So the Rocky themed played and the bell rang to start the second annual CrossMedia Forum that was hosted by Dynamic Logic and led by the talented David Verklin , the CEO of Carat Americas. It featured an all star cast of media powerhouses such as Mike Shaw, president of sales and marketing for ABC, one of the more entertaining and informative panelist that was featured, Sean Cunningham, president of the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau, also entertaining and informative, John Greco, president of the DMA, Michael Zimbalist, president of OPA, Nina Link, President/CEO of NAA, Stephen Freitas, CMO of the OAAA, Mary Bennett, Executive VP of the RAB, Barbara Singer , Director of Kraft Foods, Mike Donahue, Executive VP of the AAAA, Mike Burgi, Editor of Mediaweek, who posed some interesting questions, and Bill Cook, Senior VP of the ARF, the “Optimist”.

The event was sponsored by Dynamic Logic, ESPN.com, ADWeek, MediaWeek, MS Interactive, and Dow Jones Integrated Solutions.

The topic was Multi-Platform advertising solutions and even though there were good points brought up from the magazine, newspaper and internet mediums, the night in my opinion was dominated by “Mighty” Mike Shaw from ABC, Sean Cunningham from “CAB”and the “Voice of Reason” Mike Burgi Editor of MediaWeek. Mike Shaw has to be one of the most passionate broadcast representatives around today, he is chock full of facts and figures, presenting them as a closer would present his product. Message for ABC, don’t let this guy go. Then lets move to Sean Cunningham, the pointman when it comes to the Cable Television industry, he defended his medium with hard facts and a little humor that slid in from time to time, also a great representative for his industry. Now lets move to MediaWeeks Editor Mike Burgi, he had the opportunity to touch on a few points that were very interesting, one being the premiums that are paid for national ad placement in newspapers, John Sturm, President and CEO of the Newspaper Association of America made reference to a little newspaper history regarding the Circus that came around once a year and was charged more for advertising than the local advertisers, this was touching on the frequency, but he did say that he sees that gap narrowing in the future.

Let’s not forget the anchorman of the evening the multitalented David Verklin, CEO of Carat Americas, he asked the questions and brought in the entertainment to the discussion, one comment that he made jokingly was that Outdoor Advertising and Radio were the poor mans television, I don’t think that Stephen Freitas CMO of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America was too happy about the comment but I think that he was just trying to make it interesting, which he did, I don’t agree with the comment and I don’t think that David was too serious about it.

They were all asked what they would do if they didn’t have the job that they had, I don’t recall David answering the question but I can see him interviewing guest on 20/20, hey you never know.

So all is all it was a great event, lots of media heavyweights, lots of powerful media people in the audience and of course the great cocktail hour that followed.

So kudos to Dynamic Logic and all the sponsors and panelist that made it so great, can’t wait for round 3.

Louis Victor
New Age Media Concepts.