OAC 2011 to start on 17th June in Mumbai; 500 stake holders to participate!

Sometimes the only thing standing between us and achieving potential of tomorrow are the doubts we have accumulated till today. And that may well be true for OOH industry in India. Thus, this June it's time for the Outdoorians to "Think Tomorrow. Today'. As the seventh edition of Outdoor Advertising Convention (OAC 2011) happening on 17th and 18th June' 2011, at Renaissance ' Mumbai, is conceptualized around the theme "Think Tomorrow. Today.' OAC 2011 this year will be channelized to understand and assimilate the opinions of all interest groups of the industry and reach a consensus with regards to the best possible direction ahead.

Vintage in its ways, OAC 2011 has its three popular modules, a premium expo, a knowledge abundant convention and a celebration filled awards. This year Pioneer Publicity joins in as the title sponsor for OAC 2011, Prakash Arts Corporation & Times OOH comes on board as the partners and Big Street is the Media Partner.

This year OAC 2011 will have participation of approximately 500 stake holders from the industry . The crowd will be a mixture of Brand marketers, Outdoor specialist agencies, media concessionaires, media buying agency, digital printers, suppliers to outdoor industry, and others ancillaries. This makes OAC 2011, a yielding networking platform.

While networking will help meet business, the Expo at OAC then opens the door for business to meet solutions. The Expo at OAC has never been about size but about delivering sheer effectiveness. That theme will continue this year with a centrally located expo space we are expecting around 25 exhibitors who will capture the space with their cutting-edge solutions. Talking of the celebratory face of OAC 2011, Outdoor Advertising Awards 2011 which is slated to happen on the evening of 18th June' 2011, we had a truly engaging, intensive and exemplary judging session. This year had the largest jury, in the history of OAC; 16 jury members of which 80% were brand marketers. We also constituted a special jury that had participation from the Outdoor specialist agencies who judged the Media categories from 3D to 3L, which include Zonal Media Owner of the year, Media owner of the year National, Printer of the year. The reasons to have this special jury for these categories were to ensure the people of know the nuances of OOH industry adjudge these technical awards.

Coming to the wisdom and ideas filled arena of OAC 2011; the Convention this year will be a blend of speakers hailing from varied background, representing the varied stakeholders of the industry, we will have regulators, media concessionaires, brand marketers, specialists, research houses, and the likes will put forth some engrossing sessions. Commenting on the topics this year Sachin Jante, Marketing Strategiest & Chief Content Officer, VJ Media works Said, "The topics this time broadly represent two aspects; first the topics which define, support, entail our theme "Think Tomorrow. Today' and second we have topics, which are directed to helping OOH as a medium grow stronger, and gain more share in the media mix of brands."

Lynn de Souza, Chairman & CEO, Lintas Media Group will speak on the topic "Stuck@Six to ' The road to Ten' a subject that clearly indicates how Outdoor on a scale of ten is yet stuck 6, what is it that will help the medium achieve a perfect 10. Thus she would pave a road to a perfect future. Pawan Bansal, Business Head, Jagran Engage and Sunder Hemrajani, Managing Director, Times OOH both leading media concessionaire will share "Signs of tomorrow'. Noomi D. Mehta, Managing Director, Selvel Advertising (President IOAA) will highlight the agenda of IOAA, which will help think, define and realize the industry of tomorrow. It's an established fact that technology is going to be a significant element of tomorrow, thus talking about "Integrating tech-countability into Indian OOH advertising' would be G S Sridhar, President & CEO, Outdu with his session "Thousand Words' and Harjaap Singh Mann, Managing Director, Proof of Performance Data services Pvt. Ltd. through his session "Proof of Performance'

With the talks of tomorrow, we also have brand marketers, the advertisers dishing out thoughts and suggestions which will help OOH as a medium command more share in their media mix. Ronita Mitra, Head ' Corporate Brand Group, ICICI Bank share her insights on "Opportunities for OOH in the second largest spending category ' The ICICI perspective.' Then we have Anuradha Agarwal, VP Marketing, Vodafone talking about "Innovation and the world's oldest Media vehicle'.

While brand marketers put forth their perspective, we also have people belonging to the industry talking about ways to loop holes, pit falls and the highway to improvement. We have Alok Agrawal, COO, Cheil India/SW Asia Regional HQ urging the audiences on "Re-thinking OOH'. Rajul Kulshreshtha, Managing Director, Kinetic India will be throwing light on "How specialists can help increase the salience of OOH in media plans & as a percentage of spends.' Taking the measurement and common currency stand we have Shripad Kulkarni, Chief Executive Officer, Allied Media sharing his insights on "IOS ' Learning from Phase I & Phase II'. Illuminating the dark shades of OOH will be Abhijit Sengupta, CEO, OAP Touchpoint, he will make the audience traverse the "Road to Hell'. We also have an experienced OOH professional from our neighboring country Sajid Naeem Bari, Chief Executive Officer, Adservice brining in Pakistan's OOH scenario. He is talking on "Regulation, Industry Association & Growth: The OOH scenario in Pakistan'.

Representing the authorities side Dr. Sanjay Pattiwar, Asst. Commissioner Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation will shed light on "Emergence of Satellite towns and its relevance to Outdoor media opportunities.' Further on bringing an consultants perspective, which is fresh and different Ashish Pherwani, Associate Director ' Advisory Services, Ernst & Young' will talk on "Best practices that could make OOH advertising business more transparent'.