Influencing at the Banff World Media Festival 2016

It's been almost a month since I had the amazing opportunity to sit on the panel for Wattpad at the Banff World Media Festival 2016. 

I was there with LD Crichton, a fellow Wattpad Star, and the head of Wattpad Studios, Aron Levitz. We were joined by Justin Williams from Turner Broadcasting and Damon Berger from Fullscreen. 

The morning of our panel, Wattpad made the headlines by partnering with Turner for a collaboration on the anticipated M. Night Shyamalan's Tales From The Crypt. It was a blazing sign of just how much influencers have penetrated the traditional entertainment models and this concept was reinforced over and over again through other panels in the festival.

The message is clear and simple: Influencers know their audience and that knowledge and rapport can open so many other doors that traditional media wouldn't normally have access to. 

There were a lot of great conversations during the festival with different industry people. It really opened my eyes to the inner workings of something so simple as your favorite primetime TV show or your mindless YouTube channel surfing. In the big picture, the audience is the pinnacle which we all aspire to reach and with the continuing shift in entertainment habits and growing accessibility to content whenever and wherever, the battlefield is starting to look different. The rules of the game are changing and strategy has to follow.

Overall, it was a lot of fun to be there both as an influencer and a spectator myself.  I look forward to what the new ideas and fresh perspectives will bring to the market. 

Building new bridges between industry giants and influencers

 Influencer content is largely due to audience feedback and it's as intimate a feedback as you can get which makes it solid gold.

Banff is just so lovely.

If there weren't panels, there were parties.

 Despite the hectic schedule, we managed to pose and snap pics. Brought my Macbook with me because there's no rest for the writer.