World class creatives, viral emotion makers and best-selling authors are presenting at iCEE.fest: UPGRADE 100. Here’s our impressive line-up for this year!

Some of the world’s most creative professionals will be in Bucharest, this June 13 & 14, for the 8th iCEE.fest edition, now rebranded as UPGRADE 100.

We always said that the creativity sessions are dedicated to the crazy ones and the audiences always agreed. This time we’ll also hit the right notes, because the line-up features top notch professionals and companies, awarded for their tremendous work.

This is the UPGRADE 100 Agenda
Here are this year’s tickets – with a special Creativity Pass included!

And these are the crazy ones:

UPGRADE Stage 1, Session 2/ The New Rules of Branding and Efficient Creativity

Jonathan Kitchen, Commercial Director @ Jungle Creations

Jon has over 20 years industry experience having previously worked at Dennis Publishing for over 17 years where he was awarded AOP ‘Digital Commercial Individual of the Year’.

Their Work & Projects

Little Cassanova, with YOTY

World Destruction, with WWF

Madalina Pangrate, Industry Manager @ Youtube: Spotlight on Light TV Viewers digital journey

Madalina Pangrate has been working for Google in the last 4 years, both in Ireland & Romania.

She manages the communication with Top Branding clients in Romania, building long-term relationships with Advertisers, Media and Creative agencies.

She is a Brand Ambassador for YouTube, promoting it as video platform to deliver both branding & performance solutions, always looking for business verticals to develop in Romania.

Dave Bedwood, Creative Partner @ The & Partnership London: Tech-enabled creativity

Dave Bedwood started his advertising career as a Creative back in 1998; working at several of the large ad agencies in London – Partners BDDH, Y&R, M&C Saatchi.

Today he runs the Lexus Europe and Lexus International accounts at The & Partnership London.

The & Partnership London Work

Toyota Corolla

The ad achieved Toyota Europe’s highest-ever ad test score and received a standing ovation in multiple dealer conferences.

No place like home

“The campaign aims to bring together all of British Gas’ products and services and is focused on its commitment to helping customers look after their homes”

Quinn Donato, Connections Marketing Manager CEE @ Coca Cola: Content Strategies for Brands

Quinn flew all the way from South East Asia to be relocated in Athens, Greece which is now her fifth home.

With her, she brings 15 years combined international experience on Connections Strategy, Media Planning, Integrated Marketing Communications, Social and Digital Strategy and Innovations. Prior to joining The Coca-Cola Company, she worked for Media Advertising Agencies under Publicis Groupe, where she started building her career.

Peter Moody, Managing Director & Rob Collins, Global Head of Strategy @ MullenLowe Profero

MullenLowe Profero has won numerous Effie Awards for digital effectiveness as well as Cannes Lions, Spikes, BIMA’s and Clios.

Projects

HARLEY-DAVIDSON

“A mobile-first transformation powered by modern experiences. An End-to-End Customer Experience Roadmap for an Iconic Brand”

Millennium Hotels: reinventing the online travel booking experience for an international hospitality group

Umberto Onza, Lead Innovation Designer & Juhana Hokkanen, Head of Creative Technology and Partner @ TBWA Helsinki

The agency rocked with “The world’s first taxi paid by singing” campaign:

The service was launched in Ruisrock Festival where people got to enjoy a karaoke ride to get to the festival area. The car kept moving as long as the passengers were singing.

Even though the aim was to raise brand awareness in the Nordics, the campaign managed to create international awareness all the way from America to Australia.

UPGRADE Stage 1, Session 1/ Reboot Your Brain and Rethink Everything

Ashley Benigno, Group Director @ Fjord: Trends and humanity in the digital era

Ashley is a digital pioneer and creative leader with 20 years of global experience at the intersection of design, innovation and branding. Fjord is a fantastic company, recently aquired by the global giant Accenture.

Watch Ashley live-on-stage, bellow:

Fjord’s Work & Projects

Revolutionizing endoscopy

Fjord’s connected products team worked with Auris Health to design the Monarch Platform, a revolutionary flexible endoscopic technology that promises to fight lung cancer by enabling physicians to diagnose hard-to-reach, small peripheral nodules earlier and with greater precision than ever before.

Global success from a financial crisis

They developed a mobile banking app that could be easily adopted by a non-digital audience.

Gustavo Burnier, Managing Director @ Designit: Trusting Invisibility

He has worked and lived for 25 years in Buenos Aires, New York, London, São Paulo and Madrid, while helping found and run tech startups, create new digital business lines in existing companies, lead digital business transformations, and influence management through board positions.

Trusting Invisibility Projects

Bringing democracy into the digital age: Designing a secure and accessible election process to increase voter trust and participation

Disrupting the construction industry: A digital platform to bring strategic value to construction through collaboration, customer experience and usability

Faris Yakob & Rosie Yakob, Co-founders @ Genius Steals

Named by Hubspot as one of the “7 Emails Every Curious Creative Needs To Read”, Yakob is the author of bestselling marketing book, Paid Attention.

The book explores how ideas move people and how advertising can and should adjust to changes in the communication landscape.

Packed with real-world examples of campaigns from companies including Sony, Red Bull and HP, the book also contains practical advertising and branding templates and toolkits.

VIDEO: Design talks with Yakob & Rosie

More about Yakob @ Genius Steals on icee.news.

Patrick Givens, VP & Head of VaynerSmart @ VaynerMedia: The new formula of approach with innovation

Over the past decade, Patrick Givens has taken a “user-led, technology-powered” approach to building products, brands, and businesses for clients ranging from Fortune 500’s to new-to-world startups.

From VanyerMedia

Harry Caray’s Last Call

“Budweiser tasked us with creating a powerful piece of content celebrating the Chicago Cubs’ World Series win just 13 days before their 108-year championship drought ended”

ICC’s Discovery of True Soccer Heroes

To drive interest in the US audience, VaynerMedia was asked to create a video that helped convey the passion the sport and its premier teams inspire in its fans.

Christian Traunfellner will be the one who closes the sessions. He is the Head of myhive offices @ImmofinanzAG and will talk about The offices of the future – about hives, workspaces, and communities.