Health Lions Day Two

I want to warn you now that this blog post is probably not going to be my best work. If I end in the middle of a sentence it's because I fell asleep.

Today was a super eventful day full of wine and virtual reality. This morning we met with the Publicis Health CEO who was very friendly and told us about how he made it to where he is now. Other people from the agency also spoke and explained what they do on an average day. It was nice to hear people speak who were closer to my age and maybe doing something similar to what I would be doing in the future.

The first talk I went to was called "Your Brain on VR: Virtual Worlds, Real Results." In this talk, Howard Rose showed us how VR can help people in many ways. This included helping people with PTSD and phobias, but also showed how it can be an alternative to drugs. VR can reduce the pain signals in your brain by engaging the body and the senses. VR can be used to reduce pain in patients and is something crazy to think about for the future!

Next I went to a giant tent where people from Nokia were set up. I originally went because I heard they had free drinks and snacks, but then stayed because it was awesome! They had a bunch of VR headsets set up that you could use. I put on the goggles and took on all the adventures. One scene I was in was a camping trip where I almost got attacked by a bear. I went to this cool outdoor concert, and even was involved in a crime scene. Some of the scenes were so real and creepy they made me feel a real sense of fear. It's some trippy stuff.

The next talk I went to was called "Sex: the Final Frontier." The speakers were awesome and had hilarious yet amazing things to say. One of the speakers was extremely passionate about sex and how people need to communicate better about it. She thinks people are insecure about sex because they don't know how to talk about it. She thinks sexual values are important and that brands shouldn't be afraid to use sex in their campaigns, even if they think the public will respond badly. She wants to normalize the dialogue of sex. The speakers were awesome so I loved listening to this talk, even though I didn't fully understand the point.

I decided to face my fears and get in line for the VR roller coaster. This roller coaster was no joke. The seats moved and the scene was super realistic. I legit almost vomited. That would have been embarrassing. I closed my eyes most the time though because it was so scary.

The next talk I attended was "Men vs. Women: Exploring Marketing's Impact on Gender Bias." This talk was hosted by Kim Getty. She encouraged advertisers to show gender in a way that is relevant and not outdated. It was an interesting topic but wasn't the greatest thing to listen to. I stayed in the Forum for the next lecture, "The Madman Who Tried to be a Clown." He talked about the humor in advertising. It wasn't as funny as I thought it would be.

I made me way to Happy Hour ready to network! I really don't like the wine they serve at the Festival but hey, it's free. I talked to a lot of boys from the Netherlands who won tickets by winning a pitch competition. They were all really cool. I talked to one guy from Portugal for a very long time; he worked for a media agency which was pretty interesting.

Afterwards, another area opened up for more drinks and food. I was very excited to learn that I didn't have to go spend money on dinner! They also had a fabulous dessert table featuring macaroons! I talked to some Brazilian businessmen for a little bit. The night ended with a lot more wine and a lot of dancing with CEOs who were slurring their words. Tonight was a fun way to see successful people celebrate the hard work they've done. Whoever said that this festival was the Ad Man's spring break was very much correct.