• by Bob DeSena , March 15, 2011

If there has ever been a more appropriate name for an event,  I can't think of one. Last week the 4As gave us Transformation 2011, the group's second annual transformation event.

I don't know why, but after years of attending trade shows with many of the same people year after year,  it seems the fashionable thing to do to communicate where the program came up short.  Maybe it makes us look smarter.

This one was different. The core concept of this show -- transformation -- was clarifying and was its strength.  As I mentioned last week,  change,  especially of the transformative kind, begins with attitude change.  This event, from the promotion leading up to it to the program itself, effectively communicates why you're there-- because things are different, will continue to be so, and as Bill Koenigsberg, CEO of Horizon Media, said,  if you don't want to embrace the "positive chaos" of this time in the industry,  then this industry's just not for you.  Clarifying.

The two days in Austin, preceded by IAB and followed by South by Southwest, both in the same city, achieved that rare quality of having a wide-ranging program with focus. One minute you're listening to Unilever's CMO being interviewed by Michael Kassan of MediaLink, the next  absorbing data from the 2010 census (who says discovery through data can't be fun?). And the tour de force of journalist Fareed Zakaria explaining what globalization really is, speaking about it without a note for 35 minutes, and then summing it up in a single sentence.  (That sentence by the way, was that the U.S. successfully taught the world to globalize, but failed to globalize itself.)

There were presentations of new and transformative need-to-know technology,  sessions on one of the leading issues of the multiplatform age -- that is, how do we measure it all with a common currency? -- and a rare, joint appearance by three of the agency holding company CEOs.   If I could ask for one "do over" it would be for this session.  Titled "agency/advertiser collaboration," I wished for greater depth on that subject (vs. the obvious need for better talent recruitment, for example)  as we witness the deterioration of the relationship between clients and their agencies.  But even those comments recognize that the hall was full and no one asked for a shorter session.

Finally, the discussion on new advertising guidelines and the always-looming issue of regulation, was important, if not sexy.  And it was delivered by a professional group of panelists who knew their subject and raised awareness on matters important to the industry, and our individual businesses.

So congratulations to Nancy Hill, Mike Donahue and the professionals at the 4As.  They recognize the time we're living and working through and are making their contribution to our success.

They even gave us Kinky Friedman, a transformative showman and personality. Thanks

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