Advertising Age reported on Blackweek, a new conference slated to debut in New York on October 15-18, 2024, with an intent to “break the mold of conversations about diversity and inclusion” in Adland.
According to Ad Age, Blackweek is the brainchild of “Black and Latino leaders fed up with the state of industry diversity.” To underscore the point, a promotional video for the conference opens with VML North America Chief Creative Officer of Innovation Walter T. Geer III declaring, “The current state of inclusion in this space is bullshit.” Agreed—although much of the DEIBA+ dookie is excreted by White advertising agencies like VML.
The Blackweek crew includes Hero Collective and Hero Media CEO and Founder Joe Anthony, who stressed that the group is being “meticulous” and selective about sponsors and conference content.
“When we go to all of these events, we’re an ingredient, we’re not the full recipe,” said Anthony. “And we want a platform where it’s all about us.” In short, Blackweek organizers want to move beyond crumbs to full-course meal.
The initial plan is to schedule Blackweek during Advertising Week, as many industry decision makers will be in attendance for the latter soiree. However, the goal is to keep Blackweek focused on cultural objectives versus being an add-on to Advertising Week. Hopefully, the conference will not compete with The One Club’s Where Are All The Black People? / Here Are All The Black People sideshow.
MultiCultClassics suggests that the Blackweek lineup should feature Sanford Moore, Harry Webber, Hadji Williams, Derek Walker, and Nathan Young. And throw in Adonis Hoffman, Lowell Thompson, and Byron Allen too.
Ad Leaders Launch Blackweek, A Conference Meant To Solve Business Problems Through Diversity And Inclusion
The October event will also focus on media, creativity, health care and private equity
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“The current state of inclusion in this space is bullshit.”
That’s a direct quote from VML’s Walter T. Geer III in a promotional video for Blackweek, a conference being launched by Black and Latino leaders fed up with the state of industry diversity. The new conference, set for Oct. 15-18 in New York, is meant to break the mold of conversations about diversity and inclusion in the industry.
“It’s no secret that inclusion in this industry is under attack,” said Joe Anthony, founder and CEO of Hero Collective and Hero Media, who is one of the founders of Blackweek. “We just haven’t seen the needle move since George Floyd on some of the key statistics that we feel are the metrics to monitor around our upward advancement in the industries where we make a significant amount of contribution but have very little ownership.”
In July, a survey by the 4A’s found that the number of agencies run by white executives increased to 90%. In May it was reported that ad spending on diverse-owned media was just below 2%. In 2022, the ANA reported that just over 7% of its members were Black.
The founders of the Blackweek conference, along with Anthony and Geer, who is VML’s chief creative officer, innovation in North America, are: Monique Nelson, executive chairman, Uniworld Group; Andre Gray, chief creative officer of Havas’ Annex 88; Adan Romero, chief creative officer, FKA Publicis; Dabo Ché, founder, Ché Creative; and Gabrielle Shirdan, founder and CEO, Kitchen Table.
Solutions-driven
The conference, to be held at Spring Studios in Tribeca, will focus on trade executives in marketing, entertainment, health care and private equity.
“This is a solutions-driven opportunity to come together for real results,” Geer said. “This is not the place where we’re going to come to say ‘We’re coming here to party.’ This is not to come to say ‘We’re going to celebrate us, or we’re going to give awards to us.’”
Organizers said the difference between this event and other conferences will be in the type of programming and how it’s meant to directly challenge business problems.
“We would love to see a panel on how can a BIPOC agency get the whole account,” Nelson said. “Why are they always just an ingredient? Those are questions that we can pose and certainly I think can have some pretty cogent answers to at the end of a Blackweek, and those are questions that I don’t think get asked at any of these other [conferences].”
The conference will have around 30 to 40 events including keynotes, panel discussions and fireside chats. There will also be networking sessions, opening receptions, brunches and social activities. There will be about four or five talk tracks centered around media, advertising and creative, tech, and health care, Anthony said.
While BIPOC voices will be highlighted, Geer emphasized that Blackweek is not a DE&I conference. It’s more like a “marketing conference meets an economic forum,” Anthony added.
“Eighty percent-plus of the world is non-white. If you don’t have a cultural strategy that truly represents all consumers, you’re missing out on a huge, huge opportunity to maximize your impact. So let’s all make a lot of money together by knocking down those obstacles that impact our ability to get to the truth of how we can add value to that,” Anthony said.
Sponsors and cost
Anthony said the group is being “meticulous” about sponsors, and while starting to have deep conversations with some, they didn’t want to sign anyone until more information about the event was made public.
“We want every sponsor to come in and have an intentional purpose and have shown a track record or desire to want to improve and help us achieve our message of equity and empowerment,” Anthony said.
Blackweek won’t be targeting a large audience in the thousands, Geer added.
“It’s about how do we keep it small and tight and keep the right individuals in the room to have these right conversations, so when people come here, we don’t expect that someone’s going to sit off to the side and not do anything and just be there to listen,” Anthony said.
The goal for the “premium ticket” event is to target senior executives, Anthony said. With early bird pricing available through March 31, two separate packages are available at $1,499 and $1,999.
“That is an indication of how we’re trying to focus on a certain class of individual within these industries to maintain the high-level decision maker and individuals that can actually have the ability to affect change. That’s really where we want to start, and then we’ll start opening up the aperture in subsequent years,” Anthony said.
‘We’re not on those stages’
The goal was to hold Blackweek simultaneously with Advertising Week, Anthony said. Since Advertising Week hasn’t yet posted a date, Blackweek is scheduled for mid-October, which will potentially be around the same time as the established New York ad industry event.
“The intent [is] to disrupt at that moment while Advertising Week is going on,” Anthony said. “Everyone’s going to be in town at that same time, so there are no excuses that you can’t hop on the subway or hop down a few blocks to come down. Any executive or leader that has made any type of commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion should put their money where their mouth is, and this is where they should actually be attending.”
The founders said they would try to adjust the date if it would help executives attend both conferences.
“The reality is we’re not on those stages with the frequency that we need to be, and that was one of the inspirations for us to do this as well,” said Anthony, referring to events such as Advertising Week, the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity and SXSW. “When we go to all of these events we’re an ingredient, we’re not the full recipe, and we want a platform where it’s all about us. We are the curriculum, we are the topic, we are the focus versus being a bolt-on.”
“To every single one of the trade organizations, if there is even an area for DE&I, it is really small way off to the side somewhere,” Nelson said. “If you don’t get your best friends to come and support you, no one may ever see what you presented.”
When asked if people will pay to be on stage at the conference, Anthony said “nothing is off the table” but the group is not “trying to have people pay to basically placate the culture.”
“What we’re focused on is a very meticulously constructed programming curriculum of people who need to be on the stages because they deserve to be on the stages versus people who’ve paid to be on the stage to self-promote whatever they’re doing,” Anthony added.
No gray area
Beyond sponsors, Hero Media is funding the event along with contributions and services from the rest of the founders.
Nelson, for example, is helping with sponsorship and soliciting some of the creative output, while Geer is helping with promotion and providing connections, Anthony said.
In total, led by Hero Media, the group plans to spend nearly $3 million on the conference.
Hero Media, along with creative agency Hero Collective, helped produce the promotional film featuring the founders talking about the reasons behind Blackweek’s launch, which will be shared on social media. “The reason why we call this Blackweek and the reason why we went with this black-and-white motif is because there's no gray area in the truth,” Anthony said.
Nelson said Blackweek will have a different focus than conferences like ADCOLOR and CultureCon which also have diversity elements, and doesn’t see the new conference as a challenger to other such events.
“There is room for all of us to play a multitude of roles, and each one is important,” said Geer. “We will be a force for change and a space where everyone is welcome.”
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