Even as Madison Avenue’s media leaders are meeting here in Vegas at a casino and hotel dubbed the Venetian, a rival effort to start an international media festival in the real deal –Venice, Italy
– was making some noise, announcing that legendary mediapreneur Chris Ingram has joined the conference at the Venice Festival of Media. The event, which bills itself as “the world’s first
festival of media creativity and innovation†– somehow forgetting about things like the AAAA’s media conference and trade show, or even MediaPost’s conference and Creative Media Awards, not to
mention the Cannes Media Lions, and scores of other grassroots efforts – seems to have one thing going for it: it’s location. All things considered, media honchos would rather hob-nob with
Venetians in Italy, than in Vegas. Other than that, no one’s quite sure what to make of the Venice Festival initiative. And other than Ingram’s involvement, it doesn’t exactly seem to have the
industry’s biggest draws on board yet. Other speakers include a respectable cadre of supporting characters like Billetts founder John Billet, consultant Joanne Davis. The only other big Madison
Avenue name being promoted on the agenda is Janet Fitzpatrick, chief strategic officer of Initiative Worldwide. Ingram, of course, is the founder of CIA Medianetwork, which he sold to WPP to form
Mediaedge:cia, so he may be an especially fitting addition to the festival’s main panel discussion: “The Agency Model. Is It Broken?†According to the people I’ve been running into in Vegas
this week, the answer is a decisive “no,†but it is undergoing its most fundamental, and multidimensional transformation ever.
I know! How about, instead of convening at yet another exotic location and talking yet some more about the need for creativity, we just put our time and effort into BEING more creative? I love the idea of celebrating media innovation, but as Joe points out plenty of organizations are doing that already. Better in my mind to walk it than talk it.