Day 5

 Will.i.am has been the speaker I couldn’t wait to hear since the beginning of this program, so when today at 1:00 rolled around, I was thrilled to attend the McCann Worldgroup and MRM Worldwide seminar. This seminar discussed technology and its transformation of creativity.  Technology has changed the game for every industry and will.i.am proved that the game has changed for not only him as an entertainer, but for him as a songwriter also. He explained that he writes, records, and produces his songs all through email. He will email his partners with lyrics and beats and waits for their response. If he is given the ok, they will send him the track and he will cut the track on his computer and send it back. Once the song has been completed he then distributes the song out for the world right from the computer. That process shows that the music production business that has been used for many years is now basically obsolete and the artist can now do everything himself without even having to leave his house. Technology is changing every aspect of every job. He told a funny story of how technology now provides him with the answers he has always wanted to know. He said when going out on stage, people cheering and yelling ahhhh can also sound like boooo with the mix of the music and the instruments etc. Therefore he always wonders if he is hearing ahhh and the audience likes his performance or if it's a booo and there has been a huge malfunction. Instead of having to wait until the end of the show he can use his mobile to look at twitter and read the tweets for his concert at anytime and from those tweets tweeted knows if they are cheering him on or if they are bashing his concert. For him the Internet has made it easier to stay connected with his fans and viewers during any circumstance.

The 20something master class started in the Young Lion’s Zone shortly after so I grabbed a smoothie and doodled in the white space while waiting for it to begin. In the festival program, 20something was described as “Great Talent, Zero Experience” and I perceived this to be advice for graduating students on how to break into the industry. I soon realized that 20something was actually the first advertising agency run by students with no experience. This agency seemed really cool, but I feel like I would need a little more guidance and practice before taking on my own client’s accounts.

This was the last day commercials were aired so we quickly ran up to the Grand Auditorium after the master class and viewed three commercials entries: alcoholic drinks, household products, and public awareness messages. We had one last speaker at 5:00 so we had 45 minutes to view the commercials. As we viewed which entry categories would be showing during the allotted time I thought that the household product category was going to be somewhat boring, but to my surprise I loved this category and the Febreze air freshener commercials "Breathe Happy" were my favorite.

We were a little tardy to the Arma Salama meeting but his story was very intriguing. He was a filmmaker during the Egyptian Revolution. He talked about being kidnapped and how he wanted to get the word out about the corruption of society and didn’t care what consequences proceeded with achieving this, even if he was thrown in jail. His sacrifice to inform the world about his beliefs is the same drive we need to possess as we begin our lives in the real world. He said “if you don’t believe in a product, don’t sell it” because nothing will be achieved if you aren’t driven to take action. After listening to his story I really want to see his movie On A Day Like Today.