Television’s best and brightest are gathering for the first day of the Media Innovations Summit, a two-day event aimed at examining the future of television and convergent media.  The Summit is the first hosted by the Directors Guild of America Headquarters.

Attendees represented every facet of new media.  More than 300 people from all over the world came to hear industry innovators predict the future of media consumption and technological innovations.

The event kicked off this morning with keynote speaker Mark Cuban, chairman at HD Net and owner of the Dallas Mavericks.  Cuban helped set the tone for the event with his talk "The Future of TV."  Panelists Albert Cheng of Disney-ABC Television Group, Paul Woidke of Advanced Advertising and Emil Rensing of EPIX joined Cuban on the stage for a talk entitled "Coherence Out of Chaos: Where is the Race to Transform Consumer Experience Taking

Mark Cuban

Cuban invited the attendees to think of the future of television in terms of competing for viewers’ free time, or, more accurately put, their time spent bored.  He urged that the thriving format is the one that addresses people’s boredom best.

From this vantage, Cuban says that social networking sites and games like Farmville are in direct competition with television.

Farmville, which Cuban says is little more than a more social form of solitaire, “is a mindless event that is captivating and contagious.”  It is because of Farmville’s popularity that Cuban and other speakers at the event predicted the future of television will be much more interactive. 

Cuban predicted a time in which TV viewers can watch a sports game and also have access to a side column with advertisements and options to buy things instantly.

“You’ve got people in the right position,” Cuban said.  “They’re comfortable, leaning back in their recliner, remote in one hand, they’ve had a couple of beers...” If the cross marketing is done well, it is a perfect opportunity to make a sale.

Cuban says that Facebook is redefining what is possible in advertizing.  This is because for the first time, users are connecting their real identity to sites. Advertising algorithms can now factor in an individual’s search and user history from sites like Amazon and Netflix.

Cuban hypothesized a time when you could be watching television with your spouse, each of you with an iPad in your lap.  The iPad, hearing the television and knowing your Facebook identity, can show you interactive advertisements that are tailored to your interests and situation. 

Cheng said some of this technology is already at work; in the iPad download for the new show "My Generation," there are built in audio watermarks that trigger advertising content to pop up on the tablet at specific times during the episode.

As good as advertising gets, Woidke warns that interactive ads will only be as good as the content of the show.

“It always comes back to content,” Woidke said.  “At the end of the day, getting the right content in front of the right viewer is the same as getting the right advertisement in front of the right viewer.”

The opening presentation set an optimistic tone for the event and the future of television.  Rensing said that all of the technological innovations that are challenging the traditional television structure could ultimately blend to make a stronger medium.

“When HD launched, I heard we were going to stop going to movies,” Rensing said.   “When PayPerView launched, they said it was the end of HBO.   Now we are on the edge of another change.  And we have learned that these things can co-exist with each other.”

Rensing added that these innovations are a way to create content in the way people want to consume it— the ultimate goal for the television industry.

Presentations throughout today and tomorrow will touch on other hot issues regarding television content, including web/TV convergence, relationships between service providers and content suppliers, a shift to the electronic sell-through market and the power of advanced user interfaces.

Reach Contributer Sarah Golden here.