Nearly 600 attendees — hopeful students, film industry moguls and media alike — arrived early Saturday morning, May 1, 2010 for Biola University’s 15th annual Biola Media Conference. The CBS studio lot was buzzing with networking and conversations between attendees before the opening session began with a performance from Grammy Award winning artist David Pack.

Disney veterans Dick Cook and Mark Zoradi led the morning after Pack’s performance, as Zoradi, former president of Disney Motion Pictures Group was presented with the 2010 Briner Impact Award and Cook had an open conversation on stage with host Phil Cooke. The former chairman of The Walt Disney Studios, discussed his beginnings at Disney as a steam train operator to his success with the Pirates of the Caribbean films — which many in the industry originally told him was a bad idea. He emphasized the idea that “content is king” — films must be driven by content that relates to the viewer and simply put, is good.

Workshops throughout the day entertained and informed guests on topics such as the significance of social media, secrets of box office success, introduced the latest technology in the media industry and even discussed the horror genre. Speakers for the workshops included media moguls such as Stan Williams, script consultant on six of Will Smith’s latest films, Perry Lanaro, VP of Finance for Paramount Pictures, and Adam Watts, singer-songwriter, producer, engineer and multi-instrumentalist award-winning solo artist who contributed to two of 2008’s highest grossing films, High School Musical 3 and Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour.

Commencing with comedian Michael Jr., the closing session started off with laughter. President of Walden Media Micheal Flaherty followed in a Q&A style conversation with Cooke about founding Walden Media and the origins of the company considering he came from an education background, not film. Flaherty presented never before seen footage from the upcoming film in the Narnia series, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — a sure highlight of the day.

The closing session ended with a candid conversation between Ralph Winter, Terry Botwick and Cooke, titled “Nightmare on Media Street: The Ugly Truth About Launching a Production Company in 2010.” Botwick, executive producer, former SVP of programming for CBS and Pres. and COO of Big Idea Productions, and former VP of Family Channel, and Winter, producer of X-Men Trilogy, Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes, Fantastic Four movies, and Wolverine, discussed one of their recent ventures, a production company, which subsequently hasn’t done well despite their resumes. The candid talk was a dose of reality for students and attendees as they learned how the economy has hit the film industry and the challenges those in the industry are currently facing.

The Briner Impact Award is given semi-annually to recognize those who have made significant contributions in the world of media.

Written by Jenna Bartlo, Media Relations Coordinator. Jenna can be reached at (562) 777-4061 or through email at