I recently had the great pleasure of attending Digiday’s Agency Innovation Camp in Vail, Colorado as a mentor and a speaker.
“Digiday’s Agency Innovation Camp is a unique — by invitation only — multi-day event, created for the brightest minds from today’s leading digital advertising agencies. These are the millennials creating change and innovation — the digital natives who are rethinking and reshaping brand communication through technology and a continuously evolving media landscape.
Over the course of three days, these rising digital media stars focus on modern-day media buying, planning and tech innovation in think tank sessions and workshops. An emphasis on collaboration and leadership is woven throughout the camp, as participants are divided into teams to ultimately compete in a Brand Hackathon.”
I had a blast! I absorbed so much positive millenial energy, I feel like I’m ten years younger. Maybe I feel older. I don’t know. There were around 80 young digital natives attending the camp from agencies all over. They were split up into eight teams that competed in a series of challenges. The most important challenge being a big ‘Brand Hackathon’. All of the teams we’re given a brief, a budget and were tasked with coming up with a pitch to be presented in front of a panel of four judges. My team (the Blue Team) put the epic Digiday smack down and WON it all. They took home the trophy for the big ‘Brand Hackathon’ and they took the trophy for being the overall ‘Camp Champions’. Hell yeah, it was an epic victory!
While at the Digiday Agency Innovation Camp, I gave a 15 minute talk on "How to Sell your Ideas Internally”. It was fun. A brief description of that talk along with a video clip and my presentation slides can be found below.
“The struggle to sell your ideas is real! For most young professionals, the battle begins right there in their own agency. Way before their idea hits the client, they’ve got to get it through the gauntlet of trained idea killers: the art directors, creative directors, account planners, chief innovation officers, chief strategy officers, chief insight officers, chief technology officers, chief sitting bull, the officer officers, the mailman and the chief chief of agency chiefs. Unfortunately for most, many ideas never make it out of the notebook. It’s not their fault, they’re just not properly trained to fight for their ideas. We’ll discuss how to give those ‘idea killers’ a swift kick to the nuts.”