ProxSummit Recap: The Future Is In Close Proximity!

Update: 9/17 - check out the action! Unacast's Video Recap is live:

Yesterday, the top 80 Industry Leaders shaping the future of Proximity Marketing came together to create the First Annual ProxSummit, presented by Unacast. We’ve been working with Unacast, the largest proximity marketing platform and global network of proximity sensor companies, to host ProxSummit 2017 - an event highlighting the shift in location data usage to help people understand their connection with the world around them. If that mere concept doesn’t get you excited, the list of top industry speakers certainly will.

This was the inaugural summit bringing in innovators from the advertising and marketing field that were seeking to understand the surge in investments and interest in location-based marketing technologies. The conference advocated for transparency in this specific field, and attendees had a chance to understand the psyche behind accurately approaching innovation through a location-based lens.

Fun fact: The predicted estimate for location-targeted ad spending in 2021 will be approximately $32.4 billion. Our outlook on our day-to-day interactions with places and spaces is about to drastically change as we see growth in technology utilizing location-based data. Yet, what is the value of location-data? What are marketers prioritizing? What does the future hold for this sort of access to knowledge in terms of privacy? All these questions were open for discussion at this year's ProxSummit.

With four separate sessions dedicated to understanding the relevance of location and proximity, one of our favorites had to be “Do You Know Where Data Comes From?" moderated by Street Fight’s David Card. Jeff White (Founder & CEO of Gravy Analytics), Harry Dewhirst (President of Blis), and Brian Handly (Founder of CEO of Reveal Mobile) discussed the role of transparency around the source for data collection in accurately targeting and catering the market.

ProxSummit was held at the beautiful Midtown Loft & Terrace in downtown Manhattan, a rooftop venue overlooking the skyline. Check out some of our favorite highlights:

Draper Nexus InsuranceX Recap

On June 28, members of the insurance community, alongside large and small technology startups came together for the first Annual InsuranceX Series, hosted by Draper Nexus. cred worked onsite to assist Draper Nexus in this invite-only event, with the goal of connecting members of the insurance community to current game changers within today’s tech scene. An early-stage venture capitalist firm, Draper Nexus focuses on enterprise tech and hardware both in Japan and the US.

Tim Draper (Founder of DFJ and Draper Associates) kicked off the conversation around autonomy, in particular how/when autonomous cars will likely shake up the industry for automotive startups and current insurance leaders.

The event also heard insights from Kate Sampson (VP, Risk Solutions, at Lyft) who presented Lyft’s view on the Future of Personal Transportation and even presented Swoop (an emerging startup looking to automate roadside assistance) with a $50,000 check during a Startup Pitch competition. Representatives from State Farm, Farmer’s Insurance, Atlas Financial, Toyota, BMW i Ventures, and Renault touched on the future of personal transit, InsurTech landscape, connected cars as data platforms, and how startups can best work with insurance providers.

In total, over 100 people participated and took away one key element from the day: while making headlines today, the most capable, and consumer-friendly, autonomous car is still quite a few years away.

Need help planning your own event?
Contact events@credpr.com

Social Innovation Summit Recap

On November 15 and 16, cred stopped by the Social Innovation Summit at the Pullman Hotel in Redwood City to participate in conversations around diversity, inclusion, entrepreneurship, and social enterprise.

The Social Innovation Summit (SIS) is a twice annual, bi-coastal event that takes place in the Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. “A global convening of black swans and wayward thinkers,” SIS brings together top execs and leaders to discuss how to leverage technology and innovation to affect social change.

Landmark Ventures COO Mel Ochoa, Splunk President & CEO Douglas Merritt, Director of UberMILITARY Todd Bowers, and President of Goldman Sachs Gives Anne Black were a few of the speakers at the event. Topics included:

• Building a Culture of Innovation and Impact

• Innovation for Good: Effective Public Private Partnerships

• Exploring New Frontiers of Digital Healthcare

• Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace

• Product Donations and Pro Bono, and more.

One of our favorite presentations was by Baya Voce of The Art of Connection web series. She broke down the importance of connecting with others and how to build what she calls ‘anchors of connection.’ In her opinion, the most powerful way to create an anchor of connection is through ritual - no, not sacred ceremony but rather, a combination of repeated action and intention with your family and friends.

Aside from the general and breakout sessions, there was ample time for mingling during transitions - with great food and snacks to boot. All in all, it was a very well-run event with engaging content. Our only qualm? We wish the first few sessions had been a little longer - because they were that interesting!

We'll definitely be back next year!

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Watermark Recap

Last week, we participated in the “Watermark’s Silicon Valley Conference for Women,” a full day event with 6,500 attendees and 100 speakers coming together to discuss equality in the workforce. The conference filled the San Jose Convention Center with passion, inspiration, and gratitude.

What made this conference stand out? The passion, candid and painfully honest discussions:

• Actress, author, director and producer Mindy Kaling shared an early career story of how she sold a TV pilot she’d written based on her life, yet had to audition for the part she created of herself. If that wasn’t infuriating, her agent encouraged her to lose 20 pounds and that she was “just one juice cleanse away” from the part.

• Athlete Abby Wamback shared her regrets and how she wished she did more when it comes to equal pay: “There will come a time in your life where you will turn the chapter and you will be angry that you didn’t rock the boat enough.”

  • This comes off the heels of a complaint that she wasn’t part of, when the Women’s U.S. Soccer Team filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over pay discrepancies.

• From political science undergrad to the Vice President and Chief Inclusion and Collaboration Officer with Cisco, Shari Slate opened up about how she forged her career to achieve her professional renaissance. She encouraged attendees to fill your life tangible moments that matter, recognize your difference, find your strengths (your true strengths, not what other people think you are good at) and round it out with a purpose.

About Watermark

Watermark is a community of executive women in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose mission is to increase the representation of women at executive levels to drive innovation, human development and economic growth. Celebrating its 21st anniversary this year, the Watermark vision is to ensure women are able to make their mark in and for their companies, their careers and their communities by providing programs focused on connection, development and advocacy.

Startup Grind Recap

On March 30, we stopped by Startup Grind Silicon Valley (hosted at Pivotal Labs in Palo Alto) and listened in on a fireside chat between Alex Austin, CEO and Co-founder of Branch Metrics, and Scott Nolan, Partner at Founders Fund and early employee at SpaceX. In this 50 minute-session, Alex shared the growth of Branch Metrics from origin to scaling the company to support 1.3B users.

Here are five things we learned:

• Set a success criteria - know for yourself what success looks like.

• If you’re having to sell your product too hard, it’s not a good sign!

• Hyper customer service with early adopters of your product/service will pay you back in dividends. When scaling your product, invest in customer support.

• Never get in the mode where you feel you can kick back and celebrate; there is always something on fire or broken.

• Always think about macro trends, where you fit within them and the broader platform that you’re on.

Want more? Watch Alex talk about his story here.

About Startup Grind:

Startup Grind is a global startup community with a mission to educate, inspire and connect entrepreneurs. Every month, they hosts events featuring successful local founders, innovators, educators and investors who share lessons they learned on the way to building great companies. Since its founding in 2010, Startup Grind has hosted 2,000 fireside chats and helped millions of entrepreneurs find mentorship, connect to partners and new recruits and pursue funding.

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RampUp 2016 Recap

One of the 17 panel discussions at #RampUp16.

On Tuesday, February 23, 2016, cred PR helped LiveRamp, an Acxiom company, coordinate their 4th annual RampUp—the Premier Conference for data-driven marketers and AdTech industry leaders.

RampUp 2016 took place at The Fairmont, atop Nob Hill in the beautiful city of San Francisco. The day began bright and early with registration, breakfast on the terrace, and an inspiring morning fireside chat with Legendary Entertainment’s Matthew Marolda. The 1,400+ attendees then split into three tracks for a full day of compelling panels and keynotes.

credPR team in action (left to right: Stephanie B., Stephanie W., Caitlin, Margaret, Leah, and Laura)

Since 2012, RampUp has gathered the top innovative minds in the digital space to discuss today’s data and marketing opportunities and challenges. This year was the largest event yet, both in terms of content and audience, with 17 panels and topics ranging from “What Senior Leaders Are Looking For in 2016” to “Data As An Asset.”

Some dynamic speakers that added to this year’s agenda included: Dean of Global Innovation from Gap, GM of IBM, Head of Programmatic at LiveNation, Founder & CEO at MediaMath, Vice President of MasterCard, CMO of Citi Bank, and GVP, Marketing from Macy's, to name a few. In total, 15 of our clients participated in the event, both as speakers and participants.

Author of Freakonomics Stephen Dubner connected the day’s themes in his closing keynote, entitled "How To Think Like A Freak in Advertising.” An entertaining take on incentivization and human behavior, Dubner incorporated stories of post-bathroom hand hygiene (or lack thereof) and turkey reproduction (I kid you not) to discuss how “circumstances under which data is created impacts the end value of data” and our tendency to choose data that confirms decisions we’ve already made. Just a little insight for us all to ponder...

Stephen Dubner, author of Freakonomics - a true crowd pleaser!

All in all, the event was a success. Couldn’t attend yourself? Find content-related recaps of events below (and mark your calendars for next year!):

• Four Takeaways from #RampUp16 by Rebecca Stone of LiveRamp

• RampUp 2016 Recap: Data As An Asset by Esther Burgeson of TruSignal

• 2016 RampUp: Event Recap by Michael Hans of DataXu

• 5 Takeaways from LiveRamp’s 2016 “RampUp” Event by Tim Abraham of Adbrain

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Want your #RampUp16 recap added to our list? Send your article to kayla@credpr.com to be featured!

For more credPR news, subscribe to our bi-monthly newsletter. Or if you’re interested in having the cred team help with speaker management and speaking opportunities, get in touch at hello@credpr.com.

And don’t forget to follow @LiveRamp on Twitter for news on #RampUp17!