Internet Conferences
First Impressions – Cannes Lions 2009
Well less than 24 hours after entertaining and being entertained by Will Carling post the Microsoft Search Summit – more on that at a later date – I’m in The Palais Stephanie in Cannes having had another of the maddest 24 hours of my career!
First impressions are that this festival is full on. There are people from all over the world here to learn, be wowed and experience some of the most cutting edge advertising on the planet- a lot of which is now digital!
We arrived last night and sped to Marco Polo’s a restaurant on the beach, a bit beyond the town, for a very cool and laid back dinner with the whole Microsoft Advertising Team that’s out here.
The up bright and early meeting the film crew that will help us interview a raft of folks from Microsoft execs to people on the street finding out what their expectations are of Cannes and what they’re looking forward to from the week.
Our cyber lounge at the conference centre is pretty cool! Lots of PCs and internet access and this Microsoft Surface table I spotted with two South Americans firmly ensconced next to with their Apple Macs wide open!
They look happy don’t they!
Jenny and I have started filming with the Media Brands crew and I think we’ve found our presenting feet…..well time will tell!
That’s me with the “I’m an FB” Tee Shirt on!
Now I’m off to the land of nod to dream up some questions to ask Biz Stone!
Check out more photos at Cannes Lions Microsoft Advertising Community and Microsoft Advertising on Facebook.
Microsoft Advertising at Cannes Lions 2009
Myself and other members of the Microsoft Advertising Community team will be in Cannes in a couple of weeks for the International Advertising Festival which we’re sponsoring.
Do check out our Cannes Lions 2009 community site which includes blogs, photos, videos and Twitter feeds – as we ramp towards the event we’ll be adding more content and will be streaming Steve Ballmer live from our business forum during the week!
As Steve picks up Media Person of the Year we’d like to ask him some questions from our Twitter audience so follow @MSAdvertising and fire off some things you’d like to hear!
Bing – Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer Interview at All Things Digital
A snapshot of Walt Mossberg’s interview with Steve Ballmer at All Things Digital – Yusuf Mehdi does the demos which draw gasps and cheers from the crowd.
Take note from Steve on how exactly to say BING!
“Where Haven’t I Been?”
5 flights, 4 countries, 3 hotels, 2 hangovers and only 1 life!
The last couple of weeks have been madder than Mad Jack McMad!
1st there was Iceland and www.rimc.com – check out mine and Rand Fishkin’s post and my Facebook Photos for some insight into that incredible few days!
Then there was SES New York – check out our wild and whacky videos here, here & here!
After a pit stop in Boston to visit my mate Dom Doyle who teaches Theology at Harvard, it was onto Toronto where I spent time with the Canada team and participated in a round table with some of Canada’s finest press folk and managed an amusing dinner out with Vanessa, Danny and Andrew & Mona from www.PageZero.com
Now I’m in Seattle meeting with my team, planning the next year’s worth of excitement and doing lots of work during downtime on the wedding!
After two weeks it’s a bit odd being away from Englandshire, but travelling sure makes sure you’re busy.
It amuses me how some people seem to think it’s all glitz and glam, but believe me you yearn for your own bed and a daily dose of Radio 5 Live!
The key is to make long trips comfortable and I have some tips on how to get the most from your mileage…….but I’ll save them for another day!
BTW – If anyone can name the BBC comedy and character who says the words in the title of this post, I’ll send them a surprise!
SES New York 2009 Photos – Day 3
SES New York 2009 Photos – Day 2
More photos from day 2 of Search Engine Strategies in New York
I’m tweeting like a mad man at http://Twitter.com/adCenterBlog and we’ll have a recap video at www.adCenterCommunity.com soon!!!
SES New York 2009 Photos – Day 1
Pictures from Search Engine Strategies New York!
We’ll have a full round up on the Microsoft Advertising Community site later!!
Make sure you follow our Tweets too: http://Twitter.com/adCenterBlog
Escaping To The Country (of Iceland!)
This week is going to be awesome for all of us!
Awesome for me because on Thursday I fly with Ashley and some of the finest minds in online marketing to Reykjavik in Iceland for the Reykjavik Internet Marketing Conference.
Awesome for you, because you’re going to have the laugh of your life on Friday 20th at 5.15pm if you watch BBC 2 and catch us touring the wilds of East Sussex looking for a house to escape to with Alastair Appleton of “Cash in the Attic” fame!
You can see some of the photos of the four day shoot here and the funny thing is, because we’re at the conference, folks over here in the UK will be the first to see the show so please let us know what you think/laughed at.
To be honest it’s a little nerve-wracking as there was so much footage there could be many angles they could take – I just hope me quoting Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump by accident has made it to the cutting room floor!
As for the conference, well Kristjan Mar Hauksson has done a great job assembling the likes of Rand Fishkin, Shari Thurow, Anne Kennedy, Dixon Jones, Andy Atkins-Kruger and Adam Lasnik to inject some internet marketing know-how into the Icelandic marketing community.
I’ll be speaking on online youth marketing with Sion Portman from Nike which I’m looking forward to enormously!
Have to say, Kristjan continues to be one of the best loved, jolliest and most generous people in the industry.
He’ll be in New York for SES so say hi and buy him a beer or 5!
