Annual Conference Day 1 Recap: September 15, 2019

In case you couldn't join us at Annual Conference, here's a brief recap of Day 1 of the 2019 Page Annual Conference. See the Day 2 & Day 3 recaps as well.

A Conversation with Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman, S4 Capital | Interviewed by Aedhmar Hynes, Page Chair

Sir Martin Sorrell created a monolith within the advertising and PR world while serving over 30 years as the CEO of WPP. Today, he leads upstart agency S4 Capital, taglined, “Better, faster, cheaper.” Sorrell is a world-renowned pioneer of digital transformation. Yet his primary focus for business leaders corroborates Page’s recently published research, The CCO as Pacesetter: the greatest impediment to CEOs and their transformation agendas is culture. Sorrell said, “The biggest issue facing CEOs is not digital transformation. It’s getting the people in their organizations to face the same direction at the same time.” 

“The Truth Is Hard”: How The New York Times Reaffirmed the Value of Quality Journalism | Amy Weisenbach, SVP, Marketing and Media Strategy at the New York Times

It’s no secret that print journalism is declining. The New York Times is more reliant than ever on paid digital subscriptions. Three years ago, the Times’ newly built marketing department reflected on a simple, yet transformative question: “What would it look like if our marketing was as compelling as our journalism?” Thus the origins of “The Truth is Hard” campaign unveiled to the public at the 2017 Oscars following the TImes’ groundbreaking Harvey Weinstein investigation. The campaign began as a way to drive digital subscription growth, but it has metastasized into clarion call for a free press in a troubled media environment. 

Deepfakes and the New Disinformation War | Danielle Keats Citron, Professor of Law, Boston University School of Law, Vice President, Cyber Civil Rights Initiative

More and more our companies face threats of disinformation from a variety of malicious actors throughout the world. Chief among these concerns are Deepfakes, or AI-based technology used to produce or alter video content so that it presents something that never occurred. Professor Citron, an expert in privacy and free speech issues, asked the haunting question: “How can truth emerge in a Deepfake-ridden marketplace of ideas?” She introduced four solutions we can use defend our enterprises against such attacks: develop a sound internal strategy among key decision-makers within the enterprise, work closely with the social platforms to remove volatile content, educate our employees with media literacy courses, and stay engaged ourselves in order to promote societal awareness. 

Reframing Reality: The Power of Visual Narrative | Titus Kaphar, Artist, President and Founder, NXTHVN

Titus Kaphar was taking an art history course at San Jose State University when his professor refused to teach the only chapter in his textbook devoted to black artists. It was then he set out to tell the story of black artists on his own. How did he begin? “You know what you want to do. Painters paint, so paint.” Thus set forth a journey that has taken him from Yale University to a MacArthur Fellowship, all in service of telling the story of history’s forgotten through art. “We often have trouble with nuance. The story is complicated. It’s important that we try to hear both sides of the stories at the same time.”