This thing happened over the weekend. It was called Blogger Social where some of your favorite ad bloggers came to play: Greg Verdino, Tangerine Toad, Joseph Jaffe, Rohit Bhargava, Tara Anderson, et al converged in New York City to be well, social. No, no. We weren't invited. That's cool. You know... We're not joiners anyway, so yeah.. we don't care. Nope. Don't care at all.

The event was a chance for blogger and social media freaks to meet up face to face and chat. What makes the event unique is that is 100% funded by registration fees, nets 0% profits and all planning time from the community is 100% donated. It's a purely social event. Not a conference. Just fun - social media ad biz style. You can see photos of the event here.

Good morning ad men and women. This morning, me, the OG Super Spy (not to be confused with Agent C or Down Low) will be spending my morning at the PSFK Conference. Hoorah! I'm not in an office chained to my computer wishing I wasn't on a conference call.

I'm looking forward to a rousing morning to shake me right out of my hangover and into creativity, ideas and inspiration. Wish me luck? The event is sold out with a ton of young and good looking bodies filling up the Art Director's Club here in New York City. Things are looking up already.Over the course of the day, I'll be posting some of the more interesting bits of the conference for your enjoyment.

I'm actually going to use Twitter. I know, weird right? You can follow me here.

We're intrigued by India's ad awards festival, Goafest, because, well... it's India for one thing, a burgeoning advertising industry play land and it also just sounds damn fun. Most of the big guys are making an appearance, except for Lowe and McCann Erickson. No one expected Lowe as they are frequent non-joiners, but McCann Erickson’s was supposed to pony up and play nice, as they have in the past. Not this year. The shop has declined their invitation.

Prasoon Joshi , chairman & regional executive creative director-Asia Pacific, for McCann basically said it was to expensive to get involved and derailed their energy. The entire broke ass McCann team will be present in Goa in spirit however.

Madan Mohan, Senior Vice-President, TBWA\India, said:

"I have now learnt that there won’t be a truce and that the cold war would continue. Again two significant names would be conspicuous by their absence. I only wish that these ‘issues’ were sorted out. It’s about participation of the industry as a whole, and two significant agencies backing off again this year only leads to disappointment."

These heads of agencies are bickering front and center in the press. How we wish that Stateside head honchos had the balls to just get in there and sling some truth about! If you know more about India's ad game than we do, which should be almost everyone, please fill us in? For a second, we feel like Dlisted - all up in the gossip.

We're hoping to get a report from one of the high level, American attendees at Goafest. Some pictures would be nice, too.

[source]

We normally can't go to conference, because what? We're going to walk around with an "Agency Spy" name tag? That's we missed gawking at Shelly Lazarus at the recent Ogilvy Digital Conference, boo. However, Mamabistro has worked it all out for us to attend her upcoming panel on the new creative agency. Tell ya' what... our mom has gotten way into this advertising thing. Panelists include:

Frank Addante, founder, The Rubicon Project
Trevor Kaufman, CEO, Schematic
Gayle Maltz, director of new media, NBC Universal
Marc Ruxin, SVP, director, digital strategy and innovation, McCann Worldgroup
Guy Wieynk, managing director, AKQA
Dawn Winchester, chief clients services officer, R/GA
Megan McIlroy (moderator), reporter, Ad Age

Get more info here: Advertising: The New Creative Agency

WHEN Wednesday, March 26, 7-9 pm; Cocktail reception to follow
WHERE 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St. (at Canal)
PRICE $75 ($65 for ) $5 surcharge at the door

See ya there!

We've heard some cavils from advertising folk about how disappointed they were at this year's SXSW events. The common complaint was that not enough agencies were involved at large - sponsoring panels, holding parties, talking the talk. Basically, the thought leadership passed on whole shebang. For those of you living under a rock, SXSW is more than a showcase for rockers and film heads. The event also holds an interactive schedule chocked full of useful panels such as "What Teens Want Online & On Their Phones" and other talks that might not be so handy to ad folk like "Quit Your Day Job and Vlog".

Speakers at various panels (oddly mostly on the film side) included: Hank Blumenthal - Schematic; Peter Cole - AKQA, Joesph Crump - Avenue A/Razorfish; and Ian Schafer - Deep Focus.

Sounds like a bummer, right? Our guess is that traditional agencies don't consider SXSW a serious venue to get to the down and dirty. The staffers that do go are probably thinking -"Hell, yeah, I'm going to South By... I'm gonna get crunk. Catch Band of Horses and maybe parlay my way into a new gig at Schematic." Oh! Avenue A had a party, which looks, you know... like an advertising party. Rah.

More interesting is the video above of the interview between Mark Zuckerberg and Sarah Lacy that turned into a shit show when "audience members, apparently tired of constant interruptions by Lacy and references to her own projects in the interview, essentially said they weren't going to sit for such lame questions and demanded to ask their own." Scroll to about six minutes and fifteen seconds when it really gets interesting.

Mamabistro is all over this advertising shit. It's our influence. Maybe. Sort of. Probably not. It's probably you, the readers, influence. Our parent company has decided to host a panel discussion just for you guys about how to incorporate new technology into your advertising campaigns.

Advertising: The New Creative Agency

WHEN Wednesday, March 26, 7-9 pm; Cocktail reception to follow
WHERE 92YTribeca, 200 Hudson St. (at Canal)
PRICE $75 ($65 for ) $5 surcharge at the door

The Whole Point: As consumers embrace new media, businesses are developing new messages and platforms to communicate with their customers. Technology offers unlimited possibilities for more precise targeting, but which platforms will be the most successful? Hear from innovators and experts in interactive media and digital advertising about what lies ahead.

Panelists will include:

Frank Addante, founder, The Rubicon Project
Trevor Kaufman, CEO, Schematic
Gayle Maltz, director of new media, NBC Universal
Marc Ruxin, SVP, director, digital strategy and innovation, McCann Worldgroup
Guy Wieynk, managing director, AKQA
Dawn Winchester, chief clients services officer, R/GA
Megan McIlroy (moderator), reporter, Ad Age

In the mean time, check out the video above from TED featuring Lawrence Lessig talking about creative development and the law. We heart him. A lot.

Chief Edelman techonophile Steve Rubel has beaten us to the punch (what can we say - we've been so busy this week), in posting the spring line up of conferences available to you advertising folks. We've narrowed his list to the US only and added a few of our own. Conferences can be a great source of networking and stimulus. They can also just be a fabulous excuse to get out of the office and breathe a little. So, pick one. Get out a bit.

Didn't make the TED list? Right across the street is a new conference called BIL - March 1-2, California that could be very interesting indeed. Here's the concept:

"BIL loves TED. TED is a great place to sit and listen to interesting ideas. Many of those ideas make it online, and millions get to experience them.

The catch for many of us is that TED is $6,000, which is too expensive for most people, including a great number with good ideas worth spreading. BIL has been created as a free space for people with ideas to come together and share them.

Our event is self-organizing, emergent, and anarchic. Nobody is in charge. If you want to come just show up. If you've got an idea to spread start talking. If someone is saying something good, stop and listen.

We hope BIL can be a perfect match to TED."

AAAA Media Conference & Tradeshow - March 5-7, Florida

AdAge Digital Conference - March 18-19 in New York

PSFK Conference - March 27 in New York

Ad:tech - April 15-17, San Francisco

WOMMU - May 8-9, Florida

Mediabistro Circus - May 20-21 in New York

Sitting at our desk today and all we can think about is that maybe, we were meant for something a little more fun. We would have made a great Annie Oakley in an updated Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In lieu of that, we're going to attend The Mediabistro Circus is a two-day summit on technology and the critical platforms changing the flow of media. Topics include mobile technology, online video, social networking, blogging, digital publishing and user experience design.

"Most conferences are dry and boring. That's why we're calling ours a circus," said our fearless leader Laurel Touby. "There will be no deadly panel discussions, rehashed conference fodder, or self-congratulatory case studies. Instead, a roster of Internet rock stars will present fresh takes on topics crucial to their businesses."

We're interested in seeing Anil Dash, the Chief Evangelist at Six Apart; Jim Louderback, the CEO of Revision 3, an Internet television network focused on developing high-quality nonfiction programming for the on-demand generation; Steve Rubel, senior vice president of the me2revolution practice at Edelman; John Wiley is a user experience designer for Google Apps. There are more, but that's who we have our sights set upon. You can check in at the conference blog to see the updated speaker announcements.

See you there?

Did you miss out on The Engagement Debate? You can watch part of the discussion here. In this spot, the panel talks about measurement and behavior. We'll say this - the audience asks some really great questions.

We cannot stress to you how much we enjoyed last year's PSFK Conference and on a daily basis, the company's amazing website. We sound like gushy fans, but hell... that's what we are. Thus, we were super psyched to buy our ticket for the upcoming PSFK New York Conference about ten minutes ago. Yes, we paid for it and we're still on high from hitting the "buy" button. We'll be the one with the name tag that reads "agency spy," natch.

Get your tickets for Thursday, March 27th here. So far, it looks as though the 2008 event will focus on green, good, TV and social media. However, there six more talks that have yet to be added to the agenda. We're hoping for gaming (though they did it last year) or gender/class/race or mobile, or, or....

Here's some more info for you. Speakers so far... (they always add folks on closer to the day):

Adam Stotsky- NBC Universal (SciFi)
Andrew Hoppin - NASA
Eric Ripert - Le Bernardin
Graham Hill - Treehugger
Greg Verdino - Crayon
Jeff Staple - Staple Design
Johnny Vulkan - Anomaly
Josh Spear - Undercurrent
Marc Schiller - Electric Artists
Matthew Stinchcomb - Etsy
Mike Hudack - Blip.TV

Noah Brier - Likemind
Sascha Lewis - Flavorpill
Steve Rubel - Edelman
+ more to be announced

Topics On The Agenda include:

Finding Inspiration
Michelin star chef Eric Ripert explains how his three annual trips inspire his menu, service and brand.

Good Business
Is good the new green? Does being good mean making good profits? Graham Hill , Johnny Vulkan, Jeff Staple join a panel to investigate one of the key trends driving business.

Social Media
In a 'new guns' versus 'marketing gurus' debate, Josh Spear & Noah Brier join Marc Schiller & Steve Rubel to debate how social media will change in 2008 and how companies can leverage this digital phenomenon in the most rewarding way.

Does New York Matter?
Local observers discuss whether the culture created in New York has a role on a global stage.

Collaborative Working
Etsy and NASA explain how they engage their customers, staff, partners and the community with co-working spaces (real and virtual).

New TV
How has digital changed the delivery, content, sponsorship and future of television? Mike Hudack and Adam Stotsky join a panel discuss the opportunities and challenges.

Evening Party
PSFK will present an evening party open for all conference attendees and open guest list. More details to follow.

Misc Details
Time has been built in for networking. Ticket price includes coffee and lunch and WiFi should be avalable too. Seating is limited so tickets are expected to sell out early. Come join us.

Pay For Speak
PSFK operates a policy against the conference standard of 'Pay For Speak'. You are paying $300 to see these people speak because we're inspired by them not because those speakers have paid to be on stage by bunging us some sponsorship cash. Saying that, if an individual really inspires us, we'll ask them to speak even if their employer is a sponsor.