Talent, Technology and Creativity Get the Buzz at the 4As - Michael Kassan

Technology trended big at the 4As Transformation 2014 conference in Los Angeles last week with the American Association of Advertising Agencies39 annual event generating a lot of social network heat Ad Age was so smitten by the online action that it ran a 25 Best Tweets story about the conferenceSo the best way to sum up what stuck and what didn39t at this year39s conference is to tour the session tweets And trending really big was talentamp8212finding it nurturing it keeping it and using it It39s an old refrain in the ad business but even more imperative todayTweeters ate up Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin Smith39s remarks in a session called quotTalent as a Winning Ingredientquot Smith talked about talent being such a critical element that all CEOs should be CTOs as wellamp8212Chief Talent OfficersOur newest portfolio mash up not as exhaustively publicized as CMOs becoming CIOs certainly but no less importantOne Tweeter noted Smith39s admonition that quotIt39s not talking about talent but being obsessed by itquot Another shared the farsighted media executive39s advice to quotget a group of talented people in the right environment to do something specialquotAnother wellshared session was a quotRising Starsquot panel with agency Millennials in a discussion with Leo Burnett Chief Talent Officer Renetta McCann and Horizon Media CEO and Founder Bill Koenigsberg two of the most astute evaluators of talent in the industry My favorite tweet on the session was an enthusiastic quotMost awesome and inspiring thing about 4AsTransformation rising Stars on stage now All WOMENquotA keynote address by American Express CEO John Hayes on quotIgniting Growthquot stirred up social chatter with one tweeter sharing the Hayes quote quotagencies must have the curiosity to understand discipline to interpret and courage to challenge thinkingquot And then there was the delightfully iconoclastic Dana Anderson Mondelez International senior vice president of marketing strategy and communication whose presentations are becoming famous for her comic timing as much as her brilliance spoke about the fascinating idea that generosity is a primary component of creating good work With tweeps sharing her lesson quotGive 39til it hurtsquotAnd really how can you not love an industry speech that concluded as Anderson39s did with a quote from Dr SeussAs well two interviews lived beyond the stage on social media The first was GroupM Worldwide Chief Digital Officer Rob Norman39s conversation with Yahoo President and CEO Marissa Mayer The second was my conversation with Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer regarding how he has evolved a media strategy in the today39s content ecosystemStill one of the most powerful themes from this year39s conference wasn39t a speech or a session but an evolutionamp8212the rise of holistic talent in the industry It seems completely natural to have executives from full service shops and media agencies comingling now You couldn39t have said that a few years ago You wouldn39t have even seen it since the 4As ran its management conference and its media conference separately until a few years agoThis year once again the 4As produced a vibrant gathering with a lot to buzz about Talent technology and creativity after all are not bad overarching themes for a conference entitled quotTransformationquotFeel free to retweet thatMichael E Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink LLC a leading Los Angeles and New York Citybased advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing advertising media entertainment and digital technology Michael can be reached at michaelmedialinkllccomRead all Michael39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Media LinkedCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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Talent, Technology and Creativity Get the Buzz at the 4As - Michael Kassan

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