Speakers

Hashem Bajwa

Director of Digital Strategy, Droga5

Hashem Bajwa is Digital Strategy Director at Droga5, where he mashes-up skills from account planning, digital media and creative. Hashem's role includes advising clients on digital strategy and innovation. His career began at the United Nations working on research and communications and in 2003 he moved into advertising at McCann Erickson until joining Goodby, TBWA and then Droga5. He studied international affairs at New School University in New York and brand strategy at Art Center College of Design. In 2007 Hashem was the youngest person to be named in AdvertisingAge’s “40 Under 40 to Watch”, and is a regular contributer to AdAge's Digital Next, Brand Republic's Revolution and his own blog, Brain Sells.

Speaking at The New, New Things In... Technologies that Work for Brands

Susan Bonds

President CEO, 42 Entertainment

Susan Bonds is 42 Entertainment's President & CEO and serves as executive producer. In this role, she is responsible for leading the teams that design, create, produce and execute 42's experiences. Susan has more than 20 years of experience as a producer in the entertainment and technology industries. Most recently, Susan was part of the team behind Why So Serious? – the alternate reality experience for Warner Bros’ The Dark Knight. In 2004 Susan produced the unique ilovebees campaign for Microsoft's marketing launch of Halo 2, which won the Games Developer's Conference award for Innovation in Gaming and a Webby Award for Best Games Related Website. Since then, she has produced the most groundbreaking of 42's projects, including 2005’s Last Call Poker alternate reality game for Activision/Neversoft’s FPS “GUN”, 2006’s Dead Man’s Tale interactive game for Disney/Microsoft, 2007's The Vanishing Point, the first global puzzle game with clues to online puzzles embedded in spectacular events held in a dozen cities around the globe designed to celebrate the launch of Windows Vista and the Year Zero alternate reality experience for the launch of NIN's album in April 2007. In 2008, Year Zero was awarded the Cyber Grand Prix at the International Advertising Festival in Cannes. Directly prior to joining 42, Susan was Chief Design and Production Officer for Cyan Worlds, where she was responsible for the multiplayer online interactive game URU: Ages Beyond Myst. Susan led the design, production, technology integration, marketing, publishing, music development and project management for the initiative, working with Rand Miller, CEO and co-founder of Cyan, and also produced realMyst, a three-dimensional world version of the popular PC game. Prior to this, Susan worked for ten years as Creative Director/Senior Show Producer for Walt Disney Imagineering, where she directed the design and development of major attractions, themed architecture, Internet entertainment projects, and proprietary new ride systems. Her portfolio spanned Tokyo, California, Florida, and New York, and included attractions such as "Indiana Jones Adventure" for Disneyland, “Alien Encounters” for Walt Disney World, "Mission: SPACE" for Epcot and ABC Times Square Studios Exterior in New York. Susan started her career at Walt Disney in 1980 as an industrial engineer, and then worked for seven years at Lockheed as an Aircraft and Systems Engineer on Advanced Development Projects. Susan has an Engineering degree from Georgia Institute of Technology, and an MBA from Georgia State University.

Speaking at The New, New Thing in... Immersive Media and Entertainment

Derrick de Kerckhove

Director, The McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology

Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture & Technology since 1983, Derrick is a Full Professor in the Department of French at the University of Toronto, cross-appointed at the Faculty of Information Studies and the Knowledge Media Design Institute. He received his Ph.D. in French Language and Literature from the University of Toronto in 1975 and a Doctorat du 3e cycle in the Sociology of Art from the University of Tours (France) in 1979. He was an associate of the Centre for Culture and Technology from 1972 to 1980 and worked with Marshall McLuhan for over ten years as translator, assistant and co-author. He has worked on two collections of essays on McLuhan, culture, technology and biology, namely Understanding 1984 (UNESCO, 1984) and McLuhan e la metamorfosi dell'uomo (Bulzoni, 1984). Other publications include The Alphabet and the Brain (Springer Verlag, 1988), La civilisation vidéo-chrétienne (Feltrinelli, 1991), both books on the impact of the alphabet on mind and society, research taken further in Brainframes: Technology, Mind and Business (Bosch & Keuning, 1991). The Skin of Culture (Somerville Press, 1995) is a collection of essays on the new electronic reality, which stayed on Canadian best-sellers lists for several months. Connected Intelligence (Somerville, 1997) introduced his research on new media and cognition. Both were translated in a dozen languages including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Polish and Slovenian.

Speaking at Derrick de Kerckhove

Vin Farrell

Head of Production, Digital Studio, R/GA

Vin oversees all aspects and operations the R/GA Digital Studio, R/GA’s award-winning in-house production capability. He and his team work closely with R/GA’s creative teams on concepting and producing work that includes video shooting, editing, sound design, photography, motion graphics, computer graphics, and 3D/animation. Since joining R/GA in 2007, Vin has been committed to building a world-class facility that produces cost effective advertising optimized for digital and traditional media channels.

Click here for More

Cynthia Fleming

COO, Carat Canada

Cynthia is COO at Carat Canada. It's been over 20 years since Cynthia Fleming came on the media scene. She cut her teeth at JWT Direct in 1982, moving up to associate media director by age 25. She shifted to Media Buying Services, now The Media Company, in 1986 for a short stint before moving on to Chiat Day in 1988. In 1996 Fleming was asked to head up Media Experts' Toronto office.

Speaking at Co-Chairs Opening Remarks, The New, New Things in... Mind-Blowing Uses of Media, Wrap-up

Tim Harris

Senior Vice President, Denuo

We knew Tim Harris was onto something when he signed on as the first employee of Starcom IP years before “digital” was ever a hot buzz word in agency vernacular. That once standalone digital and online media division inside of Starcom MediaVest Group has since become a core functioning unit of their business.

Click here for More

Speaking at The New, New Things in... Unlocking Creativity and Driving Innovation

Jason McCann

VP, Co-Executive Creative Director, Taxi Toronto, TAXI

Jason is a master of telling compelling stories across multiple mediums. Whether through pixels or print ads, he always finds a way to weave real life insights into an entertaining and resonant message. Jason learned this balancing act at an early age as a juggler at Canadian National Exhibition. Since then he has maintained his ability to engage large audiences, although he no longer uses torches and chainsaws as a finale for pitch meetings. His ten years of industry experience includes telecommunications, financial services, travel, automotive, and retail. His media mastery includes everything from e-commerce engines to flash-based microsites, as well as print design and complete brand identities. Jason’s experience is matched by his unwavering commitment to the best possible solution. His clients value his dedication and his team can count on his quirky humour when the going gets tough. Current assignments include MINI, Nike, Molson, and TELUS Mobility. It seems somehow appropriate that a project named “Black Sheep,” a CRM web experience for MINI creative directed and written by Jason, earnedCanada’s only Cannes Gold Cyber Lion in 2005.

Speaking at The New, New Things in... Mind-Blowing Uses of Media

Jason Oke

Director of Strategy

Jason is recognized as one of Canada’s top marketing strategists, and a prominent voice in communications planning. He regularly speaks at industry events and writes for marketing publications in the US, UK, and Canada. Jason teaches planning at Miami Ad School, and has also taught at OCAD and Humber College. He’s on the jury of Strategy Magazine’s Agency of the Year competition, so be nice to him. From Coke to Pepsi, Kellogg’s to Frito-Lay, P&G to Unilever, and Nintendo to Starbucks, Jason has been really lucky to work on some of the world’s best brands in Canada, the US, and globally.

Click here for More

Speaking at Opening Host Remarks

Saneel Radia

SVP, Alchemist, Denuo

After being overthrown as Secretary of the San Antonio chapter of the Transformers Club at a young age, Saneel Radia was forced to fall back on another passion. He now builds client solutions from scratch to ensure the most innovative and meaningful connection between brand message and consumer. He does so as head of Denuo’s groundbreaking Alchemy practice, which places media sensibility at the core of the creative practice.

Click here for More

Speaking at The New, New Things in... Unlocking Creativity and Driving Innovation

Steve Ralph

President, Adidas Canada Ltd

Steve Ralph is the President of adidas Canada Limited, a position he acquired in April of 2008. In this position, Steve is responsible for all of the brand operations in Canada, including marketing, merchandising, sales, finance, operations, and retail. Working with adidas Canada for 20 years, Steve has also held positions in Finance, Marketing, and more recently, the senior management positions of Vice President of Supply Chain, and Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Click here for More

Speaking at Adidas: Then and Now

Raymond Reid

Director of Digital Solutions, Starcom Mediavest Group

Speaking at The New, New Things in... Mind-Blowing Uses of Media

Paul Woolmington

Partner, Naked Communications

Eager to champion integrated marketing communications strategy and planning, objective and bias-free thinking, and brilliant misfits, Paul joined Naked Communications as a founding partner to bring the Naked brand and philosophy to the Americas. In parallel, he was also appointed a global partner in the company’s holding group, which currently has twelve-plus businesses in ten worldwide locations. A veteran of the marketing, advertising and media industries, prior to Naked Woolmington worked at both large marketing & advertising concerns including IPG, Y&R Inc., and WPP, as well entrepreneurial ventures like the Media Kitchen, which he founded. He is an advisor to a number of arts, digital, technology, and research concerns. Championing objective and innovative thinking, Paul has served on a diverse array of creative, media, digital effectiveness and integration awards. He was notably honored to have been the chair of the first ever Cannes Media Lions, and served on last year’s jury for the Cannes Titanium and Integration awards. Born in Africa and raised in many countries, Paul has traveled around the world both professionally and personally. He currently lives in Manhattan with his wife Carol and their two children, India and Gabriel.

Speaking at Co-Chairs Opening Remarks, The New, New Things in... Mind-Blowing Uses of Media, Wrap-up

Faris Yakob

Chief Technology Strategist, McCann Erickson

After getting a MA in English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, Faris spent some time as a management consultant, helping blue chips and start ups navigate the emerging digital landscape and then worked selling words to Maxim magazine before landing in communications planning. As a strategist he has worked on brands such as Orange, Sony, Google, Yahoo!, Nestle and Virgin Mobile, in Sydney, London and New York and helped some of them win some awards, at festivals like the One Show and the British Interactive Media Awards. Faris regularly writes about brands, media, communications, technology and that for a number of publications including the Financial Times and Contagious Magazine. He writes a blog called Talent Imitates, Genius Steals, which Campaign named one of the top ten advertising blogs in the UK. He was awarded the President’s Prize for his thesis on the future of brands from the IPA in the UK. He has been lucky enough to be invited to talk about this sort of thing at conferences all over the world, from Romania to Brazil, was the only international speaker invited to MIT’s Future of Entertainment conference, and has lectured at IPA One, Media Circle and the University of Westminster. He was on the jury for the Content and Contact category at the Clio Awards and the digital jury for the Campaign BIG Awards this year. Faris is proud of being a geek but feels odd writing about himself in the third person - don’t you?

Speaking at The New, New Thing in... Interactive Narrative & Media Planning, The New, New Things in... Mind-Blowing Uses of Media