MANILA – Open World, the third Digital Summit opened in Manila last August 18, 2015, and featured nine thought-provoking presentations from distinguished digital practitioners.
While the summit focused on digital commerce, it still managed to cover a wide range of topics and included presentations, which not only inspired but also shared pitfalls and triumphs of top industry players like Airbnb and Spotify. No less than Jia Jih (JJ) Chai, Airbnb Managing Director for Southeast Asia & India and Sunita Kaur, Spotify managing Director for Asia, were there to share their inspiring stories and some of their best practices.
Their global, as well as their notable experiences with the Philippine market, were discussed and both didn’t hold back in sharing the intricacies that the local traveler and music lover presented. The challenges and their swift response to them awed the audience, which seemed to have been largely from the client-side of marketing and some representatives of private businesses.
Dick Chiang, CEO and Chief Technology Officer of DragonPay Corporation welcomed the participants and set the tone for the day. Vishnu Mohan, Chief Executive of Havas Media Group Asia Pacific, opened the summit by discussing the nature of today’s ‘trust economy’, summarizing his thoughts into three words: trust, democratization, and technology.
Airbnb and Spotify engaged everyone with their stories and learnings from their digital journey and this was clear and evident with the number and kind of questions the presentations triggered from the audience. The morning was capped by the tandem of Arthur Policarpio, CEO of Mobext Philippines and Margot Torres, SVP for Marketing & Communications of MacDonald’s Philippines as they talked about opportunities and disruptions with the latter freely sharing the McDonald experience with the mobile delivery app and how they still are fine-tuning its features in response to their customers.
The afternoon was spent discussing ‘collaborations’ with Melvin Mangada, CEO and Managing Partner of TBWA\Santiago Mangada Puno, sharing local and global case studies of recent digital campaigns, which stirred consumers. Norman Agatep, Managing Director and Chief Creative Officer of Havas Worldwide Manila, entertained and provided the audience with his samples of notable digital collaborations and his ideas on possible collaborations.
He encapsulated his thoughts in direct but practical tips on where to get ideas for adding value to your product through collaboration. Mitch Padua, Head of Digital Commerce, Voyager Innovations, Inc./PLDT, provoked the audience with the question about the need for e-commerce to evolve from meet-ups. The last presentation was by Shayne Garcia, General Manager of iProspect. Through research data, Shayne painted a three-dimensional picture of the Filipino as an e-customer and thus, gave everyone present a guide by which they can plot their next digital communication moves.
At the end of each morning and afternoon sessions, Eduardo Mapa, Jr., CEO of Digital Arts Network Manila/TBWA and Chairman of Open World 2015, facilitated a panel discussion with the morning and afternoon presenters, respectively. At the end of the day key issues discussed were summarized with the key points being the digital economy’s premium value on trust and empowerment which they linked with today’s consumer’s clamor for authenticity, purpose, and transparency.
There also was a lengthy discussion on the need for a collaborative mindset as one of the key issues they think the industry has to discuss for the digital economy to keep timely, relevant and responsive. The day ended with a call for a multi-sectoral discussion towards collaboration and the question, “But who’s going to initiate it?”
