Record attendance, near-summer temperatures and an abundance of stimulating discussion marked the first Boards Creative Workshop of 2008, held in April in Toronto, Canada (the host city for the first-ever BCW), and sponsored by Human Worldwide, Crush Inc., Wiredrive and Guru Studios.

Hundreds of creatives, exec producers and others from the agency, production company and media landscape descended upon the John Bassett Theatre to hear from this year's assortment of guest panelists and presenters, including Crispin Porter + Bogusky co-chairman Alex Bogusky; Spencer Baim, founder of Vice Magazine's in-house agency, Virtue; Trollbäck + Company president/CD Jakob Trollbäck; AKQA, New York ECD Lars Bastholm and TAXI Canada ECD Steve Mykolyn with TAXI, New York ACD Jason McCann. With this year's Toronto Workshop being branded as 'Shift Disturbers', the content's emphasis was on the shifts occurring within advertising, and how to creatively navigate them.

The event kicked off with BCW Toronto chairperson and Leo Burnett, Toronto's managing partner and CCO Judy John taking the stage for a few words and then sitting down with Bogusky for a candid conversation. Bogusky maintained that the clients they work with - including Burger King and Volkswagen - have to be "brave enough to get into the conversation with popular culture. It's going to get rough... As a consumer, I have to be able to do whatever I want with your brand." We also learned that yes, the smash "Whopper Freakout" was a tad risky ("There were times when we were like, 'Someone's gonna get killed'").

The next three guests, Virtue's Spencer Baim, Trollbäck + Company's Jakob Trollbäck and AKQA's Lars Bastholm, took the stage to discuss how the concept of "shift" has impacted their work and creativity. Baim walked the audience through Vice's transition from a free, snarky hipster magazine to a full-blown media empire... that still publishes a free, snarky hipster magazine. Trollbäck shared his thoughts with the crowd through an audio-visual presentation that included, among other things, Abba tunes and Gerhard Richter's photo-paintings. And Bastholm discussed how numerous AKQA projects, such as the immersive online experience for Halo 3, adhere to the concept that "creating dialogue is not a closed loop".

Then, TAXI's Steve Mykolyn and Jason McCann, joined by Baim, Bastholm and Trollbäck, presented an irreverent, inspiring look at the "weird shit" that creative thinkers are putting their minds to.

With Wiredrive sponsoring a dinner at the über-cool Drake Hotel the night before for speakers, the event's advisory panel, sponsors and a select group of delegates, everyone involved came away well satiated from our first BCW of the year. Next up, Los Angeles...