By Henry Empeño / Correspondent
SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Business tycoon Manuel V. Pangilinan will headline the list of speakers in the forthcoming Ad Summit Pilipinas 2016, as organizers endeavor to bring in industry icons to what is billed as the biggest biennial advertising and marketing event in the country today.
Ad Summit 2016 Chairman Alex Syfu in a news briefing on Thursday unveiled the latest batch of speakers for the event, which will be held from March 9 to 12 at the Subic Bay Exhibition and Convention Center (SBECC), the same venue where it was launched in 2014.
Aside from Pangilinan, who heads PLDT and Smart Communications, the event presenter, the convention speakers include award-winning director Jose Javier Reyes; leadership expert Tom Oliver; Twitter’s Aliza Knox, marketing director of online sales for Asia Pacific and Latin America; Google Southeast Asia (SEA) and India’s Vice President and Managing Director Rajan Anandan; and Fox International’s Simeon Dawes, marketing director for SEA and head of ad sales.
The lineup also include AQKA Shanghai’s Eric Cruz; Vikas Gulati from Opera Mediaworks; TBWA\Hakuhodo’s Takahiro Hosoda; Hakuhodo Kettle’s Kazuaki Hashida; Regional Digital Director for Asia-Pacific Havas Worldwide Todd Martin; and Mullen Lowe Group President of Creative Council Jose Miguel Sokoloff. “We have an amazing lineup of speakers awaiting summit participants, [so] expect the unexpected,” Syfu said.
“With our theme ‘Come Out and Play’, we hope that the summit allows all to view possibilities where there were none before. No obligations, just opportunities. Ad Summit Pilipinas 2016 will encourage this type of unbridled creativity to flourish,” he added.
This will be the second time for Subic to host Ad Summit Pilipinas, and organizers cited the free port’s “fun and progressive environment” as a fitting site for the creative event. “Ad Summit Pilipinas 2016 is an invitation for marketing practitioners to see the brighter side of things—to spot opportunities amid industry challenges in order to propel brands into the future. If you are not willing to take the challenge, then you might as well settle yourself for the ordinary setup,” Syfu said.
Meanwhile, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman Roberto Garcia said Subic and the Ad Summit would bring out the best in each other.
“This is a very good time to bring the Ad Summit back to the Subic Bay Freeport, as Subic is now the No. 1 tourist destination in Central Luzon,” Garcia said. “This event will further promote this free port.”
The SBMA official also announced that the Subic agency has allotted P21 million for the renovation of SBECC to make it more convenient and comfortable for event organizers and participants.
Ad Summit Pilipinas 2016 is presented by PLDT and Smart Communications Inc. The major sponsors include Manila Broadcasting Co., ABS-CBN Corp., Radio Mindanao Network, The Philippine Star, and TV5.