M+E Daily

On the main stage of the Oct. 20 Media & Entertainment Day event, Shelton Mercer, an award-winning executive, tech entrepreneur and philanthropist, encouraged attendees from the M&E industry to use the lessons learned thus far in the pandemic to map their innovations for the future.

“COVID has put us in a place where we’re all virtual,” Mercer said. “Even as this thing rages, we’ve found ways to adapt. Virtual became reality.”

His keynote — “Across the Nation with Innovation Acceleration” — aimed to take M&E Day attendees beyond the technology that’s been adopted to make remote work a reality, “and spur your mind, as we look to the future, as we look at 2020 not just being a black swan moment. Often with the challenge comes opportunity.”

“Where is our opportunity as leaders, as innovators, for this time we’re in?”

He pointed to the unprecedented rush for a coronavirus vaccine, with companies across the world working on clinical trials on short notice, compared to previous pandemic vaccine work. That’s the very definition of innovation, he said.

“Never before have we become dependent on technology, for the ability to connect for the simple things, like seeing our loved ones, having a happy hour with friends, and, of course, having conferences like this,” Mercer said.

He listed five “virtues of innovation” that can guide media and entertainment: professional integrity, authenticity, connectivity, humanity and equity.

“It’s absolutely imperative that we can trust the source and supply chain of data information, and the products and services that come out of that,” Mercer said, running through the five virtues. “In the consumer world, the proliferation of fake accounts and purposeful fake information … is impacting the very nature of what people believe is true.

“Overnight [Zoom] became a niche company to a commodity … we need to be thinking of how we create things looking at the current landscape, what’s needed next with connectivity,” he said. “There’s nothing like being able to look someone in the eye, hug them, touch them, those things we used to take for granted. We need to create places where people can still connect.

“And for equity, we all saw this earlier this year as the virus raged, some people were impacted more than others,” Spencer said. “As innovation and technology leaders, we have a unique opportunity to promote equity in ways other people won’t think of. Policy makers and politicians don’t think the way we do, and we have the ability to fix the status quo.”

“The way we run our companies, the way we push out our products, the way that we engage the public, we can innovate the way equity happens for the next generation,” he said.

M&E Day was sponsored by IBM Security, Microsoft Azure, SHIFT, Akamai, Cartesian, Chesapeake Systems, ContentArmor, Convergent Risks, Deluxe, Digital Nirvana, edgescan, EIDR, PK, Richey May Technology Solutions, STEGA, Synamedia and Signiant and was produced by MESA, in cooperation with NAB Show New York, and in association with the Content Delivery & Security Association (CDSA) and the Hollywood IT Society (HITS).