V3con 2014: Preview of Featured Topic Presentations

By Eugene Hung

This post is the last of a series that has introduced 8Asians readers to some of this year’s V3 Digital Media Conference (V3con) honorees, speakers, panelists, and performers. The V3con Opening Awards Reception will be held on Friday, June 20, 2014 and the V3 Digital Media Conference will be held on Saturday, June 21, 2014 at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, Downtown Los Angeles.

What’s your security clearance level?

You’ll need a pretty high one, because each of the sessions we preview here will be held at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, in the great hall where the Wall of Valor sits! You know, the Wall of Valor to which Agent Ward (that creepy, two-faced HYDRA sleeper scum) took Skye (the Hapa Hacker from Hunan) to see the names of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents killed in the line of duty?

Oops, that was on TV. You won’t actually need a security clearance, but each of these sessions will indeed take place in the Japanese American National Museum’s Aratani Central Hall, which doubled as the setting for that scene in Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. These featured programs include:

• “Social Media for Social Good,” a presentation by super man Richard Lui, anchor for MSNBC and NBC News. Richard will help attendees learn how to use social media more effectively in the service of truth, justice, and positive social change.
• “Diversity in Media,” a discussion moderated by ABC7 News anchor David Ono that will feature journalism professor and author Erika Hayasaki, Hawai’i-based journalist and editor Sandra Oshiro, and American Public Media recruiter Marcello Sawyer. This fantastic four will address the challenge of cultivating, forming, and maintaining a diverse media staff.
• “Diversity Behind the Camera: Writing for Television,” a convo led by KTLA News anchor Frank Buckley. He’ll be joined by television writer Jessica Gao, whose credits include Silicon Valley and Lucasfilm’s Star Wars Detours; Albert Kim, a journalist-turned television writer and producer for shows like Sleepy Hollow and Nikita; and CBS Television’s Vice President of Current Programs Eric Kim. This league of extraordinary talents will wrestle with the question of how to advance diversity behind the scenes.
• “A Conversation with Jonathan Gold and Davan Maharaj,” a meeting of the minds between this year’s V3con Visibility Award honoree (Gold) and the editor and executive vice president for the Los Angeles Times (Maharaj). Think Professor X and Magneto for this one – without, hopefully, the complicated relationship.
• “Japanese American National Museum Exhibition Preview,” a presentation by Koji Steven Sakai, an iron man now in his tenth year with the museum, for which he serves as program manager. He’s also the screenwriter for films that include The People I’ve Slept With and Chink. As a father of two young daughters, I’m really looking forward to his preview of the upcoming Hello Kitty exhibition!

What more do you need to hear? That there will be entertainment by hip-hop artist Dan Matthews, folk electronic musicians Magic Giant, and Japanese drummers Kokoro Taiko Kai? That there will be all manner of opportunities to renew old friendships and make new connections? That you could win an Apple iPad with Retina Display? Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera?

Online sign-up is closed, but you can still register in person! Visit V3con.com/registration/registration-rates for more info.

And finally, 8Asians will be live-tweeting the conference. Follow us on Twitter via @8Asians as we join in the V3con-versation!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: A feminist dad, Eugene Hung is the new SoCal organizer for the Man Up Campaign, which advocates globally for gender equality and against gender-based violence. He writes for Asiance Magazine, which also hosts his blog, Raising Asian American Daughters.