Advertising Week Completes its 4th Year With Help from Partners Like Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo Inc., and AOL

By: Vinayak Ahuja

It seems that everyone wants to get in bed with Advertising Week, North America’s largest annual Advertising Convention. Though, I believe it would be more appropriate to call it a Communications Convention considering that panels are offered on all aspects of the industry along with Advertising, including Marketing, Branding, Online Media, New Media, and for the first time this year Mobile. Yes, I know, New Media includes Online and Mobile, but I’m thinking ahead – what’s new today might not be new in ‘09.

Speaking of New Media, one of my favorite features of this year’s convention was WADV Radio, Ad Weeks official live podcast made available for its second year. The service is designed to meet the needs of conflicted and/or geographically challenged attendants, providing both live streams and downloads of all the panels hosted at the convention. The site also offers some special guest interviews and gathers the thoughts of industry leaders together, giving you an opportunity for a deeper learning experience. WADV really helps democratize Advertising Week in various ways and bring focus to its core mission: to educate and provide resources for interested individuals of all ages on what’s happing in media today.

Of course, no digital service could ever truly replace face-to-face interaction, which is frankly the best aspect of attending panels and events. Almost every panel and event I attended was filled to capacity including the Facebook Wrap Party and the Yahoo/Billboard pre-concert Happy Hour, and those who chose to attend gained an opportunity to rub elbows with serious players within their field of communication. I personally had an amazing time matching wits with a Branding VP as we discussed the values of brand science and the important role branding plays in driving sales.

For those of you who missed Advertising Week this year, keep in mind you’ll have another week in September 2009 to make up for (September 21st to 25th, save the date). And if you can’t wait that long, you can always make time to attend Canada’s Advertising Week coming up in 2009, between January 26th – 30th. The good news is Canada's Ad Week will be held simultaneously in Toronto, Montreal, Halifax, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary, with events in all cities during that week. But the bad news is that their Ad Week is scheduled 2 days before one of America’s biggest advertising days, the Super Bowl. Guess you’ll only be able to make both events if you Jet, literally.