Conference News: What I learned this week – November 17, 2017
Women Rule in Davos: The World Economic Forum announced the co-chairs for the 2018 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos – and for the first time, all of them are women. Although the event has, in recent years, been criticized for lack of diversity among participants and speakers, they certainly have shown that they recognize this imbalance. After incentivizing member companies to include women in their delegations in past years, the World Economic Forum has elevated the issue again with its co-chair selection. You will find a full list of the 2018 chairs here.
PopTech Heads North: Following the conclusion of the 21st annual PopTech, the organizers declared that they will be bringing a new approach the “community gathering” in 2018. The PopTech blog states, “Taking a break from our usual conference format, we are creating a more intimate gathering that captures the ‘can do’ spirit of our community, as well as our instinct to go deep on the topics of the day.” While this new format will still include presentations and interactive sessions, they will also include “fireside chats in front of real fireplaces, late night debates, movies, music-making and bowling (yep-bowling!).” For more information on the 2018 event, which will relocate to Point Lookout, ME, north of its longtime home in Camden, click here.
Mobile World Congress Americas Gets Moving: If you have not already heard, the GSMA will be relocating the Mobile World Congress Americas Conference to Los Angeles in 2018. The event organizers noted that, “with its leadership in entertainment and content, along with flourishing creative and innovation communities, Los Angeles offers an outstanding platform for us to further develop Mobile World Congress Americas. This location will put a major focus on the intersection of the mobile, digital, entertainment and content worlds and will provide new opportunities for our exhibitors, sponsors, partners and attendees.” The 2018 conference will take place from 12 – 14 September.
Speaking Opportunity: After a successful debut, the Future of Immersive Leisure conference will return to Vegas from 16 – 17 May 2018, highlighting key developments and opportunities in the broadening and growing the out of home entertainment industry. Last year’s discussions included whether arena scale VR will be a successor to laser tag, 3D and 4D mapping experiences in leisure facilities; and licensing’s vital role in successful implementations of immersive location-based entertainment. If you have an idea to share with this audience of innovators from amusement parks, location-based entertainment centers, video arcades, movie theaters, museums, VR and AR hardware and software development, and experiential marketing, submit via their online form by 15 December.
Lunchtime Learning: Every October, the global TV industry converges in Cannes for MIPCOM. Four days of meetings, screenings and conference sessions reveal blockbuster programming and groundbreaking partnerships. If you were not able to attend, watch presentations here. The 2017 lineup featured speakers such as HBO Chairman and CEO, Richard Plepler, TV Azteca CEO, Benjamin Salinas, Sean Mills, Senior Director of Content Programming at Snap Inc, Facebook’s Head of Global Creative Strategy, Ricky Van Veen and CEO of National Geographic Global Courteney Monroe.
Coming up next week: The conference scene is quiet next week because of the American Thanksgiving holiday. But activity picks back up 27 November when Amazon hosts 30,000 strong at its partner and user event, AWS re:Invent. New for 2017, the organizers are adding an extra day and new campus space at this Las Vegas conference. SIGGRAPH Asia kicks off 27 November in Bangkok, drawing almost 7,000 computer graphic industry professionals, academics, and creative minds. In the event’s tenth edition, SIGGRAPH Asia will focus on “The Celebration of Life & Technology.” In New York from 29 – 30 November, Business Insider’s Ignition gathers media, marketing and tech leaders to raise serious questions like: Do marketers still need media? and Is there life for publishers beyond scale? Across the pond, Ad:tech London runs 29 – 30 November, hailing itself “the only UK marketing and advertising technology event delivering seniority and scale.”