Conference Bites

Economist: The Ideas Economy Mar 23-24 Berkeley

"The leaders in China are engineers. The leaders in the US are lawyers. Draw your own conclusions."
~ Paul Saffo, Visiting Scholar of Stanford University Media X Research Network

"The social rate of return on innovation is greater than the private rate of return on innovation."
~ Christina Romer, Chair White House Council of Economic Advisors

"I'm a fan of people talking to each other regardless of how crazy they are"
~ John Perry Barlow, Founder of Electronic Frontier Foundation

"Three key themes on innovation are need, greed, and speed."
~ Vijay Vaitheeswaran, Global Correspondent for The Economist

"One of America's great assets as a culture of innovation is our tolerance for failure."
~ John Kao, Author of 'Innovation Nation'

"Innovation is serendipity applied to scale."
~ Tyler Cowen, Professor at George Mason University

"Ideas are cheap, ideas are easy... it's all of the hard work and commitment that happens after the idea that is rare."
~ Scott Berkun, Author of 'Myths of Innovation'


For more information on The Ideas Economy:

Omniture Summit Mar 2-5 Salt Lake City

"The 90s was the CFO Decade (SAP), 00s was the CIO Decade (Client Server) 10s is the CMO Decade (Omniture Adobe)."
~ Josh James, SVP & GM of the Omniture Adobe Business Unit

"Marketers need to convert from marketing metrics to business metrics. It will make you more valuable to your organization."
~ Gary Ware, Search Marketing Manager for Covario

"Use analytics to understand the value of content."
~ Francis Lavelle, Director of Analytics at HowStuffWorks.com

"We are the company that hopefully will enable you to close the loop from creation to optimization."
~ Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe

"If you can write down what you do, I can find it cheaper. Doing art makes you valuable."
~ Seth Godin, Author & Blogger

"If you don't think you are competing with Google, wake up."
~ Anonymous CMO at Summit

"Marketing is now at 'fish with feet' stage ie. in 5-10 years we won't be doing the things we're doing today."
~ John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media Publishing

"To succeed, companies must leverage digital media to have conversations with customers at scale... Every business has to be a platform."
~ John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media Publishing

"All marketers are now publishers – creators and facilitators of content, conversation and community."
~ John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media Publishing

"Fear is the enemy. Anxiety is experiencing failure in advance."
~ Seth Godin, Author & Blogger

Note:  Federated Media and their Conversational Marketing Summit are a client of mine.

For more info on the Omniture Summit:

4A's Transformation2010 Conference--Part 2

"We have to realize that our business is science, scale and art. We are living in the marketing  renaissance now.. (This is) a time to build, not to manage and reorganize. We need to build and to attract builders…lets paint and sculpt."
~ Rishad Tobaccowala, Vivaki

"The companies that have the most passionate talent will (win)…Talent wants wealth... of experience, of education, and sooner rather than later, financial..they want accountability... to do what they want... and skin in the game."
~ Rishad Tobaccowala, Vivaki


"You are not behind your competition.  You are behind your consumer.  We are just less pathetic than our competitors."
~ Rishad Tobaccowala, Vivaki

Best line in Jeff Hayzlett’s over the top intro video from Kodak… "Fire up your Newtons!"   as a screaming exhortation to action… 2nd best: "It looked like a yard sale", describing Kodak’s website at the point he came on board as CMO

"The over reliance on metrics is stifling marketing. Metrics can guide us on how to do it better, not serve to justify the existence of marketing."
~ Larry Light, CEO of Arcature and former CMO of McDonald's

"What is on the mind of 18 to 24 year olds, if anything?"
~ Chuck Porter of Crispin Porter + Bogusky, introducing session on YouthquakeSurvey

"How long will you stay in a place where your mother wants to friend you?"
~ Jeffrey Cole, USC, regaurding teenagers and Facebook

"There is nothing more we share as human beings that a mobile phone, now used by 4.5 to 5 Billion on the planet."
~ Jeffrey Cole, USC

For more info on 4A's Transformation 2010:

4A's Transformation2010 Conference--Data Panel

"Are we in a cycle, or are we in a cyclone? I argue it’s the latter."
~ Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer
 
"The data (and platforms) are only as good as the strategies that the agencies develop."
~ Adam Gerber, Quantcast

"When an economic model starts to approach the complexity of reality, it becomes equally meaningless."
~ Geoff Ramsey, eMarketer

"Social media can work like brand 'anti-matter'. How do you measure the negative value?"
~ Scott Hagedorn, PHD

"Our (old) ad model doesn’t work when consumers have control… our ads have to engage... and advertisers have to be ready to pay more for those experiences. Publishers have to make money."
~ Adam Gerber, Quantcast

"CPW... Cost Per Whatever the client is looking to measure".
offered as a key Metric by David Smith, MediaSmith

"You can drive through the rear view mirror, but only if the road is straight... ours has lots of curves."
~ Adam Gerber, Quantcast

For more info on 4A's Transformation 2010:

4A's Transformation 2010 Mar 1 San Francisco--Part 1

"The essence of leadership is seeing the iceberg before it hits the titanic."
~ Arianna Huffington, Editor-In-Chief of The Huffington Post

"Promiscuity is a bad thing in relationships. Promiscuity in media consumption is a great thing."
~ Arianna Huffington, Editor-In-Chief of The Huffington Post

"The customer's voice is the engine of growth"
~ Larry Light, CEO  of Arcature and former CMO of McDonald's

"The marketer's challenge is to sell the voice of the customer within the company."
~ Larry Light, CEO  of Arcature and former CMO of McDonald's

"Toyota's failure to focus on the customer is worse than its product failure."
~ Larry Light, CEO  of Arcature and former CMO of McDonald's

"The best defense is a good offense, when it comes to what people are saying about your brand."
~ Bryan Wiener, 360i

"Make technology part of the culture in your agency."
~ Ian Schafer, Deep Focus

"We can't expect to use an analog map and expect to find our way in a digital world."
~ Arianna Huffington, Editor-In-Chief of The Huffington Post

"We need transformation because consumers are transforming faster than we are."
~ Ian Schaefer, Deep Focus

"We are living in the golden age of engagement."
~ Arianna Huffington, Editor-In-Chief of The Huffington Post

For more info on 4A's Transformation 2010: