Spikes Asia announces programme of themed forums

The Spikes Asia Festival of Creativity has announced a programme of 14 forums which will take place during this year’s Festival, running from 23-26 September in Singapore. Themed by day, the Forums will focus on specific industry trends and the issues associated with these, offering a chance for in-depth, multi-perspective insights in a learning focused environment. The topics covered include: Creative Talent, Consumer Insights, Creativity in Social and Creativity in Mobile.

Creative Talent will look at where true talent can be found, how to keep it and what the structures are that allow creativity to flourish. In these sessions, Al Moseley, President and Chief Creative Officer, 180Amsterdam, will talk about why creative people should lead companies; Katie Chatfield, Creative Strategist at Jack Morton Worldwide will discuss how both a culture and environment conducive to creative thinking can be actively encouraged; Niall McKinney, Founder & CEO of The Knowledge Engineers examines what makes an agency of the future and how agencies need to evolve their talent; and Wunderman’s Martin Conneen and William Manfredi will share initiatives to attract and retain digital talent, drive your data transformation as well as create a real life culture of a world-class connected organisation.

With the spotlight on Consumer Insight, Nir Wegrzyn and Bex Deere of BrandOpus will look at gender and marketing and whether thinking about gender is the right approach. Howard Smith, Managing Director at Clarity, will uncover the motivations that shape the unique purchase behaviours of the Chinese Outbound Luxury Shopper, whilst Andrew Ho of Face will share eight key principles for uncovering new ground and delivering fresher and deeper insight. Yonathan Dominitz, Founder of Mindscapes, will also hold a session presenting some of the most creative and awarded campaigns along with the insights behind them.

With Creativity in Social as the theme, founder of socialdeviant, Marc Landsberg, will deconstruct social media creativity, sharing best practice examples from around the world to help guide future social media efforts. Also focusing on social, WFA will look at User Generated Content whilst irisWorldwide will turn their attention to the social triggers for sharing.

Focusing on Creativity in Mobile, Victor Knaap and Wesley ter Haar of MediaMonks will look at the different ways in which ad agencies from all over the planet are pushing the potential of mobile technology into undiscovered territory. Continuing along this theme, Arthur Policarpio and Bela Gupta d’ Souza of Mobext talk about why they observe a ‘lean start-up’ approach in their agency and TBWA’s Digital Arts Network will invite delegates to be part of an interactive panel experience with a debate that centres on technology and design.

“The aim of the Spikes Asia content programme is to provide essential insight, learning and inspiration to our audience, helping them to leave in a better position to drive their careers forward and equipped with the necessary skills and expertise. The forums are a key part of this and we’re delighted to be able to offer this focused and relevant stream of content to our attendees,” says Andrea Hayes, Festival Director of Spikes Asia.