All about Goafest 2010 keynote speakers

Goafest has announced a list of eight international keynote speakers who have confirmed their participation for the 2010 edition of the festival which kicks off on 9th April.

The latest additions to the list are Will Collin (pictured above, right), partner and co-founder, Naked Communications; Patrick Liotard-Vogt, chairman, ASW.com; Eric Ashok Ledergerber, founder, hub.in|dia, Rob Hummel (pictured above, left), CEO, Prime Focus - North America, Michael Constantine (pictured above, right), director-global marketing, Prime Focus.

Besides this, other confirmed speakers include Tim Mellors, vice chairman and global creative director, Grey Group; Jan Leth, vice chairman, Ogilvy Digital Creative; George Michaelides, global leader - invention, Mindshare, Richard Pinder, COO, Publicis Groupe and Andy Greenaway, regional creative director, Saatchi & Saatchi.

Confirming the international speaker participation, Suman Srivastava, chairman - The Knowledge and Learning Seminar Goafest 2010 and CEO, Euro RSCG India said, "Goafest is pleased to host many globally-acclaimed communication icons this year. The participants at Goafest will benefit from the wide and varied experience of these speakers who will share global insights from the advertising and marketing world. Adding to the eight keynote speakers, there is also a special panel discussion on Social media with two international online entrepreneurs - Patrick Liotard-Vogt and Eric Ashok Ledergerber."

Here's an introduction to all the confirmed key-note speakers, before you meet them at Cavelossim Beach for the Knowledge Seminars starting from the morning of 9th April:

Tim Mellors, Vice Chairman and Global Creative Director of Grey Group

Tim is a multi-talented individual who has been there and done it all. He has been a director, journalist, talk-show host, painter and academician. His time in the industry has been an adventurous one. In the early 70s, Mellors was one of the stars of British advertising, until he went into direction and failed. He tried to recover by setting up his own consultancy and after that went bankrupt, Charles Saatchi and Jeremy Sinclair got him back in the business. Working at Saatchi, he went on to become the creative master stroke that he is today, producing notable work on clients such a Lanson Champagne, The Independent, KP Nuts and British Airways.
He then went on to become executive creative director at Publicis, almost doubling the agency's billings on the back of outstanding campaigns for Pepe Jeans, The Guardian. Over the last 25 years, Tim has served on every major awards jury in Europe, America, and the Far East and Australia. He has been President of the jury at Cannes, President of the Designer and Art Association and the European Creative Circle. His awards haul includes 15 Lions (3 of them Gold), 5 D&AD pencils and the Grand Prix at the European Advertising Festival.
 

Will Collin, Partner, Naked Communications

After graduating from Keble College, Oxford, Will began his career at BMP DDB as a trainee account planner in 1989. In 1994 he helped the agency found BMP Interaction, its first ever digital team.In 1997 he moved to media specialist PHD as communications strategy director, he then founded Naked Communications in 2000 with Jon Wilkins and John Harlow. Will has won numerous awards which include an IPA Effectiveness Award and an APG Creative Planning Award while his firm Naked Communications has been named Agency of the Year by Media Week, Campaign and Marketing magazines, and has offices in spreading Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Paris, New York, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland and Tokyo. He is a renowned speaker, author and commentator on communications issues, which include the Account Planning Group, the Marketing Society and the Advertising Association.   He is a Fellow of the UK Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, and is a member of both its Council and its Value of Advertising Group.
 
Jan Ulrik Leth, Vice Chairman, Global Digital Creative, Ogilvy & Mather

With a career spanning 13 years at Ogilvy ,Jan has served as ECD for OgilvyInteractive, OgilvyOne, as well as Co-ECD of Ogilvy NY.Jan currently serves as Chief Digital Creative WorldWide and is a member of the Ogilvy Creative Council. With his help, Ogilvy has won the first ever Cyber Grand Prix in Cannes and has also collected the Grand Prix from the Clios, and the LIAA, along with the highest awards from the OneShow, the ADC and the DMA among others. Over the years Jan has worked on a broad range of enviable Brands like IBM, Louis Vuitton, Foster’s Beer, Coca-Cola, Dove, Jaguar, Kodak and American Express to name a few. Jan has served as Chairman of the OneShow, the Clios, and been a member of the jury of just about every digital award show on this planet.  Jan has also served on the Board of Directors of the OneClub.

George Michaelides, Global Leader Invention, Mindshare

George Michaelides invented the discipline of ‘Media Strategy’ at UK creative hot-shop HHCL (named agency of the 1990s by Campaign magazine). He then co-founded, with Graham Bednash, the world’s first Media Strategy agency called Michaelides & Bednash. Michaelides & Bednash became the first company to be named Media Agency of the Year by both Campaign and Media Week in the same year, with award-winning, innovative communications ideas for a wide range of clients from Channel4 to Unilever. George was named ‘Media Pioneer of the 1990s’ by Campaign magazine, as well as one of advertising’s ‘Ten Leading Shapers’. George and Graham – described by Ad Age as ‘the legendary duo who pioneered communications planning’– recently joined Mindshare, one of the world’s biggest media agencies, as the Global Leaders of Invention. Together they are making Mindshare a player in the new era of creativity centered on their credo of Ideas “You Love To Share”.

Andy Greenaway, Regional Creative Director, Saatchi & Saatchi

Andy has laid asphalt, cleaned hotplates, pulled pints, mown lawns, sold art (on his own), modeled on a catwalk (before the beer belly) and has performed extensive fieldwork in elementary nutrition (he lived on baked beans and canned tomatoes for two years while at art college). He eventually stumbled into the direct marketing business at age 19 as a junior art director. In 1991, he moved to Asia where he has had stints in Singapore, Hong Kong and Thailand. In 1999, he propelled Ogilvy Singapore to the top spot of the Campaign Brief Asia Rankings and helped keep the agency on that spot for four years. In 2003, he left advertising temporarily to start a mobile content company. He also writes comic strips based on a character he developed called Zorkman. Andy joined Saatchi as regional creative director South East Asia at the end of 2004. He has won metal in every major show including various Golds at Cannes and Clio. He's also won a couple of coveted Silver pencils at D&AD.
Andy strongly believes that to succeed in advertising, you need to find inspiration outside the field. He himself paints, writes books, screenplays, creates comedy for the Internet and produces rich content for mobile phones.
 
Richard Pinder, COO, Publicis Worldwide

Richard Pinder stepped up to take sole leadership of Publicis Worldwide in May 2009 which, with 9000 employees in over 80 markets, is the largest Publicis Groupe agency network. He is a member of the Publicis Groupe’s P12 Management Board and reports directly to Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO. Richard has focused Publicis Worldwide on Creating Contagious Ideas that Change the Conversation around clients’ brands. This approach has led to significant new assignments from existing clients including P&G, Nestlé, Pernod-Ricard and Citi and a stream of new clients including Compaq, Crest, Carrefour, Malibu, Armani fragrances, T.G.I. Friday’s, Chevrolet, Marriott Hotels and BMW. With major investment in acquisitions and start-ups, subsidiary Publicis Modem has become a formidable global digital network of 40 offices and over 1000 employees and is now ranked as the world’s fourth largest digital agency (RECMA). Creatively, Publicis’ rising reputation is winning recognition: it is the third most creative network in Europe (Eurobest) and the second most creative network in Asia (MEDIA). Publicis is Agency of the Year in Brazil, France and Australia and has landed the Kinsale Shark Grand Prix. For the second year running, Publicis USA has been awarded Adweek’s highest agency grade alongside four competitors and scooped nearly 60% more awards than in 2008. Before joining Publicis, Richard was successively Regional Managing Director of Leo Burnett Asia Pacific and President of Leo Burnett EMEA over a period of 7 years during which time Leo Burnett was acquired by Publicis Groupe. His career began at Grey Advertising in London where he rose from Graduate Trainee to Client Services Director.  Richard then joined Ogilvy & Mather as UK Managing Director before moving to Leo Burnett in Asia Pacific.

Rob Hummel, CEO, Prime Focus North America

Rob is a visual entertainment industry expert who speaks regularly at prestigious forums and conferences in North America and Europe. Before joining Prime Focus Rob Hummel was SVP / Production Technology at Warner Bros; SVP / Digital Cinema for SONY Corporation of America, EVP / Digital Development for Technicolor; Head of DreamWorks Animation Technology; and a senior player in post production and TV Animation at Hollywood's Walt Disney Studios. Rob is an associate member of the American Society of Cinematographers, and has hosted several seminars on motion pictures at venues ranging from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to London's National Film Theatre. He has taught at the University of Southern California (USC) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
 
Michael Constantine, Director Global Marketing, Prime Focus

In a career which has taken him from London to Tokyo, from Athens to Manila, from Milan to Hong Kong to Los Angeles and points in-between, Michael has developed a truly global perspective on business and sees himself as a true ‘citizen of the world’. Before joining the rapidly growing Prime Focus operation to lead it its Marketing Communications team, Michael worked in international agency management (Leo Burnett, BBDO), new business and top-level multi-national and local client relations. As a former agency CEO, Michael has worked with some of the world’s leading US, European and Asian blue-chip clients. Michael has over 15 years experience in the Asia-Pacific region. He currently splits his time between Prime Focus’ facilities in London, India and North America.

Patrick Liotard-Vogt, chairman, ASW.com

Based in Zurich, Switzerland, Patrick is an established online entrepreneur, who was one of the early investors and entrepreneurs in the European start-up scene. He has bought and sold several Swiss and German online social networks and acts as CEO and Partner at The World’s Finest Clubs (www.finestclubs.com) and Chairman of Poken SA (www.doyoupoken.com). In October 2009, Patrick became a majority shareholder in ASMALLWORLD (ASW) and the company’s Chairman. He will work closely with the management team at ASW to enhance member experience, introduce new services and continue to make ASMALLWORLD the definitive travel lifestyle online community for internationally-minded people.

Eric Ashok Ledergerber, Founder, hub.in|dia

Of Indian and Swiss origin and having lived in both countries Eric Ashok Ledergerber has a knowledge and experience of both Eastern and Western cultures. He is currently working as an entrepreneur in the space of the digital economy and India. He launched the community hub.in|dia in 2009 and is in the core team of the startupcamp.ch in Switzerland. Eric has been speaking at several workshop and recently presented his research results on Web 2.0 Business Models - Revenue Study on Top 100 Web 2.0 platforms in India at the Webinale in Berlin.