Strictly By the Book
2024 OAAA Conference: My Take
I love this time of year. Baseball is in full swing, trees are turning green where we live, and the nights are longer. My biggest thrill each spring season are these four days of work. It’s had different names over the years, but for arguments sake, we’ll call it the Annual OOH Conference, or OAAA. “Are you going to OAAA this year?” is the question being bantered around for the last three months. I always answer with a cheerful “Yes, I am. And you?” Knowing it’s usually held in a fun, sunny resort setting, save for Nashville last year, I’m packing cheerful outfits. Who picked Nashville, by the way?
Please don’t do that again.
Since 2014 my answer was always a big “yes”, see you there. Except for the years off due to Covid, I’ve been to eight of these in a row. While I love them all for different reasons, it’s always the last one that was the best.
Except for Nashville.
Each conference is usually a bit lopsided. One year the setting is spectacular and nobody wants to leave, the next year the setting is meh but the actual conference is a big hit. Perfect example, Austin, Texas, 2018. Ok setting at the JW Marriott, small rooms, average food, but outstanding speakers including a band that played throughout. It was like a scene from the Titanic except we didn’t sink while the band played on. Terrific speakers representing products we all could relate to such as Tito’s Vodka. Who could forget Mr OOH, Brent Baer walking around with an old fashioned, well, older than him, 1930’s style microphone interviewing attendees live as he roamed the audience. Did we ever see that schtick again? Nope. But we should have, it was that clever.
As for this year’s venue, the La Costa Resort and Spa was superb. Stunning grounds, fabulous food and drinks (I know I’m a little late to the party, but fabulous is my word of the year), and some great tunes on the last night. With a fresh, help yourself sushi bar to boot.
As for the conference agenda, if you were only reading transcripts of what the speakers were saying, you’d love it. It was intelligent, not over our heads, conversations touching on major points of our industry. As for the delivery? Woof!
Reading off the teleprompter is understandable but when most speakers were using it, the delivery had some dry tones with pacing issues going on. Ok, if you were there, you all know I’m being far too polite. It was a bit stiff. I used to write drama production reviews, so don’t hate me.
Great content with robotic delivery. I can take it. Seems like most of the speakers may have not seen the copy until it was in front of them. Not their fault. However, some very quotable lines that should live on with us through this year, all you had to do is see all the LinkedIn posts the last five days referring to them. It was a great script.
My favorite speaker? No doubt, Day 2, Artis Stevens head of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America with a talk titled “Becoming the Village Young People Need”. Imposing, loud, articulate, and well-prepared, this was Broadway for OOH. As a father of an 18 year old daughter where a majority of her close friends are people of color with many parents born outside the U.S., his presentation registered with me. It was a pleasant change of pace from other talks that came off somewhat dry and written by a PR staff.
Outgoing GeoPath President Dylan Mabin’s goodbye talk left me weeping. A truly good, smart man whose talk was buried on an early Wednesday morning. I will miss him, as will many others.
The OBIE Awards had an outstanding collection of winners, some vibrant, new hosts including the effervescent and very original David Shing, aka “Shingy” and did not run in extra innings as some previous shows. There were no OAAA Hall of Fame winners announced this year, although it seems as though these are recognized every other year. I overheard attendees chatting about this omission as they filed out probably not realizing that HOF announcements aren’t a yearly thing. I too just learned that.
This year, I found the audience to be a better mixture of agency/brand folks and salespeople as opposed to previous years where it’s heavy OOH companies. That’s a great sign and I’m already looking forward to the Boston conference. This was quite an upgrade from, well…Nashville.
Finally, let’s see if the 2025 OOH Media Conference in Boston can match the treats served at La Costa last week where I’m expecting plenty of lobster dishes to offset the wonderful Tex-Mex delights served up in Carlsbad. Shellfish? Hey if your’e allergic, too bad, more for me. Have some Yankee pot roast.
Because no matter what goes on inside the conference halls, it’s the food, drinks and conversation outside that keep us together.
Stay fabulous OOH, you know how to do it.