Information for BAPLA members and non-member agencies and suppliers

We’re delighted to bring you a new international networking event all under one virtual roof, taking place over two afternoons on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 October.

Start time: BST 13:45; CET 14:45; EDT 08:45; SGT 20:45

Day 1

will be specifically for agencies and suppliers, enabling you to hold business meetings and share your latest content and services with each other.

Day 2

will be a marketplace for agencies where you can meet with picture researchers, editors and buyers to showcase your latest services and offerings.

On both days we will be hosting opening keynote sessions and closing panel discussions on essential industry topics, with Breakout Rooms available for networking in between.

Each day will end with a social. We will also host a Wellness Workshop in the main room while breakout sessions are running, to enable participants to have a pause in between meetings.

With a virtual event there is no need to travel during a time of uncertainty, and not having to set up for a physical event lowers the cost. The event is open not only to those based in the UK, but also importantly those overseas, making it accessible to a broad range of industry colleagues across the globe. Attendance on both days is highly recommended to get the most out of this one-off opportunity.

Day 1 Keynote

In-Image Advertising: the future of income growth from online images

Generating income from image licensing is more challenging than ever. Average licensing fees continue to drop, image theft continues to be a problem, free image content is not going away, and we must adapt in order to survive.
But how? And if the money isn’t in licensing, where exactly is it?

SmartFrame’s image streaming technology provides unprecedented image protection, tracking and control, along with monetisation by way of in-image advertising.

Streaming has already proven itself in the music and film industries among others, and by using this to safeguard images against theft, image owners, publishers and agencies can protect their rights and the values of these assets, while also tapping into the $455bn that’s spent on digital ads each year.

Our technology is already being used by almost 20,000 websites and we are currently working with some of the biggest names in the industry on this revolution. Image streaming is inevitable – and we’ll be explaining how you will profit from this.

 

Joel MillerSpeaker

Joel Miller is the Director of Sales for SmartFrame technologies, an image streaming technology company.

Joel has enjoyed a 30 year career in image licensing and monetization, copyright compliance, content creation, and image streaming technology sales. Previously leading sales teams at The Image Bank NY and Boston (later acquired by Getty Images), The Associated Press as Director of Wide World Photos (Now AP Images), and VP of Sales at both PicScout and ImageRights International, Joel now is working closely with Publishers and Photo Agencies to help protect, enhance, and monetize their image assets with a patented image streaming technology from SmartFrame.

Day 2 Keynote

Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI): re-thinking trust in what we see

How can we trust the content we see and experience every day? In the age of Deepfakes, NFTs and incredible AI-powered tools for creativity, knowing what is real requires not only new technologies but new ways of understanding digital trust signals.

Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative was founded to seek out ways to achieve a shared understanding of objective facts about media. In this talk, we’ll explore what has been accomplished so far and the future of authenticity on the Web.

Speaker

Andy Parsons is the Director of Adobe’s Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), which is creating the open technologies for a future of verifiably authentic content of all kinds. With collaborators across hardware, software, publishing and social platforms the CAI is empowering creators with secure provenance.

For information consumers, this important work restores trust and transparency to the media they experience.

 

Andy Parsons

Throughout his career, Andy has worked to empower creative professionals with innovative technologies. Prior to joining Adobe Andy founded Workframe (acquired in 2019), the pioneering visual platform for commercial architecture. Andy previously served as Chief Technology Officer at McKinsey Academy, McKinsey’s groundbreaking educational platform and he co-founded Happify, the world’s leading mobile platform for digital therapeutics and behavioral health. He has enjoyed deep involvement over the years with the open-source ecosystem, recently as the organizer of the Clojure/NYC engineering community, which grew to several thousand members under his stewardship. Andy is a frequent speaker on topics including media provenance, engineering leadership and entrepreneurship.

Day 1 Closing panel

What next for the industry? A discussion with Trade Association representatives

In 2020 and 2021 businesses in the image industry had to rapidly change and adapt as a result of the pandemic. In addition to these huge challenges, political, social, technological and legislative issues affecting the industry for years remain.

In this session we’ll take a look at what’s on the horizon from three different perspectives. As ever, it’s a balancing act between challenges and opportunities - are these the same in the US, Europe, UK and elsewhere in the world? We’ll find out from our panel of leading trade association representatives, what they think is coming, so, as an industry, we can all be one step ahead.

Speakers

Isabelle Doran, Chair, BAPLA

Isabelle is the current Chair of BAPLA (British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies) having previously undertaken the role for four years during 2013-2017.

Throughout her career spanning over 25 years, Isabelle has been both a supplier and client - previously working in the design sector, as well as at several picture libraries, including as a photography graduate at Tony Stone, before it became Getty Images, and Magnum Photos, and previously ran a lifestyle image library, Loupe Images, for 14 years.

She is a strong advocate on copyright and its importance for creators and rightsholders as a means of generating essential income and a way of protecting image content. As BAPLA Chair, Isabelle is also currently a board director (representing Artistic Works) for the British Copyright Council, board representative at the Alliance for IP, and formerly Chair of PICSEL, a collective management organisation for professional image rightsholders.

britishcopyright.org

allianceforip.co.uk

Leslie Hughes, President Chair, DMLA

Leslie  is the founder and CEO of tech start-up, iSPY Technologies, Inc. and two subsidiary organizations: iSPY Visuals and iSPY Education. Also, the current President of the Digital Media Licensing Association.

Ms. Hughes has expertise blending content, creative and technology. She launched iSPY Visuals 3 years ago to address the many challenges creative pros and photo editors face searching for and working with images and video across platforms.

iSPY Visuals is a SaaS platform that connects creatives to more than 30 image providers and gives users a personalized workspace with unlimited storage, unlimited projects, unlimited lightboxes and collaboration tools for working with peers, colleagues and suppliers.

iSPY will be launching its SaaS platform into the education space with iSPY Education soon to address the booming online education market of users in a complex, underfunded and under-digitized education space.

She was previously the CEO of Imagestate PLC, President of Corbis Images and Corbis Products & Markets Group, CEO of Elisar Technology and the Head of Worldwide Sales for The Image Bank.

Strategy and digital media experience spans start-ups to P&L responsibility for $100MM+ corporations. Global leadership in the US, UK, France and Hong Kong. Business development and franchise experience in 36 countries with direct operational oversight in 12 countries.

Ms. Hughes has her MBA and is the proud mother of two.

ispytech.io

digitalmedialicensing.org

Christina Vaughan, Founder & CEO, Image Source, Chair, CEPIC

Christina is the Founder and CEO of the Image Source Group, a leading international provider of premium stock and video imagery available.

Christina has previously served as CEPIC President between 2009 and 2013 and returns as Chair of CEPIC providing her international experience, knowledge and understanding of CEPIC, EU lobbying and her global network.

With over 2 decades of experience in the industry and having also worked in the music licensing industry, Christina combines wisdom and experience with fresh energy and an ability to reach out to new audiences and international partners.

Image Source is long time member of BAPLA, UK, and a member of honour of SNAPIG, France.

imagesource.com

cepic.org

Day 2 Closing panel

What constitutes commercial and non-commercial licensing?

Commercial vs. non-commercial use is an issue of much debate and opinion, as from a legal perspective, there is no specific distinction between the two, leaving it up to businesses to interpret. Each of our panellists will share their thoughts on:

  • What do we mean by commercial as opposed to editorial use?
  • What factors come into commercial use?
  • Is there more of a requirement to distinguish between commercial/non-commercial in the international marketplace?
  • What happens when you push non-commercial use too far via copyright exceptions?
  • Can we reach an agreement on what is deemed commercial or non-commercial use?

Speakers

Cristina Lombardo, Director of Licensing EMEA, VICE Media

Cristina Lombardo (LL.M.) is a leading rights and licensing consultant. She has worked with broadcasters, museums, publishers and service providers to streamline copyright licensing processes in the creative sector.

At Vice Media, Cristina heads up Rights and Clearances for EMEA, and routinely trains her international teams on licensing, copyright and related rights across the commercial, advertising, editorial, fashion and news departments.

She specialises in comparative copyright laws and loves playing with exceptions to copyright and local practice in different jurisdictions across the world.

vicemediagroup.com

Estelle Moh, Associate, David Llewelyn & Co LLC, Singapore

Estelle graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree from Singapore Management University and qualified as an Advocate & Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Singapore in 2016. She joined David Llewelyn & Co LLC in 2021.

Estelle has worked on a wide variety of cases litigated in both the State Courts and the Supreme Court of Singapore, including intellectual property and employment matters.

She also has experience in family disputes, matrimonial work, probate and administration, adoptions and guardianships, and criminal matters.

Estelle is proficient in Mandarin and Korean.

dllewelyn.com.sg/estelle-moh/

Anna Skurczynska, Founder Director, Open Plan Law

Anna started her practice as a solicitor in the mergers & acquisitions at the international law firm of White & Case LLP. Over time she specialised in transactions involving IP assets leading her to focus on the protection of creativity.

In 2016, drawn back to private practice, Anna founded Open Plan Law with the ambition of offering innovative, engaged and collaborative legal services to creators of all kinds.

As legal relationships become increasingly complex in the globalised and tech-dominated economies, she firmly believes that those who treat legal advice as an indispensable element of their business will be at a competitive advantage.

She is a firm believer that legal services should be accessible, affordable and practical while delivered to the highest standards.

In 2018, Anna was shortlisted for the Law Society’s Excellence Award (Private Practice) and singled out for her contribution to the photography industry.

Anna is a photographic copyright expert on the British Copyright Council, and is a member of the Copyright Editorial Board at Lexis.

She is an Associate Lecturer in Media Law and Ethics at the University of the Arts (UAL) where, since the star of the Covid-19 pandemic, Anna has led a journalistic student project on the impact of the coronavirus on human rights.

openplanlaw.com

Day Ticket bookings

Day tickets are free to all BAPLA members. Please note that you must book free Day Tickets in addition to Breakout Rooms, as you can only join the event through individual registrations. Overseas agencies must therefore also register free Day Tickets to join you in your Breakout Room. For UK-operating agencies and suppliers who aren’t BAPLA members, paid for Day Tickets are available.

Recording

BAPLA Connect will not be recorded - this is to encourage open and authentic comments from all of our speakers. Please bear this in mind when booking your ticket.

Joining BAPLA Connect

The event will take place via Zoom. Joining instructions will be emailed on Monday 4 October directly to everyone who registered for a ticket on Eventbrite.

All participants will receive a small joining pack with helpful information prior to the event about the programme itself, logging onto Zoom and Breakout Room attendance, a list of participating agencies and suppliers, sponsors, and finalised keynote speakers.

 

Sponsorship opportunities

If you are interested in sponsoring the event, we have a wide range of affordable options available. Please contact the BAPLA office and we will put you in touch with our sponsorship consultant Mary Egan.

Confirmed Breakout Rooms

Sponsored by

Capture Ltd provides digital asset management and media library systems and services. Specialising in media management, rights, licensing, metadata, finance and royalties, our configurable solutions and expert services help a range of organisations to manage, protect, license and elevate the value of images, video, documents, and all other digital content.

As well as software, Capture has a team of experts providing keywording services to enhance content discoverability, consultancy on matters relating to content and licensing, as well as dedicated resource to manage parts, or all, of your media library.

Capture has a strong reputation across a wide customer base, with a large footprint in the cultural and heritage sector, as well as other sectors covering publishing, sporting organisations, commercial image libraries and charities.

IDS, a FADEL company, are renowned for delivering essential SaaS solutions to major media publishers and brands for nearly 30 years. IDS are experts in digital image and video management, providing content services, a content aggregator and powerful search technology to customers across media publishing, luxury and retail brands, as well as over 100 photo agencies.

idspicturedesk.com

PICSELPICSEL is a not-for-profit collective management organisation (CMO), committed to taking care of image rightsholders interests and providing a level platform to engage in secondary licensing.

As a new collecting society for pictures our key objective is to ensure that all visual artists, creators and representative rights holders, in the UK and abroad, can claim royalty payments more effectively.

PICSEL launched in December 2015, as an independent CMO in the UK, under the auspices of the Collective Management of Copyright Regulations 2016, providing much needed healthy competition in the marketplace to benefit rightsholders within the Image Sector.

PICSEL exclusively represents a significant number of image-based rightsholders, including individuals, by contract.

Collectively our members have almost 140 million images available to license.

PICSEL is responsible for collecting monies made from reprographic and digital copying which is fairly, equitably and timely distributed to rights holders of image works, including individual creators, picture libraries and agencies.

picsel.org.uk

Shutterstock, Inc. is a leading global creative platform offering full-service solutions, high-quality content, and tools for brands, businesses and media companies. Additionally, the Company also owns Offset, a high-end image collection; Shutterstock Studios, an end-to-end custom creative shop; PremiumBeat, a curated royalty-free music library; Shutterstock Editorial, a premier source of editorial images and videos for the world's media; TurboSquid, a leading 3D content marketplace; Amper Music, an AI-driven music platform; and Bigstock, a value-oriented stock media offering.

About SmartFrame Technologies

Founded in 2015, SmartFrame Technologies is a London-based software provider whose aim is to redefine the digital image standard.

Its SmartFrame platform allows content owners and brands to protect their assets and present them in the best possible way, while also allowing publishers to source and embed high-quality images, and for everyone involved to generate new revenue streams by way of in-image advertising.