The future of television is the focus of ConvergenceTV.com, a conference scheduled for Aug. 9-10 at the Toronto Hilton Hotel. Produced by Playback, the event will bring together industry professionals for nine sessions on the expanding relationship between interactivity and traditional television broadcasting.

A session entitled ‘Defining Convergence’ will feature a panel of experts discussing the future of convergence platforms and the formats that are expected to survive. The progress of streaming media will be tracked in ‘Meeting the Technical Challenges,’ in which content developers and hardware and software designers alike will speak about achieving the best results in the production of interactive television.

Form is nothing without content, and the creative side is the main order of business in ‘Creating Compelling Content.’ Content quality will be addressed along with the issues of program length, the complexity of interactivity, expanding storylines, and animation on the Web. ‘Keeping the Audience Engaged’ will offer case studies illustrating how webcasters as well as tv broadcasters with website spin-offs shape content and use advertising to attract and maintain web traffic to their sites.

‘Live TV & Special Event Programming’ will feature webcasting trailblazers discussing this method of broadcast, while ‘Commercials & Convergence’ will showcase ways the integration of new media and television will affect commercial production.

Then there are the matters of raising and making money. Producers, broadcasters, and fund executives will address the financing of both Web content creation and the extension of existing programming to the Internet in a session called ‘Funding Interactive Content.’

Distributors, producers, and acquisition execs are just starting to come to terms with business models in the convergent world, and ‘Content Acquisition, Licensing, and Copyright Protection’ will offer them the opportunity to talk about deal structuring and program rights protection. The Financial Models will outline the various revenue routes webcasters are taking, including e-commerce, advertising and sponsorship, pay-per-view, and subscriber services.

Confirmed speakers include: Jon de la Mothe, manager e-commerce & relationships, Global Television New Media; Julian Wharton, cofounder, GigaThon Inc.; Andra Sheffer, executive director, Bell Broadcast & New Media Fund; Bruce Warren, ceo, Blue Zone Entertainment; David Rivers, director of it, Blue Zone Entertainment; Roma Khanna, evp, Snap Media Corp.; Dave King, content director, Snap Media Corp.; Shaun McIver, gm, Activate Canada; Brian Katz, vp business development-content, Infopreneur; and Richard Sharp, ceo, Sharp Media.

Also lined up are: Dave Sciuk, evp business affairs and market development, ExtendMedia; Geoffrey Shea, president, Unscrambled.com; Maria Hale, managing director, ChumCity Interactive; William Craig, ceo and president, iCravetv; Barbara Williams, senior vp of programming, Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting; Michael Shostak, president, Vickers & Benson Interactive; David Plant, national market development manager, entertainment & digital media, SGI Canada; Ted Iannuzzi, ceo, Cycore Canada; and Michael-Andreas Kutner, ceo, Collideascope Digital Productions.

www.convergence-tv.com