The two leading media creation, storage, manufacturing, and distribution industry associations: the Content Delivery and Storage Association (CDSA) and MEDIA-TECH Association (MTA) have announced that they are to join forces to provide a new industry event early next year. The Future of Packaged Entertainment Summit, jointly produced by MTA and CDSA, will take place February 3 to 4 at the Universal Hilton in Hollywood. The two-day program will address technology challenges on the first day and content and marketing challenges on the second. In addition, the event will feature a Showcase so supporting companies will be able to exhibit their products and services. The over riding message of the Summit is that there is life in packaged entertainment, and the industry trade associations intend to help all those concerned learn how to maximize potential and profitability in the short to medium term.

"It makes sense for us to join forces on this event," says Bryan Ekus, managing director of MTA, "as our memberships are entirely complementary and cover the entire spectrum of packaged media senior executives, from content owners and replicators through raw material and equipment manufacturers."

"Our joint message is that there is a future for packaged media, and we intend to bring together a number of key speakers from leading companies to show how that can be done, from improving manufacturing processes to identifying and marketing the right content for high definition media."

"This Summit will address the key issues and concerns of the entire range of packaged entertainment executives," says Charles Van Horn, president of CDSA.

"While this is certainly the first step towards helping each other and the industry find ways to work together and extend the life of packaged entertainment the Associations will remain as separate entities, each bringing its own particular strengths to the core issue of extending the life of standard and high definition media," says Ekus.