The organizers of the Days of Communications Festival had announced that they would bring several notable names to the festival, but it seems that they still had a few aces up their sleeve. At the official announcement of this year’s festival programme, they revealed that AdBlock would participate too.
Laura Sophie Dornheim, head of Communications Department at eyeo software, which produces AdBlock Plus, AdBlock Browser and Flattr, will speak on behalf of the AdBlock system which primary purpose is to block ads while browsing.
At the programme’s presentation, Chairman of HURA’s Board, Davor Bruketa said: “The Days of Communication Festival is the place where we present world-wide practices in the communications industry. Of course, we also bring lecturers who talk about the best global practices, but at the same time we allow visitors to speak to the people whose method of work we are questioning while not ignoring the influence that their work has on the direction of industry’s development and its perception in the eyes of the general public.”
Director of the Days of Communications and the head of the Festival’s programme, Dunja Ivana Ballon, added: “This year, we are bringing great names and are pushing the envelope. One of our guests will be the head of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, the global creative director of one of the leading social networks – Twitter, and a spokeswoman for AdBlock who is also here to promote the so-called Acceptable Ads Initiative. The festival participants will be able to experience interactive content, and we are also going to introduce a new debate format, where we will continue to ask questions and open discussions. The quality of the overall programme and the commendations that we have received from the previous participants are also reflected in the fact that, this year, we have already surpassed the number of the participants in the last year’s festival.”
In addition to AdBlock’s Spokeswoman, the Festival will play host to Cody Foster, Senior Vice President for Data Strategy in the sixth biggest conglomerate in the world – Viacom. This corporation has almost 10,000 employees and owns Paramount Pictures (company that produced Titanic, Iron Man, Forrest Gump, etc.) and popular channels such as MTV and Comedy Central. Cody Foster is in charge of synthesizing Viacom’s data, and streaming it into content and integrated marketing communications, which will be discussed at the Days of Communications Festival.
The Festival will take place in Rovinj from 12th to 15th April. During the three days, the festival’s programme will take place in three separate venues. Along with 16 top lecturers that will speak in the main venue, the festival participants will also have the opportunity of seeing other content including the presentations of the finalists of the Effie Competition, which celebrates efficient campaigns, as well as the finalists of the young hopes competition called Young Lions Croatia. Good practices and discussions, that are open to all festival visitors, such as PPP and Beers after the Programme, will take place this year too, but with an added format of debates.
This year’s lecturers that will speak at the main venue include: Jayanta Jenkins, Global Creative Director at Twitter, Brad Parscale, Donald J. Trump’s campaign director, Susan Credle, one of the most powerful women in the marketing industry, one of the best illustrators around and an architect of controversial projects, Mr. Bingo, Graham Fink, one of the most creative creative directors in the world and a multimedia artist who „draws with his eyes“, the experts who use technology in brand communication Steve Lok, Oliver Kibblewhite and Christoffer Malmer, award-winning PR specialists Gabriela Lung and Hermes Holm, Laura Sophie Dornheim from AdBlock, Cody Foster from Viacom, Alemsah Ozturk, Chief Happiness Officer at 4129Grey, and James Kirkham, a digital media commentator and a lecturer at Cannes Lions for the past six years.
Along with giving you the top notch lectures, the Days of Communications Festival will also award best advertisers and best advertising agencies in Croatia under the auspices of the following competitions – Effie for efficiency, IdejaX for creativity, Mixx for digital and Young Lions Croatia for young talents in the industry.