Golden impressions found beyond the horizon

Just arrived from Portorož (Golden Drum festival) and despite I’m tired like never before, I’m feeling motivated, full of energy and great impressions. How was this year’s Golden Drum? Amazing. I was there from Wednesday till Saturday and everyday was something special.

Shot by Alenka.art

The lectures/program

The lectures were fantastic, and on much higher level than on the SOF festival. Yes, partly because the lectures were held by advertising gurus like Ross Sutherland, Michael Conrad and others. And what was the main theme? Every lecture tried to follow the red line of the festival: Beyond Horizons, and I think they succeeded in masses. We didn’t hear amazing, revolutionary stuff, but we heard some great ideas and have seen executions of those ideas. I especially liked the “round table” with Michael Conrad, where Linda Locke presented the shocking Earth Hour. Oh, and there was my idol Pius Walker from Swice, who presented his agency (the smallest in the world he said ) and some outstanding yet very cheap campaigns. And there was the Mythbusters “lecture” held by the Grey group, which was also very interesting. From that lecture I think the best part was the lecture from Per Pedersen from Uncle Grey agency (Denmark) who was showing a 360 campaign for company Fakta.

“Other” part

Yes, there were some great parties, a lot of parties. And I guess Romania won not only the Golden Rose for the best agency (McCann) but also the award for the best party. OK, the Austrian guys had THE BEST food (Wiener snitzel). Beside the partying part, there were the exhibitions of works (Corbis photography award, all the selected works, OpenAd award…) and of course the social part – meeting new people, making connections…

The competition?

OK, here’s the hardest part. Perhaps I’m too tired to write some good comments, but in general, I think the jury did a fine job. Well, I have to look at the winners again in peace and I will certainly share my comments with you in the near future.

Conclusions?

Estonia rocks. Come again. Well done Romania. See you next year.