Day 2

Day 2

            It’s only Tuesday but I’ve never been more tired in my life, my feet are destroyed and the amount of sweat I produced today was worrisome. However, I am still having the time of my life. Today’s speakers were amazing. I sat in the Lumiere theatre from 10-2 because I couldn’t pull myself away from the stage’s fantastic topics of discussion. First, I sat in on The World Food Program’s “Cinema Steps Up to Feed Our Future” discussion with Corinne Woods, Sir John Hegarty, and Princess Sarah Zeid of Jordan. They shed light on why it is the most important program in the world compared to any other organization, and Corinne mentioned having reached 91 million people last provided with food they otherwise wouldn’t had. I struggled with the content as there are many charity cases that need attention, but I loved Sir John Hegarty’s ad for the ShareAMeal app, it was bold and simple and flashy and left a big impression on me. Next I stayed for “Diversity – A Values Issue and Business Imperative” with Edward Enniful of British British Vogue, Thandie Newton, and Tiffany Warren with Omnicom Group. I loved every word, every powerful message, every staggering fact they all agreed on: diversity makes business better, and representation matters. All three of them had insightful opinions about ignorance, inclusion, and how to overcome the issue in their specific fields. Then I saw Richard Edelman (who liked my tweet about his talk) and Ellen Pompeo discussing brands consumers can trust, and how today’s world of rapid fake news and social media create problems with brand transparency. Ellen gave a lot of reasoning behind who she endorses and tweets about and why, and how consumers can be negatively impacted by influencers with social media platforms. Richard was brutally honest, unafraid to disagree with the moderator, and shined light on why progressive brands and ads are becoming more and more trustworthy to consumers. They were funny, exciting, and gave strong opinions that I learned a lot from. Finally, I saw Warren Littlefield with the small group of UGA students. At this point I was disappointed with myself for being tired and hungry and struggling to focus, since I had so many questions bouncing off my head to ask him. Nonetheless, he gave a great talk with helpful information and encouragement. You could tell his pure talent and smart ability to gamble led him to be so successful, and I was so glad he could share even a little bit of his experience with us. The networking event with the Guardian, PHD, and Google didn’t go quite as planned since none of them were in a networking vibe, so I got myself into Facebook beach for cocktails where I met a founder of an ad agency in the Netherlands who was very kind and gave some great advice. Very excited for what day 3 has to offer!