Internet Conferences Archive

Off to Cannes

Cannes

Setting off for Cannes via a weekend in Nice with my aunt and uncle which is handy.

It’s been a long week, hammering down the filming schedule which I hope will be as engaging as last year – check out the below interview with Biz Stone from Twitter.

To see what we’re up to, check out our dedicated Cannes Lions site, follow us on Twitter and fan us on our Facebook page.

Monday will be very cool as we’re hosting the TED @ Cannes conference. Looking forward to meeting those guys!

That’s it for now, gotta get to T5…

Cannes Lions 2010 – Photos, Videos & Social Media #CannesLions

Less than 2 weeks to go now till I head down to the south of France for the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.

The organisers have done a great job with the agenda, attracting the likes of Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, Ridley Scott, Ben Stiller and a host of advertising gods like Sir Martin Sorrell and Rory Sutherland.

Microsoft Advertising will be there in force – we sponsor the event – and I’ll be running around with my esteemed colleagues – Colm Bracken and Kelley Myers – filming, blogging, photographing, tweeting and, hopefully, getting the chance to imbibe some quality rose wine.

 

This video, from our Microsoft Advertising YouTube Channel, sets the scene nicely, with an interview with Cannes Lions CEO Phil Thomas and a look back to last year when we managed to get an insightful chat with Biz Stone from Twitter and many, many others.

Keep an eye on the Microsoft Advertising Blog, our Flickr feed and our dedicated Cannes Lions 2010 site which will be fed with all the news and views from the festival.

Follow us on Twitter too!

Steve Ballmer receiving Media Person of the Year 2009

LA, TED Talks and Peter Gabriel

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Digital Hollywood is going great here on Santa Monica beach in Los Angeles. The Loews Hotel is excellent and the digital discussion has been fast and furious.

I’ve cranked out about 5 posts so far.

Here are the top 3:

Multi-Screen Advertising Gets Upfront at Digital Hollywood

Video: Talking Advertising Accountability at Digital Hollywood 2010

Video: Xbox LIVE and Branded Entertainment at Digital Hollywood

The huge news from yesterday is that we’re hosting TED at Cannes this summer.

For anyone who doesn’t know about them, they run these talks where people from all walks of life come and share ideas to an live audience and the videos get seen my thousands across the web.

I download them to my Zune HD and watch them on the train.

One of my favourites is Blaise Aguera y Arcas from Microsoft (who I met a few years ago to discuss how best to demo Photosynth) talking about Bing Maps.

We are very excited about the TED event. We’ll have access to the speakers and will be interviewing and blogging from the venue too so check out our Cannes Lions 2010 page for updates.

Went out last night with my mate David McKimmie who was regaling stories of his latest movie exploits. He’s a post production supervisor for FOX and has just finished Wall Street 2 with Oliver Stone.

While were in Sushi Roku on Ocean, I spotted Peter Gabriel about 4 feet away.

I’m a huge fan, but reminded myself of how embarrassed I felt for interrupting Ian Botham’s dinner a few years ago in London.

I didn’t bother him.

But if I had, just think of what he could do with a Surface table at one of his live shows?!

Speaking at Digital Hollywood in Los Angeles

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Travelling the world ain’t all that glamorous ya know!

The jet lag, interrupted cash flow (I’m getting better at doing expenses more regularly now), the late nights, rich food and being away from the wife (although some see that as a bonus – I don’t though, because she reads my blog), all balance out the nice hotels, air miles and exotic passport stamps.

I’m certainly not moaning. Not at all. But at the end of the day I realise I’m in a privileged position and make sure I pay for it through sheer hard work. At a 3 day conference I’ll be up working at 7am and rarely stop until 10.30pm or……much, much later!

This morning I’m off to Seattle to see the family, spend a couple of days in the office in Redmond, and then it’s off to LA for the Digital Hollywood conference.

I was just covering the show on the blog and through Twitter, but I’ve now been asked to speak on:

Advertising Accountability: Metrics and Analytics around Video, Social Media, Broadband and Mobile

With my background in adCenter and the work we’ve been doing recently on multi-screen advertising, Engagement Mapping and LookingGlass, I should be able to contribute intelligently to the conversation. One hopes.

I am looking forward to staying at the hotel – Lowes Santa Monica – photo above.

And I’ll be meeting up with my friends Dave and Ilyse Mckimmie who work in the movie business for Fox and Sundance.

Dave actually got me on the set of Austin Powers Gold Member to watch Mike Myers doing his thing. I’ll never forget it!

I’ve written about our participation on the blog. There are 15 of us speaking which is great for Microsoft.

In the last 5 years we’ve come along way from being that software company that dabbles on the internet, to being recognised as one of the leading players in digital.

As Ashley Highfield told me recently, we really are getting our Mojo back!

Iceland Volcano Photos

Just been told that the Icelandic volcano that’s causing so much trouble for flights in and out of the UK, was under a glacier we visited last year!

We were in Reykjavik for an internet marketing conference and our gracious hosts NordicEMarketing took us on a 4×4 trip into the icy wilderness.

Glacier Me in front of the glacier

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A wider perspective

Volcano

 

Bridge

That’s us all on a bridge that doesn’t exist an more!

Fffffrightening stuff!!

Video: Steve Ballmer at SMX West with Danny Sullivan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just back from holiday having missed this, so just taken a peek.

So pleased Danny got to finally quiz Steve B and, as someone who’s been at Microsoft for 5 years talking about search and adCenter, so pleased to see our CEO up there so eloquently explaining the problems we have with search, and what Bing is setting out to achieve in solving those conundrums.

Not Going to SMX West to See Steve Ballmer

I’ve never actually been to an SMX in the US, just London & Stockholm, but this one looks like a cracker as Danny Sullivan finally gets to meet & quiz Steve Ballmer.

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Last summer, I got to meet and interview Steve – CEO of Microsoft in case you didn’t know – for a whole 81 seconds.

Why so short? Well it was for an internal video, I only had to ask a couple of questions, and he’s a jolly busy man.

A great character and incredibly close to the detail of what we do in search and the advertising business, I know that an hour with Danny will be one of THE search chats of 2010.

Check out my interview with Danny on what to look out for at SMX West 2010

Have fun if you’re going!

SES London & New York 2010 – Hear Me Speak!

Search Engine Strategies

The lovely Jackie Ortez, who helps organise the Search Engine Strategies conferences around the world, has sent me this tiny button to stick on my site.

I will indeed be speaking/moderating a couple of panels – mainly social media – both here in London in February, and in NYC in March.

Bing & Microsoft Advertising will be out in force at both events as well, and I’ll be on Twitter, our Facebook Page  and blogging on the adCenter Blog to bring you all the news and views.

Nice to see the latest comScore 2009 Search Growth numbers look very good, not just for adCenter and Bing, but for the industry as a whole!

Hope to see you all on either side of the pond!

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