Last Thursday I was fortunate to acquire an interview with Sandy Fleischer, VP and General Manager of Fjord Interactive, a division of Cossette West. The interview was set up by Paul Marr of Optimum Public Relations to discuss Convergence 2008.

Convergence 2008 takes place on Thursday May 22nd and it is organised by Cossette West as part of the Vancouver International Digital Festival (VIDFEST). As I wrote about earlier, it is a digital marketing and communication event taking place on Granville Island, Vancouver.

Their offices are located in Yaletown and the view from their balcony on the fifth floor is quite spectacular. The interview took place outdoors as it was a sunny day. You can hear the traffic in the background, so I have provided a transcription of the interview below.

Sandy Fleischer, VP and General Manager of Fjord Interactive

Me: Hello, it is Phillip Jeffrey here. I’m with Sandy Fleischer, VP and General Manager of Fjord Interactive and I’m asking a few questions about Convergence 2008 which will be coming up next week. The first question I want to ask you is who you are and what do you do for Cossette West?

Sandy: My name is Sandy Fleischer. I’m Vice President and General Manager for Cossette and I run Fjord Interactive Marketing and Technology and we’re the digital marketing group within Cossette.

Me: How did Cossette get involved with Convergence?

Sandy: Convergence was actually our idea. In the past we’ve held digital marketing events but they have been closed, invite-only open only to our key clients and we’ve just received really positive feedback on that. Based on where the industry is now, we felt it was a really good opportunity to open the event up to the broader business community.

Me: How does Cossette 2008 differ from last year?

Sandy: The main thing again is that it is open to the public and we have invited some speakers in outside of the Cossette family on a national and international basis.

Me: Who are the types of people you’d like to attract to Convergence?

Sandy: Really a broad group. Business community in general with a specific focus on marketing and communication professionals, people who are new to digital marketing who are looking for some practical advice, and people who are experts in the field that are looking to broaden their knowledge and learn about what other experts are doing.

Me: How does the diversity of speakers (e.g. Grant McCracken, cultural anthropologist, Darren Barefoot, Social Media expert; William Azaroff, a force behind community engagement) relate to the overall theme of digital marketing and communication?

Sandy: Great question. I think the diversity of the speakers reflect the diverse state of digital marketing right now and really our intent was to focus on a few of the main trends and areas of interest within digital marketing and our speakers and panels are really reflective of that.

Me: What would you like the take-away message to be for Convergence 2008?

Sandy: I think that given it is a broad event it is hard to focus on any one message, but ultimately the idea behind the forum was to provide practical, results oriented advice that people can put into practice on an immediate basis.

Me: Thank you for your time, is there anything else you’d like to add?

Sandy: Just some particulars around the event. It is happening Thursday May 22nd, that it will be part of VIDFEST and that together we are joining forces to create a digital week in Vancouver. We are very excited about that.

Me: Thank you

Sandy You’re welcome.

Relevance: It is great that Convergence is open to the public this year. It should be a great opportunity to meet interesting digital marketing and communication professionals from across North America.