[1][2] He is the executive board member and the founding New York Chair of the Producers Guild of America New Media Council and a recipient of the Marc A. Levey distinguished service award.
Additionally, he has been a panelist for conferences such as NATPE,[5] X-Summit Archived 2013-03-14 at the Wayback Machine,[6] LTE North America,[7] Digital Hollywood[8] and Canadian Music Week[9] among others.
The initial concert on June 15 and 16, 1996 featured the Beastie Boys, Beck, Sonic Youth, Björk, Foo Fighters, De La Soul, The Fugees, Yoko Ono, No Doubt, Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Smashing Pumpkins.
[16] Scarpa produced and directed the live stream of the festival on July 23–25, 1999 which featured musical performances by artists such as Metallica, Kid Rock, Red Hot Chili Peppers, James Brown, Sheryl Crow, Rage Against the Machine, and Limp Bizkit.
[citation needed] On November 8, 1999, Scarpa produced and directed the first presidential Webcast with President Bill Clinton for the Excite@Home Network in partnership with the Democratic Leadership Council.
The series featured Linkin Park, T.I., Paul Oakenfold among many others musical artists and was their first foray into live participatory media that celebrated community through individual expression.
[19] Hosted by Renee Intlekofer and Shaina Fewell of Project MyWorld, user questions were answered by the dj's, performing artists and attendees live on camera using mobile phones provide by T-Mobile.
was joined by special onstage guests: Twista, Lupe Fiasco, and DJ Drama, with hosts Nick Cannon and Aubrey O'Day from Danity Kane.
The ensuing result for Scarpa was a real time documentary shot from a first person perspective, which he weaved in and out of the artist performances during the HD streaming broadcast.
[19] The Leeza Gibbons Memory Foundation and Extra TV sought to create a charity event that would incorporate a viewing of the Oscars with live interactive media.
[23] Scarpa was asked to produce and direct the first-annual charity gala, which featured hosts Leeza Gibbons, Olivia Newton-John and entertainment director, David Foster.
[24] The live stream was broadcast directly from Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills, and was accessible via several partner websites including ExtraTV.com, Glam.com, Variety.com and Jessica Biel's Make a Difference Network.
Special guests included: Laila Ali, Mel B, Michael Bublé, Wilson Cruz, Hilary Duff, Tony Hawk, Paris Hilton and many others.
[26] The online event festivities kicked off on January 29, 2010, two days prior to the awards night TV telecast, with The Recording Academy's Social Media Rock Star Summit hosted by CNN at the GRAMMY Museum.
It was a participatory panel discussion among social media trailblazers including Pete Cashmore, Nikhil Chandhok, David Karp, Kevin Rose, and Jared Leto along with an online and studio audience that spotlighted the intersection of music and the digital space.
Scarpa, who is also a voting member of the Recording Academy, was invited back for a second installment, which mirrored the first participatory video experience for the 53rd GRAMMY Awards show as an executive producer.
Overall, the stream included over 20 hours of real-time video programming featuring musical artists, speakers, backstage access and pre-taped content in 10 cities across America celebrating related Earth Day activities.
The events featured musical artists Sting, The Roots, O.A.R., John Legend, Flaming Lips, Los Lobos, Grateful Dead's Bob Weir, Booker T. Jones, and environmentalist supporters such as Chevy Chase, Edward Norton, Avatar director James Cameron, Jesse Jackson and author Margaret Atwood.
In 2011 Scarpa, continued breaking new ground in participatory media with the launch of the first social TV network, Vidblogger Nation, through Comcast's XFinity On Demand.
[32] Vidblogger Nation showcases ten prominent video bloggers including Zennie Abraham (Atlanta), Sacha Heppell (Denver), Jeffrey Wisenbaugh (Michigan), Jen Friel (New England), Rocco Leo Gaglioti (New Jersey), Jessica Berry (Philadelphia), Tony Thomas (Portland (Oregon)), Ann Spade (Sacramento), Sarah Austin(San Francisco) and Jenny Scordamaglia (South Florida) areas.
Each local blogger contributed 36 three- to five-minute episodes for the network launch on subjects ranging from the best place to find a non-alcoholic happy hour to the most haunted houses in their city.
Vidblogger Nation is the first television network to actively encourage participation in its programming whereby the audience assists the VidBloggers in discovering their local market and bringing them along for the experience[33] Scarpa collaborated with rock band Incubus for Incubus HQ Live, a participatory media exhibit and real-time documentary that allowed unprecedented fan access and interaction with the band as they prepared for the release of their seventh studio album, If Not Now, When?
From June 30 to July 6 in a warehouse space in West Los Angeles, California, band members Brandon Boyd, Mike Einziger, Jose Pasillas, Ben Kenney and DJ Kilmore and their fans participated in instrument clinics, question and answer sessions, video chats and large art canvases where both band members and fans alike were encouraged to share original artwork.
[34][35] Events throughout the day and the nightly performances were streamed over the web from multiple points of view (professional and fan-held cameras alike) while participants from around the world shared in the experience through Twitter, Facebook, Livestream, TweetBeam and YouTube.
[37][38] Scarpa's multi-platform, real-time approach to the documentary format allowed Incubus and their fans to reflect on what the music had come to mean to them over time, its significance for them in the moment and its potential and possibility for the future.
[40] For the U.S. launch of Simon Cowell's international hit television competition, The X Factor, Sony Music brought Scarpa in to produce and direct a completely integrated second-screen experience and live digital pre-show.
Hosts Taryn Southern,[42] Jim Cantiello[43] and Dan Levy along with special guests (including judges Simon Cowell, L.A. Reid, Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger), vlogger CourtneyPants, and participants from around the country discussed everything from their favorite performances to contestant's fashion and song choices.
[52] Scarpa put together the PGA Digital VIP's Awards ceremony that honored Bill Westenhofer, Ben Donovan, and Conan O'Brien, Ed Ulbrich, John Lasseter, Jim Carrey, and more in 2013.