Sometime in the early 1970's, there was an entertainer who failed to appear for a show at a small snack bar in Kobe, Japan. That idea has today turned into an estimated $25 billion a year worldwide business. Karaoke (which roughly translates to "empty orchestra") is a word that is now defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, has spawned various business and technology enterprises, and has even inspired FOX Interactive Media's acquisition of a site called kSolo (for an estimated $10M). Whether in the arts, entertainment, fashion, automobile industry or part of Asian culture, this is the kind of imprint our conference will be exploring. We will be discussing the impact these trends have on the Asian youth and how that particular segment is bringing it to the mainstream and the impact it is having on society through urban pop culture. To facilitate discussions and provide insights into this subculture, the conference will bring together artists, cultural icons, fashionistas, marketers, and yes, research, to provide each attendee with a forum to discuss and question. The one day event promises to bring you names that you probably never heard of before, but will be hearing more of in the future. It will bring you closer to what is going to happen, rather than explain why it already occurred. But mostly, this event will give you a first hand experience of being back in that snack bar in Kobe and introduce you to those trends that will help you make an imprint for your product or company. Visit the 2006 Imprint Website.

2006 speakers

James Keoni Arizumi
Nike SB
Carl Choi
CEO, Catch Music Group, LLC
Raymond Choy
Toy2r
President
Ted Chung
C&A Marketing
President
Thuy Dang
Live Sockets Entertainment
James D. Farley
Toyota Motor Sales
VP Marketing
Susie Ghahremani
Boygirlparty.com
Creator/Illustrator
John Hiler
Xanga.com
CEO and Co-Founder
David Horvath
UGLYDOLL
Creator/Designer
Julia Huang
interTrend
CEO
Bobby Hundreds
The Hundreds
Creative Director
Roy Lee
Vertigo Entertainment
Film Producer
David Morse
New American Dimensions, LLC,
Eric Nakamura
 Giant Robot
Publisher/Editor
Giancarlo Pacheco
Plan C Agency
President
Gonzalo Perez
MTV
Director
Gregory Rodriguez
LA Times
Josh Rubin
Cool Hunting
Editor-in-Chief
George Takei
Actor
Thomas Tseng
New American Dimensions, LLC.
Woody
Sneaker Freaker
Editor
Karen Wang
AZN Television
Director
Yu-Ming Wu
Freshness
Co-Founder
Phil Yu
Angry Asian Man
Creator
DJ Shy
Far East Movement
Music Group
Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai
Spoken Word Artist

Danny Choo

dannychoo.com

I think one of the reasons we have succeeded as bloggers is because we’re the voice of the consumer. When I started my blog I found it odd to put products and ads in my personal blog. I didn’t think anyone would want to buy stuff from my blog, or click on the ads. But I just tried it out one day, and the revenue started coming in, mostly from the Amazon Associates program. I thought it would be cool to make enough money to pay for the phone bill. My wife’s going to kill me for saying this, but before I knew it, the money that came in particularly through Amazon, I made enough to buy a house in Tokyo.

Rob Heppler

The Weekly Drop

If you posted (something about a store), the store would say “wow, good job!” and send you a jacket, a mug, a pen, and they sold a hundred thousand dollars worth of product.

Bobby Hundreds

Owner/Designer of The Hundreds

We skated but we listened to hip-hop. We were heshers and we hung out at the punk shows. We did everything. And when we started the clothing company we wanted something that reflected all of that. Something that was’t going to be pigeon-holed.

Brian Lam

Gizmodo, Editor

A lot of old blog philosophy was about linking to other people’s work and that spirit’s still there, but it’s undeniable that the reason we’ve gotten recognition is that we’ve all done original content. We’re not just linking to other people’s work. I prefer to do my own work; to do it faster than anyone else, better than anyone else.

Dan The Automator

Hip-Hop and Rap Producer

A lot of groups have a record or two where the musical element becomes a bigger component than it was before, making truer musical stars. Over the years a groups of people started to recognize a kind of sound that they were into, it was a very small group of people, though it got bigger ang bigger. (Following producers) allows them to get into something new, because they know there’ll be something they like, or at least pique their interest. The difference between us and the mainstream is money. I don’t mean making money. If a record gets big, it doesn’t mean I make more money, but it gets pushed further and further out to a different demographic.

Alyasha Owerka-Moore

Urban Fashion Designer

Streetwear now is the antithesis of what it was. It’s the last vanguard of what it was considered to be before, as far as I’m concerned.

Andy Wang

MMA Fighter

There are obviously a lot of smart Asians, but I wanted to show that we are integrated in sports too. There’s never been an Asian guy in ultimate fighting before, so I took a lot of pride and gratification in opening doors.

Daniel Wu

Actor/Director

If you’re good at what you do it don’t matter what color you are.

David Choi

Songwriter Warner/Chapel Hill

I’m not really trying to be an artist. I’m more focused on writing.

Christine Gambito

"Happy Slip"

Of course it’s every actress’s dream to have a creative outlet and venue to share your full potentital. All along when I was pursuing conventional route of acting, it was hard to find an opportunity to say well here are my weird things, if you wanna see them. People have their own projects and they want to see how you fit into their boxes. I was born for this era where you can do everything yourself and not have to go through anyone else to do your thing. People were like, “hey you should go to Hollywood or New York,” but that was so daunting when I knew I could do this from home. It’s fun doing it all yourself.

XIN Sarith Wuku

Guerilla Stunt-Man

I’m banned from most malls and now The Kodak Theater. I’m trying to make that list bigger.