Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what youre going to get. I hadnt heard that in a while, but the phrase came to mind when I read Saatchi & Saatchis Advertising Week session description. It was one of those highly eclectic group of speakers coming together under strict format rules. In this case it was 7 experts; 7 backgrounds; presenting for 7 minutes. Our host Con Williamson,

The genesis of big ideas. And the nexus of tomorrow. Moderator: Jason Tanz , New York Editor, Wired Mark D'Arcy , Director, Global Creative Solutions, Facebook Jason Harris , President, Executive Producer, Mekanism James Spindler , Chief Creative Officer, @radical.media Dave Clemans , Executive Creative Director, Taxi Danny Robinson , SVP, Creative Director, The Martin Agency In todays round table discussion on the topic of Big Ideas the main theme was Simplicity .

There was a lively discussion today at the Performance Display Event presented by Criteo. Most interesting to me was the conversation around publishers enabling RTB through either private or open exchanges. Peter Naylor , EVP of Digital Media Advertising at NBC Universal and Zack Rodgers, Senior Vice President Sales Strategy & Operations at CBS Interactive seemed to agree that they believe a private marketplace is what makes the most sense for them as publishers.

Every so often, you realize that youre part of a tipping point moment. This particular moment is about the transformation of TV from a one-size-fits-all passive experience to a personalized, social and irresistibly interactive experience. For both consumers and advertisers, the promise of interactive TV has finally arrived. The last 11 months have been pretty amazing for Xbox LIVE, and our advertising partners. First there was the launch of Kinect,

Industry leaders set the stage for Advertising Week's thought leadership program with a candid discussion on challenges and opportunities in today's disruptive landscape. Moderator: Jim Impoco , Executive Editor, Thomson Reuters Featuring: Frank Holland , CVP, Advertising and Online, Microsoft, Bob Bowman , President, MLB Advanced Media, Andrew Capone , SVP, Marketing & Biz Dev., NCC Media, Lisa McCarthy , EVP, Client Dev. Group, Univision, Nigel Morris , CEO,

Advertising Week 2011 started strong today with a panel of top CEOs and COOs from the industry moderated by Felix Gillette, writer for Bloomberg Businessweek. Im not the biggest fan of panels but this one was well worth it. The highlights are captured below. Tweet @MSAdvertising what tips from these leaders you find the most helpful. On the role of agencies and staying one step ahead: Don Coleman, President and CEO at Global Hue,

Randall Rothenberg took a few minutes out of the IAB MIXX conference to talk to us about this year's theme of storytelling, his thoughts on how device ubiquity is impacting advertising and the way we market to consumers, where we're headed with social, and a little tribute to our own Jaron Lanier about who he says, "probably more than anyone else on our stage this year, represents the notion of thought leadership at its zenith .

By Holy Grail I mean the promised land of unlocking the serious money that is still spent on traditional media and moving it to digital. At the MMA Connected Leaders Forum on Mobile, Agency leaders asserted that mobile is not only an up and coming distribution channel, but that it may also be the key to bridge the gap between offline and online as advertising redefines itself and adapts to a digital world. Chris Weil, Chairman & CEO, Momentum Worldwide,

Social Media continues to be a major player in marketing themes presented at Advertising Week. Booz & Company and Buddy Media presented findings from a recently conducted joint-research study examining major companies across multiple industries. The study looked at how companies are transforming their business as they expand their social media and digital marketing activities.

We chatted to Doug Zanger last night about his army of bloggers and tweeters at this year's event. Such a nice chap, we talk about who he's looking forward to talking too, who's in their social media club and what he'll be wearing today. For more coverage from Advertising Week 2011, bookmark our microsite , follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook . You can also follow our hashtag #aw8Story for a chance to win an Xbox 360 + Kinect bundle! Enjoy!

The creative agency of the future is: a consultant? So claimed R/GA in their Advertising Week session called "The Next 9 Years.'" I believe they're onto something. There has been much written about how sales organizations are re-inventing themselves. The same types of pressures are being placed on the agency community, and the buy-side is undergoing rapid and tumultuous change.

Quentin George, IPG's Chief Innovation Officer, took the stage at the end of a jam packed day here at Advertising Week 2011 and talked about his passion for data. Up on stage, he generously let representatives from tickr.com )Tyler Peppel( and chartbeat.com )Tony Haile( talk about their data dashboards which enable marketers to see real-time activity,

As Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO of IAB, kicked off the conference, he reminded all 700+ attendees in the room that When technology does its thing, the only thing left is storytelling. The story is the story. Jonathan Mildenhall, Vice President, Global Advertising Strategy and Content Excellence at The Coca-Cola Company, confirmed it with the companys new marketing platform thinking, Liquid and Linked. Knowing the company had to get ahead with storytelling,

Well, we're stepping on the plane tomorrow and travelling to New York for Advertising Week. This year, not only will you be able to watch , read and interact with our coverage from this year's adstravaganza, you'll be able to win an Xbox 360 Kinect bundle too! We know that many magical things happen over the five days of the event. People will learn new things, they'll be inspired by people they hear, they'll make new friends, deals happen and''.

In the weeks leading up to Advertising Week, weve visited a couple of my favorite Microsoft storytellers, Jaron Lanier and Bill Buxton . With days left, Id like to introduce you to a person who helps bring those stories to life, Jennifer Creegan: As General Manager of the Brand Advertising Business Group at Microsoft,

For all those who love to race, October sees the launch of the next iteration of the highest rated racing game of this generation: Forza Motorsport 4. With any exciting product comes the ultimate challenge whats the best way to launch? With a 90 TV clip to launch Forza Motorsports 4 in the UK, Insights from a Thinkbox research study showed over half of people go on to search as a result of seeing TV adverts and so uniting Bing with Forza was a natural outcome.

We caught up with KRAFT's Chrystel Barranger during Cannes and talked to her about what inspires her, digital marketing and how it's beginning to fully integrate with more traditional forms of media. In addition to being inspired by the spectacular scenery in the south of France, Chrystel found ingenuity in the work presented at the event. Not only was she excited about the many opportunities to integrate KRAFT brand messages across platforms,

You requested it. We listened! International expansion for developer onboarding and payouts has been the number one requested feature for the Microsoft Advertising solution for Windows Phone app developers. Today, we expanded our international footprint beyond the United States and can now support developers in eleven additional countries: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, and United Kingdom. So, what does this mean?

Today, at OMMA Global in New York, I shared social marketing insights from a study conducted by advertiser insight firm Advertiser Perceptions on Microsofts behalf. The data was collected from more than 700 of the largest social media advertisers across the globe. The study, Social Advertising & Word of Mouth, the Social Advertisers View, outlines top-of-mind opportunities and challenges for social media marketers.

Local commerce has always been anchored in establishing ongoing relationships between retailers and customers, and giving back to the community.  Microsoft Advertising is dedicated to empowering meaningful relationships between customers and the merchants/brands they like. Today we are announcing the launch of Bing Deals Beta with loyalty program in 12 cities across the US in order to bring a new relationship-focused element to deals.