Summit Against Violent Extremism

I've just returned to London from Dublin and the Summit Against Violent Extremism. After 3 days of inspiring and groundbreaking conversation from former terrorists, gang members, skin heads and violent extremists paired together with talks from survivors of violence and forward thinking entrepreneurs, I am exhausted and astounded by what I've witnessed. The mother whose daughter was killed on one of the planes that flew into the world trade center on 9/11 on stage engaged in conversation with the mother of one of the terrorists who planned the attacks. Gil Hicks, a survivor of the 7/7 bombings who lost both legs and was severely injured in the attacks, chairing a conversation between an inner-city gang member, an islamic fundamentalist and a skinhead.

Reflecting upon the conversations and ideas shared has been emotionally taxing. It is difficult to understand unless you speak with these people face to face, just how much they have been through and how far they have come. The major theme that I can draw from the event is the common ground of induction during youth. All of the formers were inducted into their respective former organizations at an early age - mostly between 13 and 16 years old. Issues of identity, lack of family structure, and a need to belong and fit in were repeatedly touched upon. As a result, the brainstorming sessions focused on legitimate and feasible ideas for youth programs across the globe.

The event was the culmination of Jared Cohen's sapling of an idea that he had when joining Google over a year ago. He was hired to chair the new department 'Google Ideas', and this was his first effort at the company. It is amazing to see how many people jumped on board to make the idea become a reality, especially with the delicate nature of the subject matter. His motto is that Google Ideas is not a think tank, but a think AND do tank. It has meant so much to me to be a part of this event and to help to make something of this nature happen. One of Google's main tennents is 'Don't be Evil' and I believe this summit demonstrates the company's commitment to that statement and to making the world a better place.

A sample of videos from the event is available on at this link - definitely worth a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erSs46hSpsg

Cannes Wrap-Up

Its Saturday, and I have one day in between events back in London so this post will be short and sweet! Below is the Cannes Event Recap which I've just finished and sent company-wide, as well as some great photos from the week. The event was really great - very hectic and crowded at times, with lulls in the mid-day. An overall great success for the whole core team!!

Be sure to check out the video below to get a real feel for the event!

Event Highlights
Both the Google beach and the YouTube zones were huge hits. Check out the video that captures the essence of it all.  Other highlights:

• 3,000+ visitors joined us at the Creative Sandbox to enjoy the festival’s only open, free beach space. They cherished free wifi, interacted with 11 demos, gulped back more than 7,000 smoothies, re-energised themselves at our daily yoga classes and produced 700+ Androidify t-shirts
• 3,000+ attended Eric Schmidt and Andy Berndt’s main stage session
• 1,800+ attended the YouTube hosted ‘Good Work’ plenary with Publicis CEO, Craig Davis
• 2,000+ engaged with our two YouTube zones in the festival hall to relax with smoothies or star in their own YT ad remake.
• 5,000+ unique visitors engaged with our Cannes mobile site and heat map
• 14 official Cannes Lions Awards won, including Award for Media Man of the Year for Eric, Wilderness Downtown, 
• Chrome, Voice Search, Life in a Day, Art Project and Demo Slam campaigns

Cannes-O-Rama!

The past week has been the busiest and most intense in my entire career. We are in the depths of finalizing Cannes production and there are so many minute details going into this week-long event. From registrations and accommodation to technical demo testing, delivery of devices and artwork approval, to specially branded deck chairs (pictured above), the workload has been barely manageable with many late nights spent in the office.

What I've really taken away from this experience is the importance of attention to detail. My manager on this project is extremely detail-oriented and has organized several spreadsheets for the project. Each area - whether it is accommodation and passes or food and beverage or napkin and tablecloth delivery for the week - has its own spreadsheet with minute details. I consider myself an organized person, but this level of detail is something I find difficult to achieve. It was my job this week to write the Project Handbook, which contains every bit of information about the festival and our presence there. At this point it is about 52 pages long, and I will continue to update and add things over the weekend. After working on this document, I can see that with an event of this size, it will be crucial to have all of the details on site, organized and at the ready for the entire team.

I will be heading to Cannes on Sunday for the week and I'm very excited to see all of the hard work come to life. The planning process has been daunting but also very rewarding, and I'm sure being on site will be amazing.

New Projects - Cannes Creative Sandbox and SAVE Event

This week Google have expanded my role for the Creative Sandbox and YouTube presence in Cannes as well as brought me into the demo planning for our SAVE event.

The first is Google's presence at the Cannes Lions Advertising Festival which takes place June 19th - June 25th in Cannes, France. Similar to the Cannes Film Festival, this event brings together an average of 10,000 ad agency executives and directors from across the world each year, with media awards, workshops, lectures, keynotes and plenty of media presence. In past years, Google have not had a strong presence apart from their YouTube area inside the Palais because Microsoft are the official partners of the festival. This year, however, they will occupy a beach just outside the Palais along the Croisette for the entire week with a Creative Sandbox. The Creative Sandbox idea is not new and has been used in several spaces across the world as an interactive marketing tool. The official description that we've tweaked for our agencies for Cannes reads:

"Creative Sandbox is an interactive and immersive event designed to open the creative agency community’s eyes to the possibilities afforded by Google’s various platforms and tools. The program combines product awareness and education with socializing, networking, and experimentation. Creative Sandbox has a very distinct look and feel, relying little on formal presentations and heavily on hands-on demonstrations and exhibits. The program treats a raw space as a museum, in which several areas are curated as individual galleries, tailored to highlight Google product innovation. Attendees to Creative Sandbox represent some of the most influential names in the agency industry, along with up and comers who are continuously pushing the digital edge. They come to the event to learn about new technology developments at Google, make new relationships, and rub elbows with the industry’s elite."

Needless to say, its very difficult to visualize what these demos will look like on a beach, which is what I will focus on this week. We need to narrow down those demos that we will use with our external production agency and focus on mapping of visuals for the build, which will begin in London next week.

My role for Cannes will be two-fold. I am responsible for entertainment and run of show for the client party on the Thursday evening which means booking the artist and executing the night on site. Its a lot of responsibility but I'm confident I can handle it - these are they types of events I've done in PR and Music and I know that the skills I've gained over the years will prove extremely useful. I really do believe that the skills needed in events are the same across the board and can be applied to any type of conference, gathering, party or off-site. Ability to deal with pressure, patience, team work, thinking and acting quickly but not in a rash manor, and a certain level of decorum are all essential.

I've also been briefed very quickly on the Summit Against Violent Extremism which is an event in Dublin on June 27th and 28th. First thought of by Google Ideas head Jared Cohen, SAVE will bring together over 70 former violent extremists from across the globe, in addition to survivors of violent attacks (including 9/11 and the 7/7 bombings), politicians, NGOs and small businesses to foster conversation and action against violence. I will be handling the demo area which will be rather small in comparison to our Cannes undertaking, and we will bring most of the demos with us from Cannes to Dublin so the transfer should run smoothly.

More details on these events to follow shortly as I'm looped into meetings, etc!

YouTube and Prosumption

Now that Zeitgeist is over, I've been looped in to help at Google's largest event of the year - the Creative Sandbox and YouTube Zones at Cannes Lions Festival in France. It sounds like an amazing event and I'm still learning about each aspect. I'm currently working on some of the creative content for the YouTube Booth. Pictured to the left, the idea is for visitors to recreate a famous ad which will be uploaded to YouTube.

Working with the YouTube team has been really interesting and has got me thinking about the idea of prosumption and the produser. Theorists including Alvin Toeffler (1990), Mark Deuze (2002), Jan Van Dijk (2006) and Henry Jenkins (2006) have spoken extensively about convergence culture and the blurring lines between those who produce and those who consume. Deuze argues that the relationship between the media producer and consumer has changed along with the structure of firms and the content of communication. We can see this structural change in the very fact that Google has acquired YouTube. This represents the trend towards media convergence - the merging of two media giants has had a major impact in the industry.

Nowhere is this argument more evident than in the case of YouTube - the entire idea behind YouTube is to allow the consumer to become the producer. There is no hierarchy on YouTube. Anyone with the ability to hold a camera or use a laptop can post a video which can be seen by millions of people. However, I would argue that YouTube takes this a step further by allowing for video interaction and discussions - fostering creativity and open communication amongst consumers and creators. Although social networking sites allow this as well, YouTube is home to the videos that are discussed on places like Facebook and Twitter. No one is posting Facebook status updates onto YouTube - it is the other way around. I believe this is due to the great creativity that goes into these videos and the strength of visual aspects over written words.

Either way, we can see that the interactivity and freedom allowed for by YouTube is creating what Toeffler calls 'Prosumption' - production and consumption blurring into one entity - and I would argue that YouTube is one of the best platforms for producers to consume and consumers to produce.