About the author: Aaron Matys is assisting in the future of New Orleans technology and entrepreneurship through his work with local companies including RapJab and BeneFit.
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The first event of the Ad Monsters season, the Publishers forum aimed to spark innovation among digital leaders.
In the spirit of the conference Rob Beeler and Bowen Dwelle chose New Orleans for it’s uniqueness and character. Ad Monsters is designed for interaction and exploration both in and around the conference. The goal is to start the conversation, Rob Beller explained. “Were here to frame the problem and allow our audience to collaboratively plot solutions.” A challenge as the industry continues to grapple with new consumer habits, content preferences and the increasing shift towards mobile devices.
Setting the agenda for the conference, Peter Naylor and Robbie Vitrano delivered distinct messages to an industry seeking to grab the attention of a ever connected, ever sharing generation. Vitrano spoke to the spirit of the industry, while Naylor highlighted consumer trends professionals should be conscious of.
Sighting recent platforms like: Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, Snapchat and Wanelo, Naylor showcased the potential user generated content can enable. Naylor supported his point by pointing to recent successes in the industry such as Imgur’s 120 million unique views and the financial success of Visually. The keynote untimely pushed for retail and content provers alike to adopt richer storytelling techniques as visual search and user engagement grows.
User engagement seemed to be the theme of this years conference carrying over into multiple presentations and conversations. Vitrano presented it best however, when he connected the state of the industry with New Orleans own historical arc. Vitrano rallied attendees around the dilemma of retreat or rebel. Framing New Orleans as a democracy laboratory, Vitrano called for brands to learn from New Orleans model of success. Sighting the shift taking place in how media is currently consumed, he stressed the importance for brands to become culturally connected and urged the industry to switch from a top-down command-and-control infrastructure to a more collaborative ecosystem, lead by dynamic and transparent stakeholders.
Ad Monsters parent company 8 Meter Media shares in this belief in fact community is a core value of their organization. The conference is designed to facilitate trust and collaboration. Attendance is limited and applicants are vetted to make sure attendees belong. Now that the conference has concluded the hope is that attendees will cary on what they have learned and continue to use the relationships they have built.
If you would like to learn more about Ad Monsters events or their parent company 8 Meter media please visit: http://8meter.com/.