I’m glad that I choose to attend though. I might not try to attend as many events next time though!

The last seminar I attended was on Wednesday. Social Networking 2.0: Brands Get in the Game presented by Robin Domeniconi, Vice President-US Advertising Sales, Publishing and Marketing, Microsoft discussed Microsoft’s social branding strategies, how it is working with agencies to harness social media and also showcased a project code named “Looking Glass”. “Looking Glass” is a social-media aggregator and monitoring tool Microsoft hopes will allow marketers to better monitor what is going on across media channels.

Advertising Age features a story about “Looking Glass” titled Microsoft Wants to Help Marketers Manage Messy Social Media. Based on the comments about the article quite a few people see the benefit of this tool but are not happy that Microsoft is pushing another one of it’s products to do it. “Looking Glass” is built on top of SharePoint, so that it can utilize the features of that platform i.e emailing items within the system. However, SharePoint is a product that has several problems in the past. How smart is it for Microsoft to build this tool with that technology?

It’s definitely a much needed tool as more and more business is done using social media. Marketing is truly two way these days and customers are no longer interested in having media pushed at them without being able to respond. A company that can listen and ACT is sure to be in a better position than a company that just ignores social media in hopes that it is just a fad.

All in all Advertising Week was a great opportunity to learn and experience new technologies.

The seminars I was actually able to get to were Facebook: Knowing is Better, Speaking 50+ and The Future in 4D: Brands, Communities, Content and Technology.

I missed the Forbes Economic Summit which covered the present and future state of the global economy as it relates to its impact on advertising and media industries.

Here are some highlights from the seminars I did attend:

Facebook: Knowing is Better – The presenters were Facebook, COO, Sheryl Sandberg, – Nielsen Online, CEO, John Burbank and Sony Pictures, CEO, Michael Lynton. This talk was about how to engage users in a meaningful way, scalable and measurable way. If a company can’t measure results in some fashion getting budgets approved for projects is indeed tough. Facebook now has about 300 million users with the average user having about 130 friends according to COO Sheryl Sandberg. The number of user accesses Facebook via mobile devices is currently growing as well. The current estimate is that about 65 million users access Facebook via a mobile device.

Facebook has partnered with Nielsen Online to generate market research that can be used by companies and the entities that represent them. The data collected is anonymous and users have the option of opt-ing out of any market research. Demographic information is collected as part of the research.

Facebook doesn’t consider itself a web destination but a technology company. It’s goal is to be a platform for creating connections and also allow users to interact with marketers the same way they interact with friends.

Speaking 50+ – This seminar was presented by Grandparents.com. The speakers were Jerry Shereshewsky, CEO, Grandparents.com, Brent Bouchez, Creative Director, Agency Five 0 and Matt Thornhill, President, The Boomer Project . During this session a lot was made of the fact that people who are 50+ are dead to marketers who fail to recognize of the size of this market. They only seem interested in the 18 – 49 demographic of consumers. A mistake according to the panelist because on average consumers 50+ have more income to spend on products and service. This they say holds true despite the current economic climate.

The 50+ consumer makes up about 40% of the marketplace yet most advertising focuses on younger audiences. Most marketers it seems believe that people 50+ are only interested in health and age related products. Matt Thornhill mentioned that More magazine, a publication geared towards women 50+ has a hard time getting advertising for items such as luxury cars, etc. Interesting fact is that most luxury cars are bought by people 50+. Something that is definitely not clear by watching the commercials for these items. The average buyer of Mercedes is 61.

During The Future in 4D: Brands, Communities, Content and Technology seminar a few things struck a chord:

• Every product should have a back-story
• Consumer data yields power (have a purpose for collecting it and use it wisely)
• Every product must resonate on a human level
• Be brave! Make mistakes. Course correct if necessary

I have never been to Advertising Week but it showed up as an upcoming event on my LinkedIn page last week and I decided to attend.

Advertising Week’s mission is to galvanize the industry by creating an entertaining, enlightening and engaging platform for disparate parts of the business.

I think I went a bit overboard when I signed up for seminars. In total I’ve signed up to attend 13. Today I attended “The Way Forward” and “Google: Experiments in Digital Creativity”.

The presenter for “The Way Forward” were Bob Greenberg and Barry Wacksman of R/GA. Their talk centered on the future of advertising and what works or doesn’t work in the current advertising agency model. Consumers they said have more choice, a larger voice and more control than ever before. Traditional advertising isn’t going to motivate them to buy your product or service. Clients are cutting budgets and squeezing the profit margins of agencies. They must innovate or suffer the consequences.

Google’s talk was more fun. They showcased several ways consumers are using Google’s sites and APIs like Google Maps API, YouTube API to create entertaining projects. Check out the presentation here.

You can follow @advertisingweek on Twitter or see what people are saying by following the hashtag #adwk.

More action tomorrow. I have 4 seminars on my agenda. Fun times….