The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) just called for proposals for the 2019 HPA Tech Retreat, which will take place February 11–15 at the JW Marriott Desert Springs Resort & Spa in Palm Desert, California. Proposals submitted during this process make up the main portion of the conference, which focuses on the intersection of creative media and technology. The HPA Tech Retreat is made up of the Tech Retreat Extra (TR-X), the Supersession, breakfast roundtables, an Innovation Zone, and the main conference.

The HPA Tech Retreat main presentations, which are “strictly reserved for marketing-free content,” are scheduled to take place February 13-15. Proposals — which should be sent to Tech Retreat program maestro Mark Schubin at tvmark@earthlink.net — are due by October 26.

“We are looking for the most interesting, thought provoking, challenging and important ideas, diving into almost anything that is related to moving images and associated sounds,” said Schubin, who explained that topics include but aren’t limited to “content for cinema, AR, broadcast in the age of broadband, content protection, dynamic range, enhanced cinema, frame rate, global mastering, higher immersion, international law, joke generation, kernel control, loss recovery, media management, night vision, optical advances, plug-and-play, queasiness in VR, robo-post, surround imagery, terabyte thumb drives, UHD II, verification, wilderness production, x-band Internet access, yield strength of lighting trusses, and zoological holography.”

“Anything from scene to seen and gear to ear is fair game,” said Schubin. “So are haptic/tactile, olfactory, and gustatory applications.” Proposals, which must be submitted by the would-be presenter, are informal and can be “as short as a few sentences in length.” Presentations are typically 30-minutes long, including set-up and Q&A. Those who submit proposals will be contacted if the topic is of interest.

The HPA Tech Retreat is also calling for proposals for breakfast roundtables, which take place at 7:30 am on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (February 13-15). “Table moderators are free to teach, preach, inquire, ask, call-to-task, sell, or do anything else that keeps conversation flowing for an hour,” said Schubin. All roundtable moderators “must be registered for the retreat and there is no retreat registration discount conveyed by moderating a breakfast roundtable.” The maximum number of tables is 32 per day.

“The HPA Tech Retreat main conference, under the brilliant leadership of Mark Schubin, is simply the must-attend event for anyone who works inside this complex world of media production and post production technology,” said HPA president Seth Hallen. “It is a big picture event with an emphasis on the real-world application of the technology that supports the creative process.”

“The authenticity, relevance and passion that comes through in the presentations and discussions is what has always made the HPA Tech Retreat program so unique and special,” he added. “As we are every year, we are all excited to see the proposals that come in for this year’s program. If you have ideas that you are passionate about and that you would like to share with this community, I encourage you to submit.”

In coming weeks, more details will be announced about “TR-X focus, supersession topics, and Innovation Zone details, as well as seminars and meetings held in advance of the Tech Retreat.”