• by September 23, 2005

Dios mio!

Are you going as crazy as we are?

Advertising Week kicks off Monday, and for MediaPost, that means our annual Forecast 2006 conference, where we expect lively debate -- and for Jack Klues, CEO of Starcom MediaVest, to make some news. At least we hope he will. The action continues Monday night with our Creative Media Awards event -- our lips are sealed on who the winners are!

Online media and marketing kick into high gear next Tuesday and Wednesday (Sept. 27-28), during the OMMA Conference and Expo. Get ready for some heavy hitters: Keynoting Tuesday morning is Peter Weedfald, senior vice president, consumer electronics and North America corporate marketing, for Samsung Electronics. For more information about the conference and all the featured speakers and panels, check out the conference Web site here.

Wednesday evening MediaPost honors its first-ever Online All Stars -- nine individuals who you'd want in your starting lineup because they're great strategic thinkers, online evangelists, and brilliant at weaving digital media and marketing into their work. In case you didn't read about them in OnlineMediaDaily last week, the online All Stars in the creative realm are: "Subservient Chicken" mastermind, Jeff Benjamin, interactive creative director, Crispin Porter + Bogusky; Arthur Ceria, executive creative director, OgilvyOne, responsible for more than 200 Yahoo! campaigns this year; and Doug Jaeger, founder, thehappycorp, who five years ago became the youngest creative director in TBWA/Chiat/Day's history. Jaeger has recently, or is about to, turn 30. Shocking!

Our Online All Stars in the marketing category are: Jeff Bell, vice president, Chrysler and Jeep Chrysler Group, DaimlerChrysler AG; Jon Raj, vice president of online advertising and emerging media platforms, Visa USA; and John Vail, director, digital media and marketing, Pepsi-Cola North America. And in the field of media, they are: Kate Everett-Thorp, president, interactive advertising, AKQA; Rishad Tobaccowala, chief innovation officer, Publicis Groupe Media, and President, SMG Next; and Scott Witt, group director-digital, Coca-Cola City, a Unit of Starcom MediaVest Group. To attend our reception, go here.

And if that's not enough for you, check out the official Web site for Advertising Week.

Good luck to everyone next week. It's going to be a doozy.