The New New ft. Scott Elias + lots of other interesting people

Two weekends in April, Scott Elias organized 9 speakers to come talk to us about their careers and experiences in advertising (or marketing). From a partner at a venture capital firm to an R&D lead at Johnson & Johnson, we were lucky enough to hear from a wide variety of perspectives in different categories.
The speakers:

o   Chris Paik – Partner
§  Thrive Capital
o   Spencer Rice – CMO
§  SoulCycle
o   Adrian Chernoff – R&D, Innovation
§  Johnson & Johnson
o   Stinson Parks – Digital content lead
§  Mountain Dew
o   Nicole Gill – Director, PR
§  Formerly SKD Knickerbocker
o   Rachel Tipograph – Founder
§  Mik Mak
o   Yoni Ben-Yehuda – CMO
§  Formerly Blue Mountain Media
o   Matt Cynamon – VP community management
§  General Assembly
o   Scott MacEachern – Founder
§  The Wizdom Project

In a time when every category is as saturated as ever, and anyone, anywhere, can launch their own business through the internet, it’s as important as ever to focus on innovation and differentiation. 
There were a lot of topics and themes covered during the meetings, ranging from how to start your own app, to the conception of a Super Bowl soft drink commercial using a 3-part-puppy-baby-monkey hybrid, while themes discussed included the relevance of social cause in consumer advertising as well as the re-emergence of existing products and businesses in new forms via new channels. My biggest takeaway, though, was the significance, or insignificance, age and experience played (age and experience’s role in today’s marketplace is something I’ve already spent a lot of time discussing with coworkers and classmates) in the path of three of the speakers: Chris from Thrive, Rachel from MikMak and Matt from General Assembly.

All 3 of the speakers I mentioned above, I believe, were in their late twenties, and all 3 were extremely capable and successful. This was the first topic I brought up when telling friends about the speakers (which may serve to strengthen the stereotype of millennials being entitled, but that’s another discussion) we were lucky enough to see during the course and I think all 3 made it quite evident that age and experience shouldn’t be the end all when considering whom is most qualified, who will have the best ideas, or who will be the best leader to guide a brand into the future. In fact, I think as the market becomes more and more flexible and companies must be more and more agile, responding quickly and adapting to and utilizing new technologies and platforms quickly, the younger generation will be more qualified to lead these companies (Rachel’s position as a “reverse-mentor” at Time Warner, a practice I absolutely think more companies must consider to remain relevant, summed this up perfectly).  
Of course, the way we heavily prioritize age and experience, even sometimes to the neglect of ability or skill, is cultural and ingrained cultural norms are nearly impossible to change, but I think that what’s happening currently is the first time in a long time that people are giving real thought to seeing the younger generation as leaders in the field - not those who have to be taught, but those who may have a lot to teach.

All the speakers we heard from over the course had unique and unexpected perspectives to bring, and hearing from them definitely brought something to the class that we would’ve had an impossible time finding in text. I can’t say enough about having the opportunity to hear from these people, in the industry and outside the industry, who each had a valuable story to tell and valuable insight into the brands and businesses we interact with every day in ways that we might never think of.

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