CONFERENCE RECAPS

Future Tech for Brands On October 1st 2018, I had the opportunity to attend a conference at Beatwork Studio in New York to discuss the future Tech for the brands. I had the opportunity to meet and hear from professionals in this field how technologies may affect the advertising industry. The conference included a great speakers such as  Suzana Apelbaum; Head of Creative at Google, Dan Bennet; Worldwide Chief Innovation Office at Grey; Alex Magnin, Head of Revenue for GIPHY and Richard Ting, Global CCO design. That shared their research and trends on the future of technology, while discussing the opportunities for the brands. We heard that at Google they work at most on assistance technology and voice assistance experience to make advertising most useful and stop interrupting people. Brands can add their personality to it cause everyone now wants voice assistance experience.  Suzana Apelbaum said “many brands are creating experience for their consumers a...

The change agencies need On April 30th, Ad Age, the global media brand publishing analysis, news and data on marketing and media company held a conference in the New York office. The meeting started at 8:00 am and last for two hours. Attendances included Emily Heyward, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist, Red Antler; Selena Kalvaria. VP of Brand Marketing, Away; Stephen Kuhl Co-Founder and CEO, Burrow; Shane Pittson Head of Marketing, Quip and Jon Suarez-Davis Senior VP of Product Marketing and Chief Strategy Officer, Salesforce Marketing Cloud and Adrianne Pasquarelli Reporter, Ad Age. The conference presided over by Judann Pollack- the executive editor of Ad Age. The conference started with Brand Johnson, a data analyst from Ad Age Datacenter, who revealed multiple significant data analysis of participants in the industry. Firstly, the data shows by 2018 worldwide revenue; the top three agency companies are WPP $20.8B, Omnivcom Group $15.3B and Publicis Group $11.7B. Th...

Social Media has become the most widely used communications tool, connecting people from all walks of life and from all over the world. On April 26th 2018, I had the opportunity to attend the Social Media Week Conference in New York City and explore new trends within the social media industry. Social Media Week brings together marketing, media and technology professionals from more than 50 countries with a curiosity and passion for new ideas, innovations and emerging trends in social media. Throughout the year and during the global flagship conferences in New York City, Los Angeles and London, focus on how key trends are influencing business, culture and society. (Social Media Week Website) To commemorate the 10th annual Social Media Week conference in New York, the 2018 global theme, “Closer” explored the “intensifying conflict between community and individualism.”  (Social Media Week Website) The conversation brought together a diversity of perspectives to discuss the most...

Diversity and inclusion is a passion that I have been cultivating through my experience working at the National Urban League. As the Senior Manager for Talent Management, I have the opportunity to work on diversity initiatives and spearhead employment branding campaigns. During the BIC program, my goal was to understand the ins and outs of agencies and figure out how to best infuse diversity and inclusion within the internal management of an agency. My role at National Urban League afforded me the opportunity to attend the SHRM Diversity Conference in Indianapolis. While this conference was primarily filled with Human Resource professionals, I was able to look at the information provided through a “BIC” lens. Facilitators led powerful sessions on the LGBTQ+ community, veterans, gender inequality, racial equity and workplace unfairness for people with disabilities. The sessions provided insight on understanding different types of people and the how so many communities feel left out,...

In order for a company to be successful - it needs a strong employee base that is engaged in what they do, and firmly believes in the company's vision. However, this alone isn’t enough. In order for companies to be relevant in the future, they need to be staffed by a diverse employee base, reaching all genders, nationalities, and cultures. Brands now, more than ever need to embrace Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) as a cornerstone of their corporate identity. This is the age of social media, Netflix and Adblock, and brands need to accurately represent their consumer and employee bases in an authentic and interpersonal way - or they will simply become irrelevant. Last June, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to assist BIC instructor Angela Chitkara while she hosted a panel for PRSA in Diversity and Inclusion. The key takeaways from this conference for me are that you need a diverse employee base to be successful in 2020, Social norms matter more than you think, and...

As a National Millennial Community member, I got the chance to attend a seminar in LA where I got to  visit various companies within the LA area. Some of the companies we got to visit were The Wonderful  Company, Riot Games, Sony Pictures Entertainment, IW Group, ABC Television, Walt Disney  Imagineering, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the LA Dodgers. This trip exposed me to amazing companies as well as provided me the opportunity to network with  executives and employees within those companies. The group of around 30 of us were used as a focus  group for many of the companies listed above. They appreciated hearing from millennials and Gen Z  members to understand what we look for in a company as well as how we consume our news. I got to  visit ABC Television and Walt Disney Imagineering, which was a dream come true. I’ve been a Disney  fan from a very early age. This opportunity would not ...

We live in a generation where you can order dinner by texting an emoji of a pizza to Dominos . It’s an age where attention spans are shorter, and consumer expectations are higher. How companies remain relevant is largely based on their ability to create seamless experiences with consumers - which is a world much different than ever before. Jamie Gutfreund is the Cheif Consumer Experience Officer at Hasbro, and was previously the global chief marketing officer for Wunderman - a leading digital communications agency. Last July, she sat down with Victoria Feder of the Online Marketing Institute to give a discussion on trends in the marketing industry entitled “Think like a CMO: Are You Future Ready?” According to Jamie, “63% of the people in a survey we did felt they were more tech-savvy than the brands they interact with.” This is a fascinating insight because it shows that millennials and younger generations will soon require brands to be an active part of the conversation, co...