• by Peter Gardiner , April 16, 2008

VENICE--I don't know if it was the dreary morning rain or last night's plentiful Italian wine, but honestly, much of day two at the Venice media fest was a blur until the last session (new business models), which was the most provocative of the two days. Day two started out with an impressive list of media agency CEOs talking about every hot topic in the industry.

In a well-managed series of conversations led by John Partilla of Time Warner and Michael Kassan of Media Link, the CEOs tackled everything from who should lead...creative or media? -- loved Dominic Proctor saying he didn't care, because they just want to activate better than anyone else -- to compensation issues, to who is going to figure out how to pay for all the content needed for new channels, as Publicis Groupe's Jack Klues asked at the end of the session. All well-spoken, but nothing came out that is going to rock the industry. To be expected, I guess, on a very public stage.

The "managing the three screens" session was predictable fodder about engagement and the like, but was highlighted by ESPN's Ed Ehrhardt talking about their inventive deal with Nielsen to measure aggregated ESPN video across their many screens. Stay tuned...that could be industry changing.

For my money, the 90 minutes was the best of the two days. Matt Freeman from Tribal DDB skillfully hosted five "model busters," as they each talked about their new model companies and ideas. I'll hit the highlights. In introducing the session, Matt Freeman described how Nokia evolved from a paper company to one of the top tech/telecom companies in the world.

In 10 short minutes, Anssi Vanjoki, a top exec from Nokia, talked about how digital natives (those born in the digital age) are deciding what we digital immigrants will use as technology; how "g tech" (girly tech) is a main driver of technology, especially social media; how context is now king as we no longer need a "place" for entertainment; and that maps are the next major digital interface.

I sat there thinking: "Wow, I've finally been blown away by someone from a company that is way beyond the edge." Joanne Bradford, formerly of Microsoft and two weeks into a top job at SpotRunner, guided us through what she described as "Google for TV," an amazing technology to automate the local TV creative and buying process. Brilliant stuff. Carl Johnson described Anomaly, the startup that "can't be defined" and doesn't do timesheets.

It was a great session that left me knowing that all the new model-changing work we've been doing at Deutsch, from developing new revenue streams to creating a content studio to deep alliances with technology companies may help us make our way in this world of change.