"There's never been a better time to be a creator in Hollywood."
A day after mobile streaming service Quibi launched, entertainment reporter Sam Blake caught up with its CEO Meg Whitman. She talked about why she decided to base the whole Quibi team — engineers and all — in Los Angeles, and what she sees for the future of entertainment and L.A.'s tech scene.
Senior reporter Tami Abdollah led a discussion on how L.A.'s religious communities are using tech to cope during the coronavirus crisis, and what they're planning for the spring holidays. Discussion of tech's role in religious life has been particularly fraught in L.A.'s Orthodox Jewish community.
We've also announced the contestants in our inaugural virtual pitch showcase on Thursday. We're focusing on tech companies working to alleviate the COVID-19 crisis. Read up on our first presenters below and register for the webinar here!
Meg Whitman Sees a Hollywood Renaissance
Quibi launched this week into a world turned upside down by the novel coronavirus. How do things look on day two? dot.LA caught up with Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman to discuss. "There's always been transitions in entertainment," she said. "Movies to television to streaming to what we hope will be content designed and made for your phone, which opens up a whole new way to tell stories." Read more >>
WATCH: A Rabbi, a Pastor and an Imam Walk into Cyberspace...
For many, the novel coronavirus pandemic has closed the physical doors of their church, synagogue or mosque, but not the virtual ones. So, dot.LA asked, how does one keep the faith when the pandemic disrupts the world's religious activities? Today's virtual roundtable on "Religion's New Faith in Tech" opened a window into how different religious leaders are approaching the coronavirus crisis as the major holidays approach. Watch the discussion and read our takeaways here >>
A Passover Division on Tradition and Tech
The Orthodox Jewish community is wrestling with a new era of religion, one in which people have flocked to online platforms like Zoom, live streaming social media, and pray.com for their religious needs. But that's a hard sell if you strictly abide by Jewish law, which prohibits the use of electricity on holidays. Alleged efforts to meet secretly led a rabbi at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to issue an urgent dispatch about "an alarmingly high ratio of Frum (Orthodox) patients" with COVID-19. Read more >>
Optimism at a Daylong 'Quarantine Conference'
At L.A. marketing agency Hawke Media's virtual conference Tuesday, former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci declared that he's "wildly bullish" about the economy and industry insiders stopped to ponder the future of music, marketing and business in a post-COVID-19 world. Read our takeaways >>
Register For Thursday's Virtual Pitch Showcase
Join us as we host our first virtual pitch showcase on Thursday, April 9th at 11:00 am PST. We will be featuring three emerging companies aiming to have a positive impact on the current COVID-19 crisis.
Founders from Flowly, Shared Harvest Fund, and Meal Share will be pitching to Southern California's investor and tech community. Techstars LA's Anna Barber and our own co-founder, Spencer Rascoff, will judge the competition. Register here - space is limited!