Farewell For Now

This will be my last week at Google until September 7th, when I will commence my internship through the end of January and hopefully be hired full time then! After a meeting with HR, it made the most sense to take a hiatus while I finish my dissertation and recharge for the next steps.

Reflecting upon my time here, I have to say I've learned more than I thought I would. While I did have some event skills under my belt when I began, joining a team of extremely experienced event planners was a great way to immerse myself in the process and production aspect of the job. Moreover, working for Google has been a humbling and eye-opening experience in two ways.

Firstly, it has re-fueled and re-charged my love of the CCIs. After working in PR for so long and experiencing the life that so many creatives lead - the sense of precarity, low pay for long hours, bulemic work patterns - I was extremely disenfranchised with the Cultural and Creative Industries. Now I see that there are companies and sectors that get it right, and Google is one of them.

Secondly, it has been inspiring to work for a place so creatively and independently driven. When an intern has an idea in a meeting, everyone pays attention. When a lead on a project is having trouble, a member of the team steps in and takes over. The working culture and horizontal organizational structure is truly the defining character of Google, and I've grown to love and appreciate the idealism that it fosters. 

The LAAM Off-Site

Two weeks ago I was given my own event to organize, which is a great compliment and has been a lot of fun. I've been working with the Large Agency and Advertiser Marketing (LAAM) on their EMEA Off-Site. Basically, a chance for the entire team from across Europe, the Middle East and Asia to come together and discuss best practices, goals, and forecasts for Q4 and into 2012.

I thought this would be a good time to walk you through a Google event from start to finish. Because this is only 20-30 people and 2 days, its only taken me about 2 weeks. But you can imagine the time and man power it takes to put together an event such as Cannes.

Here are the phases of planning:

1. Meet with department head to get list of people to be invited and overall needs of the project
2. Send an email to the team to get estimated number of attendees
3. Look into venues in central London - visit sites, get rates, accessibility, tech availability, food and beverage menus and pricing and photos. Compile all info into a document.
4. Meet with department head to go over the document and choose the venue.
5. Confirm venue with credit card details and deposit.
6. Meet with department head to create agenda for two days - timing of welcome dinner, arrivals, breakfast, daytime sessions, lunch, afternoon team building activity and event dinner.
7. Look into team-building activities. Google is always looking for new and exciting ideas. I looked into several event planning companies. Eventually, I decided to create my own activity with the team at Wahaca Soho (pictured above). I felt that their style and Googley decor would be a perfect fit!
8. Propose team-building events to department head and make final decision.
10. Find appropriate restaurants with capacity for 30 people for Monday welcome dinner and Tuesday evening dinner.
11. Confirm details and numbers with each of the venues.
12. Compile final budget for approval.
13. Come up with ice-breaker suggestions
14. Assemble a Project Handbook which you can view here with all details!

These are very simplified steps, but as you can see even with a small number of people, the details become extremely important and can truly make or break an event.

In the end, this event was very successful and the team gave me great feedback. Unfortunately I was on holiday and was unable to attend!

Networking - The Key to Success

On Monday I was assigned a new project called the YouTube NextUp Creator Camp. The camp will be a 5-day intensive production program designed for 25 winners of YouTube's Next UP contest which will be held over the next month in order to find the best and most creative YouTubers across Europe. We will then bring them to London to produce their own videos with professional editors and filmmakers.

I was brought onto the project because of my experience in the music industry and for the sole purpose of finding appropriate studio space for the videos to be shot. I found it extremely interesting that it was automatically assumed that I would have contacts at studio locations because of my music background. I never worked on music video sets or productions and certainly have no experience or direct contacts at locations within London.

This is a clear example of the importance of strong networking skills and the ability to maintain relationships for a long period of time. My team here at Google expects a lot from me, and they expect that from my contacts in PR in the music industry, I would be able to network my way to finding some studio spaces in London. It proved to be a rather long network of referral after referral from an old PR rep at Universal in the NY offices, to a video department rep at Universal in NYC, to a video department rep at Universal in London, to a locations scout at LocationWorks in London. Finally, I met with Andy from Locationworks and scouted some great venues.

This is a lesson learned that keeping in touch with contacts from former companies is ALWAYS a great idea, and that pushing boundaries to make connections and network is a vital part of success in the CCIs!

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!