On Thursday, February 27, leading industry consultant Brian Ring will moderate the Streaming Media Connect panel "FAST Forward: How FAST Platform and Infrastructure Providers Can Better Serve the Market." As with any other type of streaming delivery, FAST needs to "just work" to support publishers' monetization goals, but that's nowhere as simple as it sounds. This panel examines essential infrastructure challenges and key emerging strategies for better FAST delivery. Join us to learn about manifest manipulation vs. encoded playout; optimizing and maximizing "Be Right Back" slots as in-house inventory; using GenAI to program the channel; solving the context/genre madness with LLMs and captions; advanced graphics for background, tune-in, and monetization; QR code execution, a must-have skillset; and how to execute picture-in-picture content programming. Confirmed panelists include experts from A+E, Plex, Revry, and Freemantle.