Following an exhilarating Day 1 of Goafest 2023 on Wednesday, Day 2 yesterday kicked off with a line-up of insightful, informative and inspiring speakers and sessions.

Each discussion offered insightful and unexplored information, from knowledge seminars to presentations, and as the day unfolded, learnings, experiences, creativity, and innovation came to the fore.

The Knowledge Seminar, powered by The Hindu Group, and themed ‘Supercharging Creative Effectiveness: Unleash The Potential Of Your Campaigns’ was fronted by Ed Pank, Managing Director of WARC APAC.

He presented several thoughts and insights on the need for original creativity. Ed spoke about and presented several instances where parameters like inclusive marketing, sound mnemonic and authentically participating cultures and subcultures play a consequential role in a creative impact.

Later, OMS Digital, a part of the Times Group, presented the ASCI Creators Session titled ‘Creator Calling Creator’ . The session was curated by the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) and moderated by Subhash Kamath, former CEO, BBH & Publicis Worldwide, India and former Chairman ASCI.

The panellists included Rajdeepak Das, Chief Creative Officer and CEO, Leo Burnett, SouthAsia, India & Chairman, Creative Council, Publicis Groupe – South Asia Shreya Agarwal, Head of FilterCopy, Pocket Aces, Smruthi Rajagopalan, AGM Maybelline, L’Oreal and Prableen Kaur Bhomrah, beauty, fashion, body positive and lifestyle influencer.

This session narrowed down the connection between content creators, collaborators, inspiration, and the need to foster a thriving creative community.

The questions posed also garnered answers and information that tallied the sentiment of brand-agency relationships today and their applicability during campaigns.

The collaborators, whether digital or mainline, all partner, bringing their expertise to the table along with recommendations for other platforms as well. Rajdeepak rightly explained: “Ideas can come from anywhere, the only thing that matters is how we make it big. For that to happen, all the collaborators need to have one goal – to make the idea big.”

In summary, the conversation underlined the power of creators coming together to exchange ideas, share knowledge, and elevate their crafts — collectively.

Then there was a Knowledge Seminar by Disney Star, titled ‘Unearthing Future Talent: The Rise of Indian Cricketers from the Grassroots’.

The crowd could not keep calm when Harbhajan Singh, Indian cricket legend and Member of Parliament, took to the stage.

In conversation with Manish Batavia, sports presenter and commentator, the colourful personality that Singh (in the picture) is, revealed many components that make a cricketer — starting with self-belief, his experiences on-field and off-field, moving on to his journey beyond cricket, and then finally his upcoming book.

The discussion highlighted the immense talent pool in the country and the effectiveness of nurturing young players at the grassroots level. Singh fondly remembered, “I tried my hands at judo and badminton, but cricket was very close to my heart; I wanted to be like Kapil Dev.”

The master spinner, in answer to Manish’s question about coaching, said, “Coaching is one thing, honest management of talent is what is required today.”

Singh believes that through dedicated coaching programmes, infrastructure development, and a passion for the sport, India’s young cricketers will make their mark on the international stage, paving the way for a promising future in cricket.

This interview with Singh showcased the potential for India to consistently produce skilled and competitive players who can contribute to the success of India.

Finally, he shared his insights on consistent practice and focus on a single goal. He also spoke about his learnings from failures and how he used them to do better at his game.

In the latter half of the day, the line-up of masterclasses began with Convosight ‘Unleashing the Voice of Your Customers: Building Brand Advocacy in Communities’ by Tamanna Dhamija, Rajan Anandan and Shuvadip Banerjee.

The speakers emphasised how brands and consumers can co-exist and create opportunities for each other, while stressing the power of online communities.

This was followed by the ‘Maximizing Your Advertising Potential on Flipkart’ masterclass, where Vaibhav Kapur, Senior Director of Flipkart Ads, shared his experience and knowledge on how brands can weave effective digital ads from a company’s marketing and advertising perspective.

The India Today Group-backed ‘The Lallantop Adda’ masterclass primarily focused on the future of video content. Saurabh Dwivedi (in the picture) used references from film to deliver an entertaining masterclass about what successful video content will look like, going forward.

Earlier, in the day there wession on ‘Future of Connected Devices and Cross Channel Measurement’, Disney Star-presented Knowledge Seminar ‘The Evolving Economy And The Future Of Startups’ with Rajan Anandan, Managing Director – Sequoia Capital & Surge in conversation with journalist Anuradha Sengupta and a Knowledge Seminar titled ‘Data-Driven Marketing-Are We Walking The Talk?’ powered by InMobi in association With Dainik Jagran.