Day #3

Yet another eventful day has passed in Cannes at the Lions Festival.  When we arrived we went straight to the Samsung booth to use a phone for the day in hopes to win another giveaway, which is how we won VIP tickets to the awards ceremony yesterday. After that I attended a seminar given by Google’s chief business officer, Nikesh Arora called: A Healthy Disregard For The Impossible.  The purpose of the seminar was to reveal several revolutionary ideas Google is currently bringing to life. The first is a project called, Project Iris. In this project, Google’s team of engineers and scientists have created a contact which can collect data through what you see and relay that information, primarily for diabetics, via Bluetooth to a mobile device. Check it out here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/10578729/Google-reveals-smart-contact-lens-prototype-designed-to-aid-diabetics.html

Another project many of us have already heard of is Google’s self driving car. Google is on the brink of creating a car that can drive on its own. Check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqSDWoAhvLU

 This concept will completely change and revolutionize the way we currently drive and market our vehicles. This seminar proves that Google is doing some amazing things that we can look forward to in the near future. 

After the Google seminar I sat through a yahoo seminar, which was nowhere near as captivating as the Google presentation before, and therefore I quickly lost interest. Also, throughout the Yahoo presentation I was watching the clock to make sure I wasn’t late for the main event of my day. At 1:00 16 lucky University of Georgia Students got to have an exclusive session with Gale Ann Hurd. For those of you who don’t know, Hurd is a writer and producer of several blockbuster films including Terminator, Terminator 2, Alien, The Abyss, and is currently producing the Walking Dead in Georgia. Hurd was extremely generous in giving up her time to talk to a bunch of advertising, PR, and marketing students from UGA.  Hurd explained to us the importance of creating a television series in a genre with so many avid early adopters. It wasn’t long before she was forced to become very tech savvy to keep up with her fans and consumers. It was crucial to the Walking Dead’s success for Hurd to keep its early adopters happy because they would be the first people to tweet and talk about it on social media. Hurd spoke highly of twitter and how AMC has taken advantage of live storytelling. Another aspect she spoke highly of was the “Talking Dead”. The Talking dead is s show that comes on right after the Walking dead on Sunday nights where viewers can discuss what they just saw on the show. The walking dead is number one in the nation and to no surprise the talking dead is number 2. Twice the Walking dead beat out Sunday Night Football for viewership and it also beat out the Winter Olympics. I felt very honored to meet Gale Ann Hurd and respect her a great deal for what she does and has done in the past.