Festival of Media ends Day One on a positive note; all set for Day Two
Many delegates at the Festival of Media complimented C Squared for making it through the tough spot that the festival was in, but many also pointed out that the subdued audience due to the travel situation in Europe was a dampener despite the efforts. That said, the Festival of Media 2010 managed to finish Day One on a positive note, and the agenda for Day Two looked interesting as well.
Charlie Crowe, CEO, C Squared, referred to the situation that the Festival of Media found itself in due to flight cancellations in Europe as “quite a lesson in crisis management”. He said, “We had a delegate who drove up to Valencia in a minivan, and there was someone who travelled across the world staying with family at various points to get here!”
Crowe spoke further on the rationale behind Festival of Media, stating that no other international festival or event covered media in the way that it should be and that was where the future of advertising and media was. He said, “It is easy to forget that Google is now challenging China. It is easy to forget that games can have larger box office opening figures than movies and that CMOs are questioning marketing department’s structure and where it was all headed.”
He spoke briefly on the media scene, saying, “We are also on the cusp of another interesting change if you see the number of media pitches for the last 12 months. In all, it has been an interesting year. With the mobile and iPad, there are conversations on how that would affect our business and the way we communicate.”
Crowe set the tone of discussion for the day. Many sessions saw one of the original number of speakers and the festival had to naturally cut down from parallel running sessions to a single one at a time. The conversations in breaks were still dominated by airports that were working and flights that many were hopeful would be restored soon.
Speakers extended full support to the festival organisers, with a few even agreeing to speak on two panels. Patience Wheatcroft, Editor-in-Chief, Europe, Wall Street Journal, moderated all the sessions of the day and ensured that the festival conversations were interactive and engaging.
Some of the speakers on Day Two include Mike Cooper, Global CEO, PHD; AdMob’s Russell Buckley; Quentin George, Chief Digital Officer, MediaBrands; Gian Fulgoni, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, comScore; Hernan Sanchez Neira, CEO, Havas Media Intelligence; Doug Scott, President, Ogilvy Entertainment; Andrew Sibley, Head of Brand and Advertising, Cisco; and Kester Fielding, Global Media Procurement Director, Diageo.
