I am pleased to announce that Vivian Schiller, Chief Digital Officer of NBC News, will be among the keynote speakers at a two-day conference on the state of online video at the W Retreat and Spa in Vieques, a small island off the eastern shore of Puerto Rico.
The conference, on March 16/17, will be limited to 75 participants.All attendees will have the opportunity to participate, either on one of several panels, or through a dialogue with our moderators. The sessions will be taped and published on Beet.TV —  and throughout its syndication network which includes the Huffington Post, AOL/5Min, the Buisiness Insider, Thomson Reuters and the TechCrunch/Crunchbase.

The event will be both a comprehensive dive into our fast-changing industry and an extraordinary networking opportunity with the top publishers, network executives, VC’s, journalists, technologists and advertising executives from around the globe.

Helping me moderate will be leading journalists including Jason Pontin, editor-in-chief of MIT’s Technology Review.
Why Vieques? 
My wife and I have owned a home on the island since 2004. We get down there several times a year.  We take great pleasure in sharing the place with friends and colleagues. We are island boosters. I publish (intermittently) a video blog about the island called Vieques.TV.
The conference begins Friday afternoon, March 16 and ends on Saturday.  Spouses, partners or traveling pals are invited to the social events as are children.There is a registration fee of $750.

Logistics and Transportation

Participants need to fly to San Juan International. There are many  direct flights from U.S. cities via JetBlue, Delta, Continental, American and others. From Europe, there are direct flights from London Gatwick (BA) and Madrid (Iberia).

The flights from NY and Boston are quite reasonable right now (under $400) but will likely go up.

Vieques is about 25 minutes by a small prop engine plane from San Juan International. The plane tickets are about $200 roundtrip. We recommend Cape Air, Vieques Airlink and Seaborne.

There is also a ferry which located in Fajardo, about a 1:15 drive, $75 cab ride from the airport.  The ferry is $2.00.  (You can’t bring a car over on the ferry.)Hotels and other Lodging

The W is providing us a generous room discount.  They are holding rooms for us at special room rate of $299 per night until the end of December.  So if you are planning on coming, please reserve asap by calling the W in Vieques and mention “Beet.TV”: 1.787.741.4100.  (The published rate is $395 and will likely double by March, so grab a room now.)

There less pricey small hotels and guest houses, which we recommend. Also, if you are a family or coming with another couple, renting a house is an option. Some places we suggest are:

Malacon House, modern guest house in Esperanza
Hix Island House, high design ecotourism
Hacienda Tamarindo, old fashion Caribbean inn
Casa Casadas, small and dramatic b&b
Villa Venti, small, modern and cool b&b

There are a number of houses for rent on VRBO.
Also, it would be advisable to rent a Jeep. Avis is the only major brand to rent vehicles on the island. There are several smaller agencies.  We can advise you on this.
If prefer not to drive, we will be arranging transpotation via vans.
Here is a comprehensive directory of lodging, car rentals and vila rentals on the island.Please check back our event page for more information and a link to a registration page.

For more information, contact me at andy@beet.tv or at 646.397.5377
Andy Plesser
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