Thursday, June 13, saw the close of the 2024 RedTech Summit, almost 1500 km southwest of its traditional home of Paris. The Pestana Palace, Lisbon hosted this year’s event and delivered more than a dash of telltale Portuguese grande hospitalidade.
The RedTech Summit is known for its authority, diversity of input, and imaginative insight. This year was no exception. Radio broadcast and digital audio C-suite decision-makers from 20 countries compared notes and traded ideas with a strategic eye on the industry’s future. Per the RedTech Summit’s ethos, competition is parked, egos are left at the door, and every idea is on the table; innovation comes through information exchange.
Having said that, with so much at stake, discussions can get heated, which is why the Summit organizing team brings in skilled moderators — all specialists in their respective fields — to guide set sessions along specific themes requested by attendees. Sessions focused on how to protect content integrity in what seems a Wild West of media options and offerings, what to do with the rich offerings of in-car analytics, new ideas in audience research, looking beyond the immediate offerings and threats from AI, monetizing digital assets and developing multi-platform content strategies.
Intense affairs
Summits are intense affairs. In between these set sessions, sponsors, guests and senior RedTech staff delivered “Sizzle Sessions” — short, punchy, arguably contentious ideas and case studies designed to spark and inspire left-of-center thinking. These included stories of remarkable brand marketing execution, a challenge to pull audiences away from other platforms, and a reminder of how workflows have evolved over the past 10 years.
But as the saying goes, “All work and no play makes Betty a boring breakfast show host.” An esteemed line-up of radio broadcast and digital audio decision-makers needs time to unwind and mingle casually away from the battlefield of ideas. The Summit provided ample opportunities for this, encouraging the cementing of business connections and longer-term ideas exchange.
RedTech’s head of Strategy, Omar Essack, invoked the RedTech mission to inform, connect and exchange when he summarized the essence of the Summit best, saying, “We are far better when we collaborate instead of compete.” While many of the strategic insights garnered through collaboration at the Summit will remain largely “within the room” — the benefits of being a Summit attendee — we will share some here shortly and in upcoming editions of RedTech Magazine.
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