FestForums Santa Barbara

Steve Knopper is author of last year's "MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson" and 2009's "Appetite for Self-Destruction: The Spectacular Crash of the Record Industry in the Digital Age." He covers the music business, including concerts and festivals, as a Rolling Stone contributing editor, and has written for the New York Times Magazine, GQ, Wired, the Wall Street Journal, National Geographic Traveler and many others. He has been a... Read More →

SHARON BADAL is vice president of filmmaker relations and shorts programming for Tribeca. She has been with the festival since its inception in 2001 and has produced special projects for Tribeca since 1999. Her first job was at age 14 as an usher in her father’s suburban movie theatre, and it was there that she fell in love with “the movies.” Since that rather inauspicious start she has produced numerous live-events, worked... Read More →

David Alan Bernahl II is CEO & Co-­‐Founder of Coastal Luxury Management (CLM), an idea kitchen with a current focus in the hospitality and lifestyle sectors. CLM was first widely recognized for producing Pebble Beach Food & Wine, a four-­‐day, annual event hosted at Pebble Beach Resorts that attracts 8,000 people, 100 celebrity chefs, 250 international wineries and provides cooking demos, wine tastings, and numerous... Read More →

Noah Cowan has been Executive Director of the San Francisco Film Society (SFFS) since March 2014. He joined SFFS after five years at the helm of TIFF Bell Lightbox, the landmark cinema museum space in Toronto where he served as the facility’s founding Artistic Director. There he was responsible for the creative and artistic vision for the multi-purpose film venue and home of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Cowan began... Read More →

Alex is Senior Director of New Business & Partnerships at Superfly, where he splits his duties equally between the company’s festivals – such as the world famous Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival and the Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park – and Superfly’s agency, where he works directly with clients on their brand-focused marketing campaigns. He has... Read More →