Roughly 200 advertising producers, creatives, shop owners, clients and post and music suppliers attended the summit, held December 3-4 at the Universal Hilton and Towers in LA, and spoke on topics ranging from "The Creative Bidding Process," to "Beyond 30 Seconds: The New Commercial."

A panel of stakeholders including @radical.media co-founder Frank Scherma, The Mill London MD Pat Joseph, Amber Music president Michell Curran, Flehner Films executive producer Ariel Piluso, Saatchi director of broadcast production David Perry, production consultant Robert Brooks and Stillking Films MD Matthew Stillman opened the summit providing an overall view from different areas of the industry.

During his stakeholder address, Scherma spoke of "a fundamental shift in commercials and how they are made. The economy isn't the issue here," said Scherma. "It's how current commercial players are going to offer new kinds of branded messages for clients in a changing media landscape." Pointing to efforts by TV producers in this area, Scherma noted: "What the hell do they know about stewarding brands. If we don't figure if out, who will?" (And if it wasn't about the economy, a global recession did occupy the conversations of many panelists. Opening one of the livelier panels, moderator Jon Kamen, Scherma's partner in @radical.media said: "This industry is not in a recession, it's in a depression.")

Fellow stakeholder David Perry threw up a humorous but trenchant good conduct challenge to everyone in the industry. Perry's list of promises was met with knowing chuckles through the audience as he listed the sins of agencies and the corresponding sins of production companies. To wit: "I promise not to send out boards that aren't approved... but you have to believe me when I say I only have $300,000...."

Brooks, a production consultant and former commercial production manager at P&G, talked about the lack of a positive correlation between cost and effectiveness; Cheaper ads are usually better and most awards are won by the inexpensive ones, he said, and talked in a later panel about what he said were the disproportionate rise in commercial costs.

Keynote speakers included Alan Rutherford, head of worldwide media for Unilever, hungry man founder and director Bryan Buckley and director Tony Kaye.

Buckley wowed the audience with a presentation of some of the top drawer work he's done and his entertaining take on how such work gets made. Kaye gave a straightforward chat and seemed to say, "I'm back." "I'm focussing on the process more now," said Kaye.

Molson VP marketing and global advertising director Rob Guenette stirred the panel pot with his frank views from the client perspective. Guenette gave a wakeup call to those who would sacrifice creativity in the name of getting an ad made. "Weird advertising is always better than boring advertising."

The quantum leaps in advertising, he said, come from the client: "The client is the biggest opportunity."

The two-day summit was capped off by a Traktor-hosted soiree that brought out a dazzling who's who of commercialdom, all of whom shook at least one leg and looked great doing it.

Much respect and gratitude to Traktor, The Whitehouse and Lift who sponsored this festive co-production.