Festival of Media Global Unveils Most Ambitious Speaker Programme to Date

Today sees the announcement of the first industry leaders to speak at this year’s Festival of Media Global. More than 140  world-leading brands including Apple, Coca-Cola, Expedia, Honda, Ikea, Kellogg’s, Aston Martin, Johnson and Johnson, GSK, P&G, RedBull and Shell, will be represented at the three day event, which focuses on the theme ‘It’s Now More Than Media.’ You can view all confirmed speakers here.

Globally impactful challenges to be covered during the event include ‘We know where you are’, a panel discussion on geo-locations, proximity marketing and ibeacons, featuring Benjamin Jankowski, Mastercard and Gerry D’Angelo from Mondelez; ‘Is a programmatic future one we really want?’ featuring Mashable’s Seth Rogin and Vineet Mehra, President, Global Marketing Services, Johnson & Johnson; and ‘Media as cultural curator’ which features the manager of the world’s highest paid television actress Sofia Vergara, Luis Balaguer.

This year’s festival, which takes place in Rome, 10 to 12 May, will also focus on how media is driving, colliding and influencing other business sectors. It will provide insight into the industry’s most pertinent topics, such as attribution, native, programmatic and TV, technology and mobile, from senior leaders at brands, agencies and media owners including Aston Martin, Expedia, Kellogg’s, MediaCom, StarCom MediaVest, Havas Media Group, Universal McCann, BBC Worldwide, Jamie Oliver’s Food Tube, The Guardian, RTL, Channel 4, Fox International and TF1 Publicité. 

“The ever-evolving consumer is continually changing its habits, which means brands now have to woo them 24/7, while media owners and agencies have to develop campaigns that are steeped in innovation, creativity and are technology-led. It often means media is driving and influencing other business sectors across the globe, and we aim to reflect this throughout the agenda,” commented Jeremy King, Content Director, C Squared.

“Furthermore we are constantly working in the international media landscape and as a result have included a range of pertinent industry topics from mobile and attribution to video and native throughout the event, that the industry has revealed they want to talk about.”

Debating the question ‘How well does media reflect society?’ will be a panel of international diversity thought leaders, including Esther Franklin, Head of Americas, SMG; Sam Phillips, CMO, OMG, and Lindsey Clay, CEO, Thinkbox.

Also topping the ambitious programme, a panel of seven media power players, including MediaCom Global CEO Stephen Allan; Mike Cooper, Global CEO, PHD and Doug Ray, Global President, Carat, will come together to ask ‘How much profit should an agency make, what makes a good global leader and the media agency is dead.’

They will be joined at the three-day event by an inspirational line-up from vastly diverse fields, such as world champion, record-holding climber Kevin Jorgeson and Bas Lansdorp, founder of the Mars One Mission.