Meet The Panellists: Robot Wars: How to Win at AI & Meet Your M-AI-ker
The LBB & Friends Beach, in partnership with MCA, is set to host industry experts and tech players for two fast-paced AI panels on Tuesday 18th at the Plage & Restaurant Croisette Beach.
Led by LBB’s founder Matt Cooper, the two sessions promise to provide invaluable insights into the rapidly evolving world of AI and its impact on the creative industry.
Joining Matt at 12:30pm to discuss the visions for an AI future on Robot Wars: How to Win at AI, is Emma Cochrane, North America GenAI Lead at Accenture Song, Josh Campo, CEO at Razorfish, Jay Ganaden, Director, Strategic Development and Pro Design and Firefly at Adobe, Jamie Allan, Director and Business Development, Global Agencies + Advertising at Nvidia, Brian Yamada, Chief Innovation Officer at VML and Jon Williams, Global Head of Agency Business Development at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
For Meet Your M-AI-ker at 13:00, Matt will sit down with Dan Gardner, Co-Founder of Code and Theory, Drew Weigel, Senior Director, 3D & Immersive at Shutterstock, PJ Pereira, Founder and Creative Chairman at Pereira O’Dell, Priti Mhatre, Managing Director Strategic Consulting & AI at WPP & Hogarth, Carren O’Keefe, Chief Creative Officer at Digitas to find out how AI is really shaking up the day to day workflow for strategists, creatives and producers.
You can view the full LBB & MCA ‘Better Together’ content programme for the LBB & Friends Beach at Cannes here. Find out more information about the sessions and the panellists joining us below.
PANEL SYNOPSIS
Robot Wars: How to Win at AI (12:30 pm)
AI is set to bring sweeping changes to the advertising industry - but how are the major players planning to capitalise on this rapidly evolving tech? What’s their strategy and where are they investing time, money and talent? We want to speak to the agencies and tech players to find out about the differing visions for an AI future.
PANELLISTS
Emma Cochrane, North America GenAI Lead at Accenture Song
Emma Cochrane is the North America lead of GenAI for Accenture Song, where she leads a virtual group of technologists, strategists, creators and builders in implementing new-to-world GenAI use cases, products and processes for clients. This role is focused on working with businesses to develop industry and revenue model breaking developments that will define the next era of customer technology, while keeping the human experience front and center. Emma and the wider team are driven to leverage meaningful and responsible GenAI use cases for our clients and their audiences - with a heavy emphasis on responsibility factors such as trust, security, safety, ethics, privacy and accessibility.
Since joining Accenture nine years ago, Emma has focused on business transformation- always leading with the customer wants at the center, delivered by new advances in technology. She has run start up incubators, built global teams centered on immersive reality, Web3 and GenAI and launched several new businesses capitalizing on new technology for enhanced customer experience.
Prior to joining Accenture, Emma worked in advertising agencies in both New Zealand and New York.
Josh Campo, CEO, Razorfish
With 20+ years of experience in technology and marketing transformation, Josh leads through creativity, strategy, and innovation. And he’s done just that across a wide range of industries for companies like Samsung, Patron, Church & Dwight, and Ralph Lauren. Josh is focused on inspiring brands to do purpose-driven work that leads to positive business performance and growth, but his real passion is people. Taking pride in building trust and fostering relationships, Josh’s desire to connect can be seen in the culture of inclusion he’s helping to build within Razorfish, as well as the transformative work he pushes brands to create to connect with their consumers. Today, when he’s not working, you can find him behind the yoke of his single engine plane or spending time with his daughter.
Jay Ganaden, Director, Strategic Development, Pro Design and Firefly, Adobe
Jay Ganaden is an accomplished Design and Gen AI Technology Leader with experience across agencies, in-house roles, startups, and Fortune 100 companies. Jay excels at addressing complex questions about the future of design, utilizing a blend of strategic thinking and visual storytelling. Currently, he spearheads innovation at Adobe as Director, Strategic Development for Firefly, Adobe’s Gen AI tech.
At Adobe, Jay has led significant strategic initiatives, including the rollout of Firefly to 500 Enterprise customers. He has played a pivotal role in product development, driving new GenAI features and pioneering commercial business models for Firefly.
In addition to Design work, Jay has a robust background in customer engagement, orchestrating Firefly customer roundtables and presenting at top industry events such as the Cannes Lions Festival. His previous leadership roles at Razorfish and Momentum Design Lab saw him drive digital strategy, UX Design, and product development across various sectors.
Earlier in his career, Jay held key positions at Google (formerly DoubleClick) and KPMG, where he managed professional services and provided management consulting and technology strategy for Fortune 500 companies.
Jay Ganaden continually seeks opportunities to push the boundaries of design and technology, combining his extensive experience with a passion for innovation.
Jamie Allan, Director, Business Development, Global Agencies + Advertising, Nvidia
Jamie is an industry lead at NVIDIA working across the AdTech and Agency ecosystem to support the adoption of enterprise AI in Advertising. He works with world-leading organisations and developers to help bring their visions to life and accelerate the industry into a new era of accelerated computing and AI
Brian Yamada, Chief Innovation Officer, VML
As Chief Innovation Officer, Brian leads the Innovation and Emerging Technology teams. The Innovation team enables the application of emerging technologies such as AI/ML, NLP, Computer Vision, Spatial technologies, AR/VR/XR, IOT and ConnectedTech. His past and present client partners include Astra-Zeneca, Colgate-Palmolive, Dell, Ford, Gatorade, GSK, H&R Block, International Olympic Committee, Tennessee Tourism, United Rentals, Virgin Voyages and Wendy’s.
Brian joined VML nearly twenty-five years ago and served in a variety of leadership positions across the agency. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism and has an Executive Diploma in Artificial Intelligence for Business from Oxford University. Brian also served as a mentor with TechStars and other startups.
Jon Williams, Global Head of Agency Business Development at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Jon is the Global head of Agency and Partner Solutions at AWS. His role focuses on developing strategic advantage for partners and customers via their use of AWS services and Solutions for Advertising and Marketing technology. This includes development of solutions that transcend AWS, Amazon Ads and the utilization of Generative AI.
He has more than 20 years of experience in the advertising and marketing industry. Prior to joining AWS, Jon developed and led global agency, partner and customer sales organizations at Oracle Data Cloud, Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Snap, Inc.
Meet Your M-AI-ker
PANEL SYNOPSIS
Forget the hype and scare stories, we want to find out how AI is really shaking up the day to day workflow for strategists, creatives and producers. Where is it working well, what frustrations or shortcomings are becoming apparent and what are we learning on live projects?
PANELLISTS
Priti Mhatre, Managing Director and Strategic Consulting & AI, WPP & Hogarth
Priti Mhatre is a strategic consulting & technology leader with a track record in leading marketing transformation for large global brands like TCCC, Roche and Bayer.
With a background in Tech & management consulting and a Post-graduate degree in AI from Oxford, Priti leads our AI strategy and is passionate about driving growth through technology & innovation. She is spearheading our Technology & AI strategy building industry-first suite of production AI service portfolio with a successful track record of implementing it for global clients.
Priti leads our Global Marketing Transformation practice & AI strategy. With over two decades of experience in digital transformation consulting and technology, she works with clients to create innovative solutions that combine production, technology, and data.
She has successfully implemented global delivery models and established Hogarth's Marketing Transformation practice, which develops maturity and transformation strategies aligned to client challenges.
Carren O’Keefe, Chief Creative Officer, Digitas
She believes ideas and technology are the two greatest forces for change the world has ever seen. And when you bring them together? That’s when things get really interesting.
Carren’s career has spanned two continents and three countries – leading to award-winning work for global brands including Nike, Diageo, Google, Hyundai, L’Oreal, and Netflix. Starting out at AKQA in New York, before moving with the agency to Portland, Oregon where her relationship with Nike began. A decade of pioneering firsts for the brand followed, including Nike’s first mental health-focused platform ‘Mind Sets’, its first shoe drop using AirDrop, first podcast ‘Trained’ and the first Air Max Day in Roblox with ‘Magic’s in the Air’. In 2015, she established AnalogFolk’s Portland base as Partner / Executive Creative Director with Nike as the flagship client – becoming the only female founding partner in the agency’s network at that time. In 2019, she relocated to open the agency’s Amsterdam office to expand into a new international market. During her time at the agency, they were named Campaign’s ‘Global Innovation Agency of the Year’ in 2020 and Contagious Magazine’s ‘Best and Bravest Agencies on the Planet’ in 2022. Now, Carren is leading a new era of imagination and innovation at Digitas with the agency’s world-class roster of clients like F1, Samsung, and EE.
Dan Gardner, Co-Founder, Code and Theory
Dan Gardner is co-founder and executive chairman of the technology-first network Code and Theory. He’s built Code and Theory into the only network with a balance of 50% creative and 50% engineers, and nearly 2,000 employees across the globe. Code and Theory is a trusted, strategic partner to the biggest brands in the world, including Microsoft, Amazon, Google, MSNBC, and JP Morgan Chase. Some of the most innovative and inspiring work of the last two decades can be credited to Gardner and the Code and Theory team; from designing CNN’s Magic Wall to launching the Daily Beast to the rebranding of the Washington Commanders.
Gardner founded Code and Theory 22 years ago. Since then he has become a trusted voice at the intersection of digital transformation, emerging tech, and AI. Insider named him “One of the top execs leading the AI charge.” He has lectured about AI at Davos, Web Summit, Cannes Lions and other global stages. Gardner has been featured in prestigious outlets such as Forbes, Fast Company and Marketwatch. His efforts have been recognized in global awards shows, including Cannes Lions, D&AD, The Webby Awards and the Effie Awards.
He is co-founder of ON_Discourse, a new membership media company focused on the business of technology, prioritising expert-driven discourse to drive perspectives. He is a member of the Stagwell Marketing Cloud, which is dedicated to developing new, innovative products and services. And, Gardener is also a frequent columnist who is regularly quoted in the press about all things tech and AI.
Drew Weigel, Senior Director, 3D & Immersive, Shutterstock
Drew Weigel is the leader for all things 3D & Immersive at Shutterstock Studios, helping to develop new strategies for emerging and real-time technology. His past experience spans the worlds of post-production, visual effects, 3D animation and games — with work ranging from music videos and broadcast spots to AR, VR and other immersive platforms. His teams have produced award-winning campaigns for all kinds of media, new and old.
PJ Pereira, Founder & Creative Chairman, Pereira O’Dell
PJ Pereira is an industry veteran of over 20 years, known for co-founding independent award-winning creative agency, Pereira O’Dell. In 2023, PJ was also named Chief Creative Officer of independent agency network, Serviceplan Americas. Pereira is a pioneer in the marketing world, sitting at the intersection of tech, entertainment and advertising. His credentials have made him one of the industry's most influential and respected creatives. He’s been named to Adweek's Creative 100, Ad Age's Creativity 50, 4A's 100 People Who Make Advertising Great, and most recently, was named Adweek’s AI Champion of the Year for championing the ethical progression of AI in the advertising industry. PJ is passionate about the convergence of AI and creativity, which led him to co-found Silverside, an AI innovation and incubation lab that brings together AI startups and the world's leading brands to solve creative problems using AI. Outside of his work in advertising, PJ is a novelist of 12 years, and a martial artist with multiple black belts. In 2023, PJ released a novel called The Girl From Wudang, a novel about artificial intelligence, martial arts, and immortality.
