Conference Bites

Online Marketing Summit Feb 22-25 San Diego

"A brand is one of us talking to the other about a product. Corporations think they control it but they don't."
~ John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media Publishing

"What's extraordinary is how dumb marketing has been for so long."
~ John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media Publishing

"The general rule to follow is to go where human passion is, always with the same approach: Listen, understand the social mores of the conversation, and figure out how to add value."
~ John Battelle, CEO of Federated Media Publishing

"You do not have control over your brand and what people say about it. The sooner you get over that, the sooner you can use the energy of social media to your advantage."
~ Thomas Hoehn, Director of Brand Communications & New Media at Eastman Kodak

Disclosure: Federated Media and their Conversational Marketing Summit is a client of mine.

For more information on the Online Marketing Summit:

IAB Annual Leadership Meeting Feb 21-23 Carlsbad - Pepsi Keynote

"As marketers, we need to create meaningful experiences for consumers, not just sponsor content."
~ Frank Cooper, SVP Consumer Engagement of PepsiCo

On using social media... "1-Create brand experiences, 2-Help consumers express and live values, and 3- Provide value."
~ Frank Cooper, SVP Consumer Engagement of PepsiCo

"Digital is the new center of gravity."
~ Frank Cooper, SVP Consumer Engagement of PepsiCo

"Our brands must recognize and acknowledge who consumers are and who they aspire to be... 'identity value'."
~ Frank Cooper, SVP Consumer Engagement of PepsiCo

For more info on the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting:

IAB Annual Leadership Meeting Feb 21-23 Carlsbad

"We publish 500 pieces of content everyday, & generate 2MM comments per month. Newspapers aren't dying, they're changing."
~ Eric Hippeau, CEO of Huffington Post

"News wants to be free. It wants to be free and social."
~ Eric Hippeau, CEO of Huffington Post

"The golden age of the Internet is just about to begin."
~ David Moore, Chairman & Founder of 24/7 Real Media, Chairman of IAB Board of Directors

"The Internet is the world's largest focus group. We need to use it."
~ Bryan Wiener, CEO of 360i

"Cherish the questions because the answers keep changing."
~ Jack Griffin, President of National Media Group, Meredith Corporation

"There are people who will always be free users - and they should be dealt with accordingly."~ Gordon McLeod, President of WSJ Digital Network

.....followed by comment from the Twittersphere-- "...Cue ominous music."

"The real Kodak moments are when you share them."
~ Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO, Eastman Kodak

"We're in the business of emotional technology."
~ Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO, Eastman Kodak

Visual Soundbite:
~ from Seth Goldstein's deck, Co-Founder & Chairman of SocialMedia.com, Co-Chair IAB Social Media Committee

"A brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room."
~ Bryan Wiener, CEO of 360i, quoting Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com

"If you don't like change, you'll like irrelevance even less."
~ Bryan Wiener, CEO of 360i, quoting General Eric Shinseki, US Secretary of Veterans Affairs

For more info on the IAB Annual Leadership Meeting:

State of Green Business Feb 4 San Francisco - Afternoon Keynote

"I'd like to be able to tell my son I did the right thing in the war (for the planet)."
~ Saul Griffith, Otherlab.com

I am...."Trying to invent a way out of my own great green hypocrisy."
~ Saul Griffith, Otherlab.com

"We are as a sustainability industry using voodoo and hand waving to calculate energy involved with areas such as food."
~ Saul Griffith, Otherlab.com

"Holy sh*t, if you invest in the wrong infrastructure, you doom my child."
~ Saul Griffith, Otherlab.com
 
"The sustainability movement needs a Bob Dylan more than it needs another physicist."
~ Saul Griffith, Otherlab.com

For more info on State of Green Business:

State of Green Business Feb 4 San Francisco - IT Panel

"If we don’t separate the religion of green from the average consumer perception of green, we are never going to cross the chasm."~ Wendy Cobdra, Earthsense

"In Singapore we are doing smart traffic 2.0. We can predict an hour in advance where traffic will occur."
~ Rich Lechner, IBM

"There is a business role we play, but also a leadership role, based on what we learned from the high tech past."
~ Rob Bernard, Microsoft

"Companies are moving to embed sustainability in the core of the business, rather than (in) corporate communication."
~ Scott Bolick, SAP

"It (the green future) will all hinge on turning data into insights."
~ Rich Lechner, IBM

"I think we are going to look back on how we live today and think, ‘oh my god, what were we doing'."
~ Lorie Wigle, SVP, Intel

For more info on State of Green Business:

State of Green Business Feb 4 San Francisco - Morning Panel

"If you are going to be naked, you better be buff."
~ Joel Makower, Founder of GreenBiz.com, on transparency...

"We are looking to make sustainable design work flow the default work flow."
~ Lynelle Cameron, Autodesk

"Consumers have never bought products that cost more up front, even when it will save in the long term."
~ Kevin Surace, Serious Materials

"Between optimism and pessimism, I am sober and determined."
~ Van Jones

"There are 200M buildings that need to be retrofitted."~ Lynelle Cameron, Autodesk

"We need to change the rules so the problem makers don’t get all the help—the problem solvers need to get it too."~ Van Jones

"We are thinking about: how do we face these massive challenges, vs. how do I make this cell phone a little bit greener." ~ Lynelle Cameron, Autodesk

For more info on State of Green Business:

State of Green Business Forum Feb 4 San Francisco - Morning Keynote 2

"How do you define clean teach company? It's like pornography—you know it when you see it."
~ Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk

"We can’t make people change, but the nudge we can give them is the information to make good decisions."
~ Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk

"On bad days I feel like everything is random, like the old vibrating football game, where everything shakes in wild directions."
~ Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk

"LEED was a great step, but didn’t fully account for interactions... we need whole systems design."
~ Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk

"I would love to see materials databases run in a wiki like fashion—that is the way to bring down costs."
~ Carl Bass, CEO of Autodesk

For more info on State of Green Business:

State of Green Business Forum Feb 4 San Francisco - Morning Keynote 1

"Something remarkable happened in 2009 - green business didn't go away. It survived. It thrived."
~ Joel Makower, Founder of GreenBiz.com

"There aren’t green definitions, much less metrics for green jobs."
~ Joel Makower, Founder of GreenBiz.com

"FedEx and UPS (and the Postal Service) are in a 'terrific race to the top'."
~ Joel Makower, Founder of GreenBiz.com

"65% of people can't name a green company."

~ Joel Makower, Founder of GreenBiz.com

"Green building has kept the building industry afloat in the last year."
~ Joel Makower, Founder of GreenBiz.com

For more info on State of Green Business:

OMMA Social Jan 26 San Francisco

"Social Media marketing is about a marriage, not a one night stand."
~ As tweeted by Hallelujah

"Facebook users have over 50 Billion connections to people and brands. People trust their friends more than they trust messages."
~ Brian Boland, Facebook, as tweeted by Robert Hof

"Marketing & Advertising is throwing chum in the water. If the fish start biting, then we can engage."
~  Jim Sterne

"Predictive analytics is data poor, SM is data rich: 'Chocolate and peanut butter waiting to happen'."
~  Jim Sterne

Joke regarding recent client question, "Can you filter out all the negative stuff and then put an ad next to it?"
~ Somrat Niyogi, CEO & Co-Founder at Bazaar Labs

"Texting is the redheaded stepchild of Twitter."
~ Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite, as tweeted by Kristin Hersant

"ROI? Who cares? What's the ROI of putting pants on? You do it so you don't look like a douche-bag!"
~  Michael Lazerow, CEO, Buddy Media

For more information on OMMA Social:

Value Based-Sustainability Conference Keynote Jan 26 San Jose

Quotes from Adam Werbach, CEO of Saatchi S, Keynote Address:

"The next 10 years are going to be more traumatic than the last 10 years." (Showing centerfold of Senator Brown)

"How to meet the financial crisis: We need to become like a forest... fire is a time when we thrive."

"Fiji water as $6 water sold in luxury hotels after being shipped around the world is 'dead man walking' "

"Consumers will look for and support companies that share bad news as well as good. PR may get turned on its ear."

"We need a broader version of green—we need blue… not an organic Oreo, but help mom get her kids to eat carrots."

"Look at context (for green)—COP15 didn't succeed, politics has failed. Investment is about to be taken off the table by Obama. Its an awesome responsibility for the corporate sector—to do what Copenhagen and US politics hasn’t. We need to generously work together to share ideas/solutions—we are in the right place (corporate sector) right now."

For more information on Value-Based Sustainability: