Fade to Play

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.

Convergence 2008 is a digital marketing and communications event organised by Cossette West that is taking place next week in Vancouver. It will bring together marketing and communication professionals from across North America in order to gain knowledge and share information regarding branding, cross-platform marketing, and the culture of social media in our society. This all day session will also be of benefit to students, bloggers, and people interested in developing their brand for successful promotion to a targeted audience in this digital age.

The keynote speaker is Grant McCracken, a cultural anthropologist.

Grant McCracken is the author of several books including Culture and Consumption, Plenitude, and Transformation, and Culture and Consumption II: Markets, meaning and brand management. His work has been covered in The New York Times and on Oprah. In his newest book, Flock and Flow: Predicting and Managing Change in a Dynamic Marketplace McCracken deploys “complex adaptive theory” to track the movement of trends and new groupings of consumers. He shows how to monitor new trends, whether and when to introduce new brands and brand extensions, how to speak to niche markets, and how to avoid costly mistakes.

Sebastian Siethoff will be one of the speakers. He is a Global Marketing Director – Young Adults, McDonald’s Corporation which is providing sponsorship for the alternate reality game, The Lost Ring created by Jane McGonigal. As a participant of this game (see blog post), I am interested in how McDonald’s has marketed itself in relation to the game.

Darren Barefoot and Rebecca Bollwitt are two well-known BC bloggers that are part of a panel entitled “Blogger Relations: Influencing Online Influencers”. It should be an insightful discussion and worth attending for anyone that want to enhance their online identity.

The dialogue about your brand is happening in a much more transparent manner these days. Influencers have grown beyond just traditional media outlets to include bloggers, who reign in the online space and who can drastically affect perceptions about your brand, your campaigns and/or any other aspect of your company operations. Are you listening? If so, are you talking back? In the very least, you should be working to tell your side of the story; at best, maximizing your message impact among these powerful individuals. Our panel of experts will share the good the bad and the ugly about successful – and not so successful – approaches to online media relations.

List of speakers are here
Event schedule is here
Registration is here

Date: Thursday, May 22, 2008
Time: 9:30-5pm
Location: Granville Island Arts Club Theatre, 1585 Johnston St
Cost: $200 (until May 13th); $225 (after May 13th)

If you have a vidfest VIP Pass, access is provided to the main stage

Relevance: A great opportunity to learning about digital marketing and social media.

Cinci Csere (left) at Launch Party Vancouver 3

There are a number of creative people that continue to organise interesting and diverse events. Casecamp Vancouver 3 is occurring on February 20th. Cinci Csere, whom I know, is a dynamic person and she is providing a great occasion to network and interact with marketing companies and individuals.

Casecamp is:

CaseCamp is an unconference for marketers. Following in the footsteps of BarCamp, and building on the model of DemoCamp, CaseCamp brings together people interested in marketing-oriented activities to learn from their peers via case study presentations. CaseCamp is structured on purpose. The goal is to create an independent forum for for great dialogue. Typically, a presenter presents a case (good, bad, ugly, lessons learned, etc.) and then a lively discussion ensues during a Q&A period.

When: Wednesday Feb 20, 2008

Time: 5:45pm

Location: Lamplighter

Process: Presenters have 8 min. to talk about their case & then 2 min. for a rapidfire Q&A period. Music comes back on @ 7pm & we continue the conversations!

Contact Cinci to sign up as a presenter or attendee here.

Relevance: Another example of a fun, social event for Vancouver marketing people to attend.