While the title might mislead you that this is going to be a self-obsessed post on my, well, confirmed skills of intensive talking, the reality is that Jeff Leach is way better.

Jeff Leach was - again - the host of ICEEfest, the 2-day shit on Digital, Tech & Internet. Mind the shit, it is all Jeff’s fault, who was brilliantly entertaining the crowd in between presentations, as well as spicing up conversations with speakers and audience.If you do not know him, follow him on Instangram, you could get a full frontal of his naked tattooed body in Sheraton Bucharest before the first day of the conference. His dilemma, while holding a cup of tea was one lump or two?

Jeff is definitely the host of this event. He’s the perfect balance of two long days, many content hours (90 hours according to the official site), all happening on 6 scenes with more than 140 speakers.

Oh, my God, that is absolutely too much for an X generation who is not able to absorb more than one at a time.

I booked the IQads Creativity ticket, therefore I attended the main stage mostly with some pop into the journalism and branded content stage. And saved some extra energy for “200 seconds of fame”, the startup contest, where I could see about sixteen 3 minute presentations of new ideas.

What I mostly liked on ICEEFest and what the hell I am going to do with it?

A. data and insights, all kind of data that is leading your way in or out.

• 20 years of google search and new advertising high for the first time since 2009
• 25% of search is voice and is forecasted to reach 50% in 3 years in US (Alexa, buy me Whole Foods;) Brands should have unique voices and personalities for their apps.
• 50% of internet users look for videos related to product and video is outpacing the growth of online advertising skimmed by fewer players
• people based measurements are better predictors than channel based measurements 
• psychographic segmentation - Interests/Activities/Opinions. While the complexity of information is reaching new peaks and new generations are more emotional driven, the classic split on socio-demographics gets useless.

B. inspired stories and speakers

• Jordan Schwarzenberger from The LadBible on Gen Z - the kings of their social universes, who can easily cut through branded noise and are willing to share only meaningful experiences. What future holds for them? Micro-influencers, new style videos (80% of videos on FB are sound-off) and meme-ification.
• Nikolaos Dimitriadis from Sheffield University on Leadership and the Brain. According to Gallup global survey only 13% of employees are engaged, while HayGroup proved that you could get 400% uplift in sales when you deal with an engaged employee. You have to know what to show to the reptilian brain, the emotional brain and the neurocortex*.
• Damola Timeyin on the Creative Diet - how much of your time is for consuming and how much for creating? Try this: every Friday at 3 pm for the next 4 weeks make a habit. The habit would be 30 mins of finding something that inspires you, on getting on sources of inspiration. After that tweet it with #creativediet to make a creative chaos.

C. new businesses

• BlaBlaCar - world’s largest carpooling platform, with 40 million members, that is connecting drivers with empty seats with people travelling on long distances in the same direction. This is where my friend said I could make it or break it with BlaBlaRaluca**
• IBM Watson - I am tracking it since I first read about it in 2017 Wired edition, but this time I learned that it is 4 times more accurate in diagnosis of cancer than nurses and +20% more accurate on legal advice. 
• HTC Viveport subscription services - a way of accessing apps and games for a monthly fee
• Everlane, an online fashion store with a radical tranparency on their pricing. By example, a pair of sandals that cost $88 is decomposed into: materials $14.04, hardware $1.19, labor $15.12, duties $3.02, transport $2.06. True cost is $35. Are you ready to show up margins?
• YardLabs start-up from the start-up contest - a complete hardware and software solution to offer disease prevention alerts, weather conditions in detail, treatments schedule and everyting you need to make the best grapes for the best wine. Cheers!

D. international brands and their case studies

• Shazam (the highest rated app by the way) with their Beat Shazam & Shazam for Billions TV shows, Fanta visual project and clickable packaging for Danone. You can actually do so many more things with Shazam than just recognise a song!

E. books to read, people to follow

• Yuval Noah Harrari - Sapiens (A brief History of Humankind) and Home Deus (A Brief History of Tomorrow)
• Neil Harbisson on TED, the world’s first cyborg, who can listen to colours, even to those beyond the range of sight

I just realized that I have so much more information to share as an outcome, so I will split it into future episodes.

Book your ticket next year, it’s not a blabla:)

*In a study on pole dancing, what factors from better moves and better clothes to better talk, better clubs and better targeting do you think account for better sales? None, just the ovulation. Double sales when the pole dancer is in her ovulation time.

**BlaBlaCar would sound like that: take me on your car trips and you have guaranteed entertainment, cool news updates, social life updates, creative stories and ideas. Joie de vivre as somebody else put it:)

P.S. Pic from Jordan Schwarzenberger's presentation on Iceefest.