If I had a dollar for every time somebody personally told me how impressed, enthralled and excited they were about the Cairns Crocodiles, presented by Pinterest, agenda, without prompting, I wouldn’t be rich. But I’d certainly have enough to buy myself a couple of bottles of very nice red.
Here, I’d like to take a moment or two of your time to give you my top picks from the agenda of the 12-14 May extravaganza in Far North Queensland. And, before I go any further, what a job Pippa Chambers has done on the agenda.
You can consider my list a quick-ish run down of those with the biggest ideas. The ones you’ll catch yourself thinking about late at night and pondering still the next morning. And I’ve put them all in chronological order too, because I’m nice like that.
To see all of this, however, you need to buy a ticket.
Day 1
In Conversation With Taika Waititi
Like Cher, Madonna, Prince and Sparrow, Mr Waititi now goes by a single name in the B&T office. I’m very excited to see a bona fide creative genius in the flesh.
3.00 pm – 3.45 pm Keynote Track
Scale or Break: AI, Mergers & Modern Marketing
If you’ll allow me, I’d like to give a shameless plug for my session. Though I doubt it’ll need much of a plug.
Straight after Taika, I’ll have the honour of interviewing Sir Martin Sorrell on stage in the keynote track. I won’t shirk the tough questions. And I’m certain that he won’t shirk an honest answer, either.
3.50 pm – 4.30 pm Keynote Track
Buy your Cairns Crocodiles tickets here!
Day 2
Don’t Steal From Culture. Add To It
I saw Paula Bloodworth speak in Cannes last year. Smart, incisive, cool and culturally attuned – Bloodworth is everything I’m not and so I’m personally hoping to learn a lot. She’ll be talking about the hazy divide between entertainment and how you can straddle both sides. She’s being interviewed by Adam Ferrier, too, which is good.
10.45 am – 11.15 am Keynote Track
Design the Exit: How Brands Can Win by Getting People to Go Do Something
In my years, I’ve interviewed many people. Very few have left such an immediate impression upon me as Xanthe Wells, the global VP of creative at Pinterest. Yes, I get it, they’re our sponsor. But Wells is a fascinating and deep thinker. She proved as much to me in Cairns last year, and then in Cannes as well. I’ll be interviewing Wells after her talk too, so I’ll be able to get even deeper.
11:15 am – 11:45 am Keynote Track
The Art of Fearless Creativity
Straight after Xanthe (herself straight after Paula), you’ll be treated to another achingly cool creative – Adam Smith, the Chemical Brothers’ visual director. If you aren’t familiar with the Chemical Brothers, firstly WTF, secondly, you can check out some of his handy work here. Frankly with these three back-to-back, your only concern will getting a sore arse from sitting in your seat too long.
11.45 am – 12.25 pm Keynote Track
Marketing The Moment That Changes Everything – Brent Hill & Nick Garrett
After lunch, Brent Hill, CMO of the 2032 Brissie Olympic and Paralympic Games, is travelling the up the road to tell us how it will capture hearts, minds and put Brisbane on the map globally for more than just its brown river. He’s being interviewed on stage by Nick Garrett, CEO of Omnicom Oceania, which will make this one unmissable.
Garrett will be taking the stage again a couple of hours later for a session with TPG Telecom’s CMO Bec Darley, Optus acting GM of marketing Lauren Dawber and Gill Zhou.
1.50pm – 2.20pm Building Brands Track
Lessons in Fantasy-Driven Creativity
Following Hill and Garrett’s talk, hot foot it over to the Rewilding Creativity Track for something a bit more left-field. The Lessons in Fantasy-Drive Creativity panel will bring Adam Smith together with fantasy novelist Tigest Girma, Tim Farmer, CMO of DiDi, Amy Kean and Nudgy, who features in DiDi’s Cairns Crocodiles Awards-finalists work.
2.20pm – 2.50pm Rewilding Creativity Track
Karl Stefanovic: Off Script On His Own Terms
Karl Stefanovic interviewed by Maz Farrelly. What more do you need to know? And you won’t even have to leave your seat.
Question is, will Stefanovic switch on his “trusty Aussie battler from the bush avatar” as The Australian put it earlier this week?
2.50-3.20pm Rewilding Creativity Track
Buy your Cairns Crocodiles tickets here!
Day 3
Cairns Masterclass
First stop should be the Cairns Masterclass. Paula Bloodworth, UN Foundation CMO David Ohana and BrandMusiq’s Rajeev Raja will deliver three top-notch sessions for all marketing professionals.
Yes, this comes at an additional cost. But if gets you a payrise, a new client or increased return, who cares?
10am – 12.25pm
Creativity Needs Different Brains
This should be a fun one. Josh Mann, Movember’s global head of creative, will be joined by Charlotte Adjoran, ECD of Taboo, and creative consultant Michael Skarbrek, to talk about the need, not the nice-to-have, for cognitive diversity in creative pursuits.
B&T’s Woman of the Year, Poppet’s Nat Taylor, is moderating, too.
11.15am – 11.50am Rewilding Creativity Track
Growing in the Attention Recession
OK, two shameless plugs. After my esteemed colleague Arvind Hickman brings the curtain down on another very impressive session about how brands can earn invisible, intangible influence with marketers from Moët Hennessy and Jaguar Land Rover, stay in your seats for my second moderating stint.
I’ll be joined by Lauren Best, Tonies senior marketing manager, Ally Doube, Uber and Uber Eats’ newly appointed APAC marketing director and CMO Power List-er and internet destroyer Kedda Ghazarian, head of marketing at Bonds, for a session on capturing attention when most audiences are too full of content to care.
11.50am – 12.25pm Build Brands Track
Global Brand, Local Brilliance: Marketing IKEA Across Cultures
After lunch, my boss and Cairns Crocodiles’ fearless leader, David Hovenden, will be taking the stage with the marketing leads from IKEA Australia and New Zealand, Japan and Korea for what will be an unmissable session on Allen keys, Billy bookcases and, if you’re lucky, a few meatballs too.
1.35pm – 2.20pm
The Great Media Breakaway
Stay in your seats for a session on the beguiling, enticing and perhaps illusory world of new media with Osman Faruqi, journalist and co-host of the Lamestream podcast and Abbie Chatfield. You know who she is.
Jan Fran, co-founder of Ette Media and co-host of the We Used To be Journos pod is moderating.
2.20pm – 3.05pm
Debate Club: Your Consumers Don’t Give AF About Sustainability
One final plug. Sorry. Right before the Cairns Hatchlings and Cairns Crocodiles Awards winners ceremonies, I’ll be stopping off at Hemingway’s Brewery for a riotous Debate Club session on the topic that you’re all too scared to have an honest, frank conversation about: whether, when push comes to shove, shit hits the fan and petrol hits $2.50 a litre, consumers actually care about sustainability.
In typical Debate Club style, there’s a twist: Andy Ridley, founding CEO of Citizens of the Reef and Earth Hour, and I will be arguing in the affirmative.
3.05 pm – 3.50 pm Hemingway’s Brewery
Cairns Crocodiles Awards & Cairns Hatchlings Winners Ceremonies
After that, get back over to the Convention Centre for the Cairns Crocodiles Awards and Cairns Hatchlings Winners Ceremonies. They’re the perfect way to get in the mood for the official closing party.
4pm – 6pm Cairns Convention Centre
Buy your Cairns Crocodiles tickets here!
