My Ad Club EDGE Conference 2012 Experience

Collaterals by Mammoth Media. We put this up!

Just a few days ago, I was given the opportunity to witness the very refreshing Ad Club EDGE conference held at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). For a Media Marketing Class in Emerson College, I was given the chance to volunteer and handle social media and collateral related work. (Just type in #AdClubEDGE if you wish to see the tweets during that day.)

What could be cooler than having your tweet featured at the #AdClubEDGE conference? (top left)

The Ad Club EDGE conference is an annual event hosted by the Ad Club of Boston. This event enables marketing, advertising, technology and innovation enthusiasts to gather and share ideas about the future of the aforementioned industries. The venue was a great opportunity for these professionals to learn about the latest buzz in the industry, as well as network with other companies. 

#AdClubEDGE stage layout

This year's theme centered on being !CONSUMED! (I couldn't rotate the exclamation points, but just refer to the picture). It focused on the different media content and social data that consumes society today and how  marketers are approaching this apparent collision of media and data, in relation to how this is shaping consumer behavior. Among the participants were executives and managers from respected agencies such as Digitas, Hill Holiday & Arnold Worldwide, as well as specialized and emerging start-ups and small business industries and agencies. 

@SchneiderMike

Among my favorites speakers were @schneidermike from Allen & Gerritsen, Jim Lucchese of The Echo Nest, Rob Walker from New York Times Magazine, Chris Soghoian, a researcher from Indiana University, and Josh Karpf, Director of Digital Media from PepsiCo. 


@SchneiderMike opened the conference with the current state of the consumer in terms of demographic and psychographic trends and how this will impact the future for all industry practitioners including the consumers themselves. This is definitely kicked the event off with a good start, giving everyone equal leverage and understanding of where consumers stand today.

Chris Soghoian talking about Privacy Issues with Cookies and Consumer Tracking Technology

RobWalker (@notrobwalker) on the other hand talks about the importance of storytelling and how we not only consume stories but are also consumed by them. The first part ended with Chris Soghoian, talking about privacy issues and the most recent developments with Advertisers and Web Browsers tracking consumer behavior online. He stresses the different ethical issues behind the development of such technology and how as members of the industry, we are burdened with the responsibility to be redundantly responsible. 

Josh Karpf of PepsiCo

The Echo Nest and PepsiCo stood out for the 2nd part of the event. While Echo Nest talked about their initiative in developing music application platforms, and their consumer psychographic analysis based on musical preference (which is really awesome for the music industry to have a better understanding of their audience), PepsiCo talks about tying up with Startups (which are getting even more trendier) to establish a mutual relationship in identifying how they can better service their consumers in the long run. 


The event concluded with cocktails and industry people mingling and chilling with each other. I would also like to take the time in recognizing Michael Flint of Metropolis Creative, Judy Duff of Linkable Networks, Liz Gottbrecht and Andy McClellan of Mammoth Media and Ryan Durkin (@durkin) of Campus Live (@campuslive) for gracing me with the opportunity to converse with them and just talk about industry-related and random things. Thank you also definitely for useful advice which I can use in lieu of my career. They're very nice people which I'm sure transcends into how nice their company culture could be as well. 

This is proof that I did not just make this up.

From a student perspective, I felt humbled to be in the presence of such influential people who utilize marketing as a means of providing solutions to make people's lives better. I also felt inspired with their passion and strife for excellence and further innovation. It was a really great opportunity to have met these project managers, company owners, graphic designers and other esteemed executives. 


The Ad Club EDGE experience opened my eyes to the vast network of marketing and how if and when these people put their minds together for the common goal - to make the world a better place to live with all these solutions, then perhaps it can become a better world.


If you have any interest in helping out with the Ad Club, then I suggest you seize the opportunity as it comes. You won't regret it. I assure you. 


The Ad Club is the trade association for the New England marketing and communications industry. Focused on networking, education, professional development, advocacy and diversity, The Ad Club presents over 30 events and programs every year. 

***photos c/o www.AdClub,org