Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Only two days remain until the start of Croatia’s national advertising festival Days of Communication in Rovinj, and it’s high time for those who were procrastinating until the last minute to register to do so.
The last preparations for the reception of participants and delegates in the beautiful ambience of the Hotel Lone are under way. We believe the number of visitors will once again be record breaking, especially if you take into account the stellar program that the organizers have prepared for the professional public of Croatia, the region and beyond.
In the last in a series of interviews on the eve of this year’s festival, we talked with the person who is most responsible for the impressive program that will be offered this year, Dunja Ivana Ballon, Program Director of Days of Communication and CEO of HURA.
Media Marketing: Days of Communication push the limits of innovation further every year. What are the novelties this year?
Dunja Ivana Ballon: We are taking the speakers for a quickie in the hotel grove, audience will be able to watch lectures from the pool, we organize free yoga, we are opening the dark room for 50 shades of communication … We are bringing some of the biggest figures from our business, but also hackers, bestselling authors, cyborgs … It will be interesting, instructive, and fun. :)
Media Marketing: What answers will be given by this year’s festival? What were the main questions you focused on in preparation of the program?
Dunja Ivana Ballon: We want to bring the best. The best at everything. Best creatives, best digital experts, best PRs, best everything. We want the select few who are shaping the market and the future of this industry. We succeeded in that, so this year in Rovinj we will be joined by some of the best communicators in the world:
- The best businessman of our industry, Sir Martin Sorrell
- The best and most efficient advertiser in the world, Matt Biespiel
- The best PR expert in the world according to PR Week, Aaron Sherinian
- The best content creator of the year, Oobah Butler
- 1/10 of the best advertising directors in the world, Ali Ali
…but also hackers, bestselling authors, cyborgs…
If we can’t learn something from them, I don’t know whom we could learn from.
Media Marketing: Next to the names of some of the speakers at the festival people can see your recommendation. What was it about the recommended speakers that won you over? What can we expect?
Dunja Ivana Ballon: I remember when I had just started working and heard for the first time about the powerful Sir Martin Sorrell. It is utterly surreal that I will get to meet him in a few days, and I am sure that everyone in our industry shares that opinion. I’m still starstruck when it comes to him, and his coming to Days of Communication is the greatest compliment we could ever get.
Of all the lecturers this year, I think the most fun will be Oobah Butler. The prankster and journalist known for his mischievous and eccentric projects has fooled and entertained the whole world, including me. If you haven’t already, please check out :) – The Shed, Paris Fashion Week or my favorite Fake Oobah.
Yifei Chai of Unit9, whom I’ve been calling to come to the festival for more than two years, is the top authority when it comes to artificial intelligence, robots and brands. It seems to me that people in our country still think that AI and bots are something that doesn’t concern them, but they don’t understand that they communicate with them on a daily basis… “Human Survival Guide in the Age of AI – How to Coexist with the Coolest and Baddest of AI” is a test-lecture riddled with questions on whether you will survive in a world where artificial intelligence dominates. Hollywood has been interpreting AIs for years as ultimate heroes or bad guys, and Yifei Chai will compare these fictional super AIs (remember Terminator and Ex Machina) with real AIs like IBM Watson or search engines like Google, and will show how, although sometimes we think that the age of AIs and bots is only coming, we have been listening to them, and acting according to their instructions, for quite some time…
Media Marketing: Professional contests are an important part of the festival. What can we expect this time? Will we be swept away by the quality of works, and perhaps surprised by the selection of winners?
Dunja Ivana Ballon: The annual culmination of local creativity is happening at Days of Communication. Awards of all kinds, from gold to platinum, have already been made, scenarios are being typed, production is at the start, we are just waiting for the telops with the winning names.
Last year we have worked hard on the long-term strategy of developing our competitions and this year we will see the first results. They are already visible on IdejaX, where the number of entries grew by no less than 50%, as befits the biggest domestic creativity competition.
Media Marketing: Days of Communication stand apart from others with its originality. Where does the inspiration come from?
Dunja Ivana Ballon: We don’t take ourselves too seriously. We learn on our mistakes. We want to meet some of the best communicators of today, but at that we also want to have great fun. Who said conferences must be boring? :)