NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Advertising Week today announced the inaugural edition of the Advertising Week Experience (AWE), which will be staged concurrently with Advertising Week IX in New York City October 1-5. AWE, housed at The Times Center, will feature innovators demonstrating how their technologies offer new opportunities to marketers, and foster intimate thought leadership discussions amongst the industry’s brightest minds.
Thirty (30) innovators will be selected to showcase their latest technologies, services and product breakthroughs with “Game Changing” as the primary filter for inclusion. Among the market leaders already committed to AWE are AT&T, LG, Machinima, Nielsen, RealNetworks and such innovative start-ups as AirPush, Hibe, NuMVC, Social Chorus and VeriFone.
“It’s all about the way forward,” said recently retired Panasonic CMO, Bob Greenberg, who is Chief Curator of AWE. “AWE is a natural extension of the thought leadership agenda and responds to an identified area of need based on our due diligence in the marketing community. Technology is re-defining the business of advertising at a breakneck pace and shifting the ground underneath Madison Avenue and the broader marketing community.”
Also lending a hand as Co-Chief Curator is noted technology guru, Greg Harper. Among other endeavors, Harper is co-founder of Gadgetoff, an invitation-only event in New York City that gathers leading science and technology innovators. Harper is also a renowned technology futurist and frequent national TV correspondent on consumer technology trends.
“Marketers are telling us in order to survive and prosper, they need deep understandings and reliable insights into the latest technologies, which will enable them to better engage their customers. We’ve been curating companies from all over the world for AWE ... from Barcelona to Las Vegas to Tel Aviv. And they’re agreeing to explain the trends marketers need to be aware of and demonstrate how their offerings will enhance customer interactions and build relationships,” said Harper.
AWE was actually conceived back in 2010 and has been in the works for almost two years. Critical to the decision to launch in 2012 was a combination of location and an “Anti-Trade Show” philosophy. The addition of the new Liberty Theater adjacent to The Times Center to house registration, seminars and special events freed up The Times Center enabling AWE to launch in 2012.
AWE will differ from traditional trade show environments in that all the presenting companies are hand-picked by the Advertising Week curatorial team and are non-competing. As a prerequisite, each is presenting something new that is being reserved for AWE. The intimate setting The Times Center affords provides attendees a chance to really engage with these technologies and the creators behind the curtain.
“AWE is in a sense the anti-Trade Show,” said Advertising Week Executive Director Matt Scheckner. “It is much more of a live laboratory without barriers and the location in the epicenter of Advertising Week in Times Square ensures high engagement. Dedicated AWE tours for Advertising Week Corporate, Media and Agency partners are part of the equation as well.”
In addition, starting on June 7, AWE will unveil the first of twelve major trends that are coming at the marketing community like freight trains. Referred to as the “Digital Dozen” the list will be unveiled in the 100 days leading up to Advertising Week IX and be accompanied by content and videos featured on www.advertisingweek.com. Harper will also moderate a special Seminar uniting experts on all 12 trends in the “Digital Dozen” at the Times Center on Monday, October 1.
Greenberg further adds, “I believe if we as marketers ignore these trends, we do so at our own peril.”
For more information about AWE and Advertising Week IX, please visit www.advertisingweek.com.
About Advertising Week:
Since its creation in 2004, Advertising Week has drawn hundreds of thousands of participants from around the world to New York City for a week-long conglomeration of thought leadership Seminars, special events and related industry conferences and happenings that focus on the power of advertising and its neighboring industries. Above and beyond celebration, the mission of The Week is to inspire young people to join the craft; focus the industry and public at-large on the social impacts of advertising; address the most important issues facing the industry and shine a bright light on the business and economic influence of the advertising, media and marketing industries.