Park City

Techies Pause Long Hours for Long Weekend of Snow Kiting in Utah

Liz Gannes in Social on January 24, 2011 at 4:20 pm PT

It’s a good time to be an entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, and not just because the parties are getting swankier. More than 30 techies went snow kiting in Park City, Utah, over MLK weekend on a trip organized and funded by the venture capital firm Charles River Ventures.

Viral Video: "Page One" at Sundance

Kara Swisher in News on January 20, 2011 at 12:39 am PT

One of the more interesting movies at the 11th Sundance Film Festival, which opens today in Park City, Utah, will be “Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times.” The documentary is by Andrew Rossi, who spent a year following reporters and editors at the newspaper, even as the media landscape shifted dramatically due to the impact of digital technologies.

Exclusive: SnagFilms Snags $10 Million in Funding at $50 Million Valuation

Kara Swisher in News on January 16, 2011 at 4:15 pm PT

SnagFilms, the online video distribution site for professional documentaries, has nabbed $10 million in funding from Comcast’s investment arm and New Enterprise Associates, and will also now be distributing fictional independent releases. That and the new investment giving SnagFilms a valuation of $50 million should be big news at the 11th Sundance Film Festival, the famous independent film gathering opening in Park City, Utah, on Thursday.

Education Documentary Featuring Bill Gates Gets First Distribution Deal at Sundance

Kara Swisher in News on January 25, 2010 at 1:03 am PT

Bill Gates was at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend–not just to sample some of the fare at the well-known independent film festival, held annually in Park City, Utah, but also to appear at the screening of a documentary about the crisis in public education in which he appears and that scored the first distribution deal at the event. The worldwide rights for “Waiting for Superman,” directed by Davis Guggenheim and produced by Participant Media, were sold to Paramount Vantage, a unit of the Viacom movie studio.

BoomTown Heads to Sundance Film Festival in the Fifth Annual Meet-the-Geeks Pilgrimage

Kara Swisher in News on January 21, 2010 at 5:19 am PT

Today, BoomTown is loading the wife and kids, along with mom, into our tricked-out All Things Digital Winnebago and heading to Park City, Utah, for the 26th Sundance Film Festival. Now, what I know about independent filmmaking could fit neatly into a thimble, with room to spare. But what has brought me back there for five years running is the chance to introduce those auteurs gathered on the frozen tundra to a slice of what’s to come from the digital world.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow… 3-D Digital Ski Slopes Even Cooler

Kara Swisher in News on February 17, 2009 at 12:00 pm PT

Wishing I had had the foresight to head up to the Sierras in California before they finally got a ton of snow dumped on them this past week, I was fiddling around the Web looking for various ski sites as a way to approximate being there. And, like all things in mapping, the best way to see slopes is now in 3-D, the technology that is going to become more and more prevalent on the mostly flat Internet in the years ahead–and well beyond obvious applications.

Kara Visits Sundance and Interviews Hurley, Hastings and Kilar

Kara Swisher in News on January 20, 2009 at 2:29 am PT

Here’s a longish video BoomTown did over the weekend at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. I was there to moderate a panel on Saturday titled, “Where Do We Go From Here? Icons of the Digital Age,” with YouTube co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and Netflix founder and CEO Reed Hastings. I did interviews with each of them here, as well as a chat with my only indie celebrity friend, Jane Lynch, some scenes from the festival and an intro and outro from my own little stars, Louie and Alex Swisher.

Sundancing With the (Tech) Stars

Kara Swisher in News on January 16, 2009 at 7:00 am PT

BoomTown is headed to the 2009 Sundance Film Festival today, an annual journey I make to moderate panels about the tech industry. The festival officially opened yesterday in Park City, Utah. While still largely a confab of independent filmmakers, Hollywood deal types and various celebrities rifling though swag orgies, a lot of geeks are there too.