During Joanna Shields' (Veon CEO) opening "vision" speech, she emphasized Veon is primarily focused on how to "make broadband a business" as did other company speakers who followed. Veon's technology platform of tools and the medium, itself, called "hypervideo" (hyperlinks and other enhancements that can be placed inside streaming video with the Studio tool) was on display at the event. Certain partners were asked to showcase what one could do with it (see below). Some people voiced concern that there was not enough attention paid to the non-commercial content potential of the medium by the company. ITVT believes this will come in time as more companies and individuals begin to experiment with it. Download the producer's tool from their Web site, if you like. On the other hand, Veon's technology still faces the need for speed in order to support the medium. To prepare for a broadband future, Veon recently announced that Excite@Home and AOL would support the technology. ITVT was told about other high-speed partners, but this is still under NDA. Below, please see a short review of various aspects of the event:

Keynote by John Scully (Veon investor and mentor) Talked gently about the "Customer Economy" and "New Economy" of broadband and about the importance of finding return on investment. Also spoke about the history of "taming video". Believes Veon is an "important piece of the puzzle" towards making video/broadband truly interactive and a reality.

Bridget LeRay - Director of Business Development Showcased 8 projects by partners. Demonstrations exemplified a variety of text/video/clickable HTML solutions.

A few examples:

1. MXGTV.com - "Fashion Junkies" - ongoing video to left with links to buy clothing of featured stars around player on page.
2. "Austin Powers" - multiple hotspots/links placed in trailer with icon links on Web page.
3. General Motors - ongoing video upper left with links bottom left of page which pull down static images to upper left of car.
4. Fashion TV - beautiful frames of Web page with muted colors framed video stream in middle of page. Featured integrated hotspots or icon links below that pulled text or images to left and right.

Other speakers such as Rob Swartz, president of MXGTV.com, went into depth about how Veon's technology was part of an overall strategy of media products to win the hearts, in his case, of teenage girls. Christopher Zak, director of broadband partnerships from Excite@Home talked about his company and plans for broadband. ITVT specifically asked him about new services with Veon in mind; however, he said at the moment, the technology will support the interests of advertisers.

Bits of news from the event:

• i-BEAM, a satellite broadcaster, will use the Veon platform to create, track, and deploy Veon files over their network.
• Veon is joining the Windows Media Broadband Jumpstart initiative a group of 60+ companies that will work together to develop more opportunities for broadband.
• Macintosh Veon Player coming out soon.

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