V3 Digital Media Conference presented by AAJA-LA

By Sarah Mirza When you arrive at V3con, you'll receive a gift bag with, among other goodies, a sample box of Jelly Belly jelly beans to (quietly) munch on during panel discussions. It's a special treat — first-time V3con sponsor Jelly Belly Candy Co. is contributing an assortment of its well-known sweets, including a green tea flavor and Jelly Belly Beanaturals, neither of which is sold...

By Kristen Taketa Marsha Takeda-Morrison, a Los Angeles-based writer of eight years and a third-generation Japanese American, is V3con’s next featured early registrant. Before diving into writing, she was an art director and designer in the entertainment industry, running a design firm she started at 22. These days, she is an active blogger, documenting her family’s life on Sweatpantsmom,...

By Sarah Mirza I have a junk drawer brimming with, yes, the usual twist ties and dry pens but mostly with the flotsam of aging technology. Nestled among the blank CDs, a baggie of USB drives and a solar panel (long story), is a 6-year-old cell phone. When I upgraded, part of me knew I shouldn't chuck it in the trash. It could come in handy one day, if not for me, for someone else. But...