentic representation and what it means for media licensing.

From the licensable badge, to vertical content, to metadata standards, Google is a major force in our industry and beyond. Join Google and the DMLA for a discussion of cutting-edge topics impacting the world of digital media.

Prior to the pandemic, brands had been increasingly turning to in-house or agency photoshoots. But once again, production is changing. During the pandemic and with limited access to in-person productions, companies increasingly turned to on-demand and virtual productions, and 3D modeling and augmented reality to help create the large number of product images needed. One agency said “When you have 22 products with 47 configurations in nine colors, the cost of photographing that is insane.” New tools and cheaper high-end processing power have made some previously costly production options available to far more businesses. Companies are also considering issues like sustainability and data-driven production. Join our panel of experts to discuss these topics, the challenges, opportunities and what they mean to licensing.

Epic Games will show the influence and change in the content landscape that Unreal Engine has brought about or has the potential to do. Libraries of content are key differentiator in the success of platforms and ease of access and use are essential in go to market timelines.

Understanding evolving legal issues is core to the success of the licensing industry. Copyright is the backbone of most business models and changes in the law can have a material impact on how we operate. The DMLA legal committee, made up of diverse legal industry experts, meets regularly to discuss legal issues that impact the industry and explore how the DMLA can advocate for the interests of its members. The committee has identified several key issues to discuss in this panel including, CSMA, copyright enforcement outside the US, NFTs, biometric model releases. The session will also cover legislative and case law developments relevant to the industry.