My first talk of the day was with Kevin Hart, Founder and Chairman of HartBeat Ventures, who had won Entertainment Person of the Year. He was talking to Jeffrey Katzenberg, Founding Partner at WndrCo. Hart talked about working in Hollywood, as well as building his company. You could tell that he was an intelligent businessman. That and his humorous acting have led him to his success. When he’s in a room and pitching an idea that works for him, he finds success because he tells those in the room to treat him like he’s right until he’s wrong. His likeness got him in those rooms, but his ideas and hard work have allowed him to earn a seat at the table in those rooms. “If you use me and you just use my likeness, you are losing. I have an infrastructure that can provide the opportunity to do so much more. It is a waste of a [company’s] time not to understand my infrastructure… Give me a second to show you.” I liked seeing the business side of Kevin Hart rather than him on the big screen.

Next, I saw this talk with Anna Klein, Assistant Manager and Global Communications at Estée Lauder, as the moderator. She was speaking to Amanda Gorman, Writer and Activist at Estée Lauder, and Jane Lauder, the Executive Vice President, Enterprise Marketing, Chief Data Officer, and granddaughter of the founder of Estée Lauder. They talked about how the company is one of the leading brands in beauty today that constantly come up with innovative ways to challenge the beauty community. From the moment that Estée Lauder was created, they quickly became a pioneer in woman's beauty. Both Gorman and Lauder highlight not only the importance of a visionary but how consumers perceive those ideas. In today's world, pop culture and trends are constantly changing. With a brand as big as Estée Lauder, it can be challenging to cover both a company's data and voice when making decisions. It is no longer enough to be the first company to do something. It is now almost necessary to have an encapsulating and conspicuous voice to change the hearts of the audience you are trying to reach. The speakers were so eloquently. I had seen Amanda Gorman on the news a few times and knew she was well-spoken, but I could tell she chose her words wisely and really crafted her answers.

12:00 Havas - Student lunch

For lunch, I went to a student event hosted by Havas at their cafe. They were serving free beverages and small bites. They had a panel of people who showcased some of their work and advised all of us in college. Some evoking statistics that stood out to me were 73% of brands could disappear tomorrow and 67% of people don't think brands are transparent. The average person gets 6,000 branded messages a day. 45% of messages are advertising. They stated that we need to think about the brands we work with and how to get other people excited. If you do great work and connect with people the, success will come. Their advice:

• "Optimism is a superpower." You have to wake up every day thinking something good is gonna come from a day's work. There are a million ways something can die. That one day there is an opportunity, you need to be ready for it. Work dies all the time.

• "Hone your skills. Ask questions. Enjoy the ride." Perfect your craft. Work on it every day. Study case studies. Never be afraid to ask questions. Be vocal. Be loud

• "Your people are out there. You just have to be patient enough to find them." As a historically underrepresented person, it's hard to find people. You'll find your people but give yourself time and space to find them. 

• "Choose people over projects." Always felt like a failure when choosing to size up a project 

• "When I'm doubt. Say "yes" and do the work."

This event was very crowded for the space. I overheard that more students came than they were expecting. This was a great opportunity to network. I liked meeting other students in the same shoes as me and having an event specifically geared toward students. 

The next talk I attended was with Latasha Gillespie, Global Head of DEIA, and Keke Palmer, Actress, Singer, Podcaster, and Television Personality at KeyTV. KeKe talked about all the projects she has worked on and upcoming projects. I watched her on True Jackson VP growing up and was thrilled to see her speaking at the festival. She talked about growing up in the industry and how she has navigated it over the past two decades. She said she always follows her excitement when choosing a project and invests in her ideas. She reminds herself to “just have fun with it, girl.” Keke has a network, KeyTV, which is like the network AwesomenessTV. I remember watching AwesomenessTV on Youtube in middle school, so I thought it was a great idea that she made something similar. I also liked how she said she tries to get as many young people involved as she can, so they can get experience in the industry.

I was excited about this talk based on the title. Scott Galloway, a NYU Stern School of Business professor, was the moderator talking with Melissa Wildermuth, Global Creative Director at General Mills, and Doug Martin, Chief Brand and Disruptive Growth Officer at General Mills. This talk was less structured. Galloway stated that he was given a list of questions to ask, but he seemed to ask questions he was dying to know the answers to. General Mills is the 2nd largest producer of natural and organic foods in the U.S. They talked about their dos and don'ts of coming up with and producing ads. Doug explained it's not about an advertisement. It's about the consumer, solving problems in their lives and hopefully delivering something joyful. It can't just be, 'Hey, we made an ad.' Creativity is inherently a risk. Melissa talked about how the company was featured in Vogue. This allowed them not to have to do advertising and brought an essence of an influencer. Scott brought up that when you're all barking up the same tree, you can get in a rut of constantly being around people that say you're awesome. You need people who will tell you when you're wrong. You must look at new opinions before the wheels fall off the bus. Wildermuth and Martin explained how it is so easy to say well, you guys didn't deliver, but it's important to have a brief and talk about what you want to do and don't want to. Getting the deliverable right is key. 

Advice for young people in advertising/life:

• Melissa - You have to have fun at work. You're in the wrong job if you're not. 

• Doug - Understand what the client is trying to accomplish. If you don't ask someone until you can tell it back. Work on storytelling. The better you are at telling stories, the better you'll be at advertising.

• Scott - Nothing wonderful will happen without risk. Express emotion. Express interest in friends. Get out of the house. Put yourself in uncomfortable situations. The worst thing you can do to someone is to sequester them from other people. Make friends. Take chances. Tell your parents you love them.

It was very touching that when Scott Galloway gave his advice, he started to tear up. I was also intrigued that he is a Professor and gets asked to come back to the festival repeatedly, especially since it is mainly people currently working at advertising agencies who come. He even stated he was surprised he is asked to come back.