CONFERENCE RECAPS

 I joined this conference on May 14th as a recommendation by a friend. As someone who loves to travel, and explore new places and restaurants, the title stood out to me. In these uncertain times, I am constantly reminded of how many different industries are suffering, and how the only focus now is survival mode. The conference was hosted by Brick and Wonder, a membership collective focused on connecting and supporting real estate and design professionals, and Independent Lodging Congress, a place for independent hotels to connect with other visionaries and thought leaders from the lodging sector. It quickly started off by stating the obvious, everyone has been feeling this existential threat, and although were all in this together, it seems as though were being driven apart. The mediator posed a series of questions for the various speakers, RP Eddy from Ergo, Ryan Simoneti from Convene, Mathew Goodrich who’s an interior designer, Aliya Khan from Marriot, and Scott Williams from Nan...

Over the days of September 1-3, 2020, WARC held a 3-day webinar series about how COVID-19 has accelerated e-commerce growth globally, prompting a rethink of the fundamentals, including 'digital availability.' Assembling an expert panel to speak on how to navigate this shift in strategy, each day provided the latest evidence, expertise, and guidance to make marketers more effective. Kicking off the series was Jonathan Jagard, Senior eCommerce Insights Manager at Edge by Ascential, speaking on The Significance (& Seasonality) of Search and started with the expansion of the e-commerce market since the pandemic hit that has caused limited choices for consumers. Using Amazon as an example throughout his presentation, we quickly learn that 90% of Amazon's purchases start directly on the Amazon homepage. This very high percentage is a directed effect from the 4 Pillars Of Search, including sales, SEO content, conversion, and traffic. "People are not always going to Amazon...

Here Are All The Black People or HAATBP by The One Club was a wonderful and memorable event. I love being a part of special moments like these that diversify creative opportunities. I enjoyed the faces of creatives from young to old. I appreciated that I ran into old classmates from undergrad that have made their way into tabling at this event and representing their organizations. And disliked losing my umbrella between moving from one panel to another. My favorite moment was hearing the inspiring words of the keynote speaker, Tariq Trotter formerly known as Black Thought. These words of inspiration to “Never give up on your dreams.” was resonating to me because I too work on never giving up everyday. I related to this speaker a lot from the details of his life and how his hard work and dedication prevailed. Another great speaker at this event was Gary Vaynerchuk, CEO of VaynerMedia. He is a blunt and down to earth individual. And inspired me to apply to his company one day. Him and hi...

This year’s Advertising Week 2020 was the prime reflection of how our world works today. Expanding all across the world with presentations from speakers in the U.S., Europe, Latin America, and Asia even the current pandemic could not stop the best ideas coming together for an insight into the Marketing & Advertising industries. Among many themes available across the exciting speaker lineup, the main three that stood out significantly where what the pandemic meant for business, how its revolutionized work (potentially forever), and what to learn from it for the future.    Global Chief Marketing Officer for Restaurant Brands International, Fernando Machado, put it best by saying  “Covid-19 made tomorrow come today.”  In his presentation, Machado delves into how  “People have been thinking, in the future this is going to happen.” For example, “in the future, digital transactions are going to be much higher […but] with the pandemic, the future became now.” ...

Mediaweek, a conference by AdWeek, presents the opportunity for marketing and communications professionals to hear from the industry’s leading brand marketers and ad buyers on mar tech and ad tech best practices. Despite my focus being on public relations, this seemed like an opportunity to expand my integrated communications knowledge and learn more about advertising, marketing, and media buying. One of the talks I joined was “What Performance Marketing Means for the Nation’s Largest Retailer” with Saleel Sathe, Vice President of Performance Marketing at Walmart as the expert. This conversation between Saleel and Lisa Lacy, Commerce Editor at Adweek, focused on how Walmart pivoted its strategy when the pandemic hit. Saleel focused on how Walmart changed the way it operates its stores and the shopping experience it offers consumers to remain relevant. One change noted was that Walmart customers now will have a different experience walking into a Walmart than they did before the pandemi...

  The first takeaway I took from the conference is the fact that prebunking can assist in dampening the schism that exists within the United States. Prebunking is the act of giving people the ability to identify false information and debunk said information themselves. This takeaway came from the “Smarter Social Storytelling” section. As Social Media runs amuck with unregulated content within communities there is a lot of misinformation and disinformation being spread. A research organization decided to try to combat misinformation through a game that allows the user to be the one that distributes the misinformation. Dan Stiles stated this in his presentation on the matter  “Researchers found that participants were 21% less likely to believe disinformation. They also showed that those who were most likely to believe propaganda at the outset were the people who benefited most from the inoculation.”  Which means that there are methods to battle against the disinformation cr...

   Living through the pandemic Amidst the pandemic and quarantine, Adobe’s Summit 2021 holds conversations around innovating through digital experiences, mentioning its partnerships with e-commerce partners such as FedEx and other front-line medical innovators like Pfizer. Rajesh Subramaniam, President and COO at FedEx (picture above), mentions that consumers and industry leaders have not stopped innovations no matter in physical or digital forms. As a result of the pandemic, the audience expects every experience is digitally optimized. Seeing how FedEx is incorporating data technologies into their day to day job tasks, from scanning, data storing, signing to many other aspects. Like FedEx, many small businesses are adopting technology as a side effect of pandemic. What we see most are contactless payment. In many other countries, contactless payment has been implemented for years. However, it was not until the pandemic, the US businesses started widely implementing contactles...

 PRWeek hosted a virtual conference on the above date which was chaired by Steve Barrett, VP and editorial director. The conference was conducted to examine and discuss the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the PR industry and how we plan to survive this challenging time while surveilling the long-term implications for the in-house and agency sectors. The conference spanned over three sessions as follows: (1) Leading with Purpose sponsored by Zeno (2) Virtual, Our New Reality sponsored by Aflac and (3) Communicating in a Time of Crisis sponsored by The RepTrak Company.   All three sessions were thoroughly enlightening and informative and delved into the importance of prudent and efficient reputation-management by demonstrating empathy and authenticity— while maintaining the integrity of the business to its stakeholders. The sessions also addressed the significant role of internal communications in negotiating this time of unparallel upheaval in everyday life and how leaders h...

This conference was geared towards brands, agencies as marketers in order to prepare and inspire them as we move into a year of unrivaled change, growth and opportunity. Omnichannel shopping behaviours have been disrupting traditional retail models for years, but COVID-19 truly transformed shopping as we know it and the shopper expectations along with it. The following 3 stats set the tone for the webinar: 8/10 consumers are saying their shopping habits have changed 9/10 say these habits will stay However the majority of people are interested in going back in store The discussion got me thinking: Are we heading for another roaring 20s?  What does that mean for CPG?  How do we keep customers coming back for more?   “We are entering a new phase of discovery” - Nicole Lapin, host of the live event. “The pandemic put brand loyalty to test…” - Karin Tracy from Facebook (head of industry, retail, fashion) Digital has accelerated if not collapsed the purchase funnel which Tracy...

 In last week’s Careers In Music: Labels, Management, Live & Beyond event, organized by Center for Communication, music professionals from various disciplines were originally supposed to discuss how the music business was evolving with new technologies and how job opportunities were emerging, with recent circumstances they ended up evaluating the devastating COVID-19 effect in the music and entertainment industry instead. Event’s speakers included musician Richard Barone, artist manager Joe D’ambrosio, Atlantic Records Vice President Dionnee Harper, NYC Mayor’s Office Nighlight Director Ariel Palitz and music label S-Curve Records Founder Steve Greenberg, who was the moderator. The discussion started with each speaker’s introduction of who they are, in what capacity they work in the music industry and how their individual work has been affected by the ongoing COVID-19 situation. Imaginably, live music business has been impacted harshly by the ongoing situation. With music festi...

The conference that I have decided to attend in 2018 was “Advertising Week”. There were many interesting topics to choose from, but one that stood out to me above all the others was the discussion of AI. The panelists who participated in this discussion were the Vice President of Quartz, and the Chief Executive Officer of GumGum.  Both speakers began to describe ways in which they utilize AI in their companies. Quartz experiments with AI by using it to build one-on-one relationships with individual users. One example that was used was: Quartz partnered with HBO’s show “Westworld” by creating an AI host where the viewer can interact with every time they watch an episode. What this does is serves the whole premise of the show by manipulating the viewers’ notion of reality, which is essentially what “Westworld” is all about. One thing about this application that the speaker stressed was the fact that this particular AI application is a marriage of both technology and human input. For ...

Presented By:  Sarah Capers - Head Of Brand Kantar https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahcapers/ J Walker Smith - Chief Knowledge Officer Kantar https://www.linkedin.com/in/j-walker-smith-7170518/ Ann Green SVP - Client Partner Kantar https://www.linkedin.com/in/ann-green-54b967/ Paul Donato - Chief Research Officer ARF https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-donato-19a8364/ This edition of the ARF: Insight Studio series focused on the uncertainty that brands are facing during COVID-19. By looking back at past crises and brand responses, members of Kantar were able to put together plans and examples of how to effectively respond to a crisis. Paul Donato, Chief Research Officer of The ARF, opened the talk by saying that  "Purpose in advertising has risen faster than the virus itself."     The bigger effect of the pandemic is a disruption of day to day life. There is a universal concern over the financial effects of the pandemic in a way that is different than concerns over public...

 Earlier this year, while we didn’t need social distancing, I attended the ARF Young Pros Bootcamp. It was a full day conference, learning and networking. From all sessions I’ve seen, I will be briefly covering two ones that had a higher impact for me: learning how to make a meaningful impact with Hispanic consumers in the US and why most advertising campaigns fail. Juliana Gomez is the VP Strategy & Insights at Univision Communication, Inc. She brought us valuable data such as Hispanics representing the fastest growing segment of US economy. The ones born in the US feel comfortable expressing both as American or in their native language. Still, they express their emotions more easily when talking in the Spanish - as a latina, I can totally relate to it, it is almost like an irrational feeling you get when you’re either too happy or too angry and English just won’t be expressive enough (sorry!).   Because Hispanics feel so connected with their heritage, their pride really ...

More and marketing leaders are understanding the importance of SEO and it is becoming more of a prominent aspect of their marketing. Properly using SEO for marketing is about knowing what people want and what they are is searching for. “it is about doing what is needed today to ensure a better tomorrow.” On Tuesday, May 12th, I attended Conductor’s C3(Connect. Collaborate. Commit) Conference. This annual marketing event focused on SEO and content marketing. Conductor is a technology company that offers software and services to help marketers create and optimize their content. They work with companies such as AARP, John Hopkins Health Systems, Nordstrom and many more.The event featured a Keynote with the CEO and founder of Conductor and a ton of information on ways to increase business and network traffic through SEO. CEO of Conductor Seth Besmertnik discusses using personal knowledge and experience to create content for google as we are all consumers and thinking personally can help to...