The Art & Science of Data at RampUp 2019

Last week, the cred events team pulled out all the stops at RampUp 2019 on Feb. 25-26 at the historic Fairmont Hotel here in San Francisco. LiveRamp’s flagship event kicks off a year of roadshows that will highlight the company’s presence around the country. This year, RampUp boasted 175 speakers reaching 2,500 attendees, making it one of the largest martech events in the country.

After a welcome reception on Feb. 24, the event transitioned into content the following morning with five pre-conference speaking tracks covering brands and agencies, B2B, data, technology, and TV. By the afternoon, RampUp was in full-swing with the main conference underway, featuring three tracks: Next-Generation Brand-Building, The Age of the Customer, Technology and Data Trends in Practice.

Across the two days, cred was thrilled to watch a few of our own speakers grace the stage. Ripple Senior Director of Audience Marketing Shanna Leonard kicked off the main conference content with a panel highlighting the shared practices between B2B and B2C marketers, while Strava Head of Communications Andrew Vontz chatted with Inc. SF Bureau Chief Jeff Bercovici about the challenges and opportunities of techlash and hyper-innovation. LiveRamp CMO Rebecca Stone moderated one of the most popular sessions addressing data integrity and transparency.

As the Fairmont buzzed with attendees, keynote speakers took the stage at the Masonic theater. This year’s keynotes featured brands such as Marketo, HP, Visa, Cars.com, McDonald’s, Quantcast, and Kimberly Clark, and we learned that customer centricity and utilization of the right data is top-of-mind for all of these marketers.

Going out with a bang, Oakland A’s Executive Vice President Billy Beane—and the subject of the best-selling book and Oscar-nominated movie Moneyball—gave the closing keynote and shared how he implemented a data-driven strategy at the Oakland A’s that has revolutionized their program and the entire baseball industry. The night came to a close with Billy signing books and baseballs at the RampUp closing reception and attendees celebrating at RampUp After Dark party at the Tonga Room.

Interested in attending a RampUp event near you? RampUp on the Road is kicking off the spring roadshow season with stops in Columbus, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, and DC this spring. Follow RampUp here for more info.

Exploring the Future of Payments at Swell by Ripple

Earlier this week, hundreds of seasoned professionals from the blockchain and global payments community gathered in San Francisco for Swell— the second annual conference by our client Ripple. Hosted at the Terra Gallery, the venue was buzzing with innovation as the brightest minds in policy, payments, and fintech discussed the next era of payment technology across the two-day event.

Installations demonstrating facts about cross-border payments and Ripple software decorated the walls. The second floor was home to the main stage where the conference’s sessions took place. Across both days of the conference, a central theme was highlighting blockchain as a global opportunity, as well as exhibiting use cases.

Day one kicked off with a keynote by 42nd President of the United States Bill Clinton, who drew parallels between the new wave of blockchain enthusiasm to that of the internet during his presidency. Clinton’s fireside chat with Gene Sperling, National Economic Council Director and National Economic Advisor under Presidents Clinton and Obama, covered concerns around regulation and emerging technology.

Thoughts from the stage:

“To effectively advance in blockchain, we must move on from horse and buggy technology in other areas.” - Former U.S. President Bill Clinton

On top of opening remarks from Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and sessions with speakers from Banco Santander, the IMF, and RiceHadleyGates, the day continued the excitement with the official announcement that xRapid, the Ripple product powering transactions, is commercially available and will go into production with three financial institutions.

Closing out the first day of the event, attendees were treated Monday night with a performance from the Counting Crows.

On day two, the morning began with Ripple Chief Market Strategist Cory Johnson and Celent Senior Analyst Alenka Grealish discussing proprietary research on payments trends. The rest of the day included panels and flash talks on cross-continental crypto regulation and digital asset adoption, and thoughts from futurist leaders in the blockchain space.

Professionals in the audience left the conference with key insights on the future of global payments and blockchain technology. Garlinghouse drove the conference home with a final thought: “Change takes a grassroots movement, and Ripple is driving it.”

Thank you to the Ripple team for having us at #SwellByRipple!