Event season is heating up, and I'll be speaking at five of them in mid-May... on five different topics. If you happen to be at all five, then it shouldn't get too repetitive. Let me know if your plans overlap with mine.
May 12: I'll be speaking at a private company event in Austin, TX. It'll be a quick visit, but if you're based there, I may have some time to meet that Monday, May 11.
May 13: Back in NYC, I'll be joining NewCo, the second time MRY is hosting it. I'll be talking about the End of Storytelling - a familiar topic to this blog's readers. The NewCo site says the session is almost full, so reserve soon.
May 14: Because I'm spending too much time in the office that week, I'm going up to the motherland of Westchester for the second annual Westchester Digital Summit. I spoke there last year, taking a seat (cautiously) next to Chris "Catch a Predator" Hansen (see the photo above). He did not catch me. This year, I get to join a ridiculously esteemed group - entrepreneur and anchor Joya Dass, Pinterest's Eva Papoutsakis Smith, Google Thinking's Frank Golding, and Facebook's Lauren Griewski. We'll be talking about the power of visual content. A bonus for you: use discount code MRY to save $100 on the conference.
Maybe the reason I get to join this session is that I once wrote a Manifesto for the Visual Revolution, embedded below (hat tip to Chute, whose conference inspired that).
But wait, there's more!
May 18: I get to join the embarrassment of riches in terms of the speakers at Internet Week New York. Yeah, it's Chelsea Clinton, Al Roker, William Bratton, and... well, I'll be there. Not at exactly the same time. But I do hope to see them. I'll be moderating a session on Harnessing the Entrepreneurial Spirit, hosted by Mondelez, with more details to come soon.
May 20: To cap off this marathon, I'll be one of the oracles at the Oracle Data Cloud Summit, as part of a panel discussion on Knowing More: What Consumers Say. Stay tuned for more details on the topic, but I get to share the stage with Altimeter's Susan Etlinger, SHIFT's James Borrow, and IRI's Ash Patel.
What's this storymaking stuff all about? I've been blogging about it and presenting on it, but let's have a real conversation about it. That's the plan for my webinar coming up with Sally Falkow on Tuesday at 1pm ET, hosted by CommPRO.
Register at the above link, and be prepared to ask some great questions, as we hope to keep it very interactive.
Happy event season.
I've got a couple fun things that I'm moderating this month. If you're going to either of these, drop me a note.
First, this week is Ad Age's Digital conference with a who's who of brand CMOs, agency CEOs, and other leaders. Here's my session, Tuesday at 2:
The Story Makers
For too long, marketers have been focusing on how they communicate on digital platforms through the wrong lens—thestoryteller’s lens. As a result, today’s marketers run the risk of talking at people instead of with them. But some leading brands are shifting away from traditional storytelling models to more of a story-making approach. In a recent Ad Age column, MRY’s David Berkowitz explains that story making is “where the brand facilitates and taps into the stories people are creating and sharing with each other.” We’ll take an inside look at some of the best story-making campaigns from the leaders behind them.
Chris Curtin
Chief Brand and Innovation Marketing Officer, Visa
Eric Hirschhorn
CMO, Burger King
Ashley Kaplan
Head of Content, Fullscreen
Ann Lewnes
CMO, Adobe
Moderator: David Berkowitz
CMO, MRY
Then I'll be joining a really exciting and innovative group (including my former colleague and coconspirator Christine Peterson) at CoIvnent's NYC Media Summit on April 22. Here's my session, and check out the others.
Drafting The Best Content Strategy In A Digital Age
- Paul Kontonis - SVP, Strategy @ Collective Digital Studio
- Christine Peterson - Managing Director, Investments @ Initiative Media
- David Berkowitz - Chief Marketing Officer @ MRY
- Alexandra Lutz - VP, Business Strategy @ Huge
- Lyndsey McFail - Web and Social Media Producer @ NBCUniversal, Inc.
Let me know if you'll be going to these or even if you have questions that you think I should ask these incredible speakers.
Are you going to South by Southwest (SXSW) this year? I'll be back for SXSW Interactive - my seventh straight year there.
Here are a few ways to stay looped in:
1) I've got a draft deck on Slideshare that gives a taste of all the trends you'll see at SXSW. Yes, it's a parody, but yet all too real for what goes on in trying to do recaps for clients afterwards. Even more importantly, I recommend Slideshare's SXSW channel where you can get good intel from Deloitte, MSLGroup, Sprinklr, my old 360i friends, and others.
2) In Austin, I'll be joining the IAB (thanks Susan Borst) yet again for a session on advertising in and around games. I'll be moderating Ari Brandt from MediaBrix, Kym Nelson from Twitch, and Michael Flamberg from Nielsen to show great examples, case studies, and research. See you there Tuesday, March 17, 11am, with full details at SXSW.com.
Note that my agency's CEO, Matt Britton, will also be speaking at SXSW to discuss his book YouthNation. See more here about his session on Sunday, March 15, 1pm.
Oh, and MRY is throwing a couple parties with Busta Rhymes and Nas.
3) What about after SXSW? I'll be on a fun webinar speaking about The Inside Scoop on Emerging Trends, Tools, and Tactics: Insights from SXSW 2015 . Better still, you'll get to hear from Serena Ehrlich at Business Wire, Heather Bartel at evolve24, and Aaron Strout at W20 Group. With Aaron on the call, we'll see if I even get a word or two in.
Meanwhile, drop me a note if you'll be at SXSW so we can not have time to meet there but try anyway.
I've had drones on my mind a lot lately.
Part of it is because of the amazing crew at Yeah Drones that produced the first ever Drone Film Festival. My agency, MRY, was a gold sponsor, and the image above is the ad from the festival program.
My agency also produced a video, some of which debuted at the festival, of the office of the future - where we envisioned what it would be like to hire drones:
And then to push it further, I penned my first byline for VentureBeat: Why You Should Fear Take-Your-Drone-to-Work Day. It was also published on LinkedIn Pulse.
One point of clarity on the article, which I'd love your feedback on: I first showed it to some people who thought it was satire.
I don't think it is, even if it is humorous at points. I think drones will come to the workplace. They will have unexpected roles. They will generally not be welcome, though they will start saving some people's time and energy - and may make us a little more listless at work.
Not everything described in the column may come to fruition, but it's a starting point, and one that I think we will have to grapple with in the coming years. What do you think?
