“David Roman, VP WW Marketing Communications, PSG for HP (got all that, acronym lovers?), and I had a great chat about his session topic, “How green is your brand? And why should I care?” We literally could have chatted for hours, and I imagine his session will be one of the more ardently attended and debated. To get you ready, here are a few highlights of what to expect:

* Different constituencies look at issues in different ways: The youth market and commercial enterprise may not feel the same way about any green initiatives you have. Can you appeal to disparate audiences like this with the same product?
* Earning a badge for complying with some requirement isn’t worth any brownie points, so perhaps you shouldn’t tout it as if it does.
* If the industry is largely looked at by outside groups as being about the same in terms of companies’ environmental responsibility, how do you differentiate yourself with marketing? How do you deal with the fact that the environmental lobby is fragmented and any move could be perceived as both positive and negative within the community?
* “You should only get credit for what you’ve done, not what you promise,” Roman says. That phrase should be engraved on the desk of every CEO.
* As technologists, how can we champion using technology to help ameliorate or solve some of the inherent environmental issues with electronics, such as smarter power consumption? Then, of course, as marketers, how do we communicate that in a positive way?
* Where should a green aspect of a product simply be baked into the features, such as Intel’s chipset that allows remote control management of PCs so computers be turned off from anywhere and even managed without being on? And where should the green aspect of the product be front and center, such as Toyota’s Prius, which bested Honda’s hybrid Civic by letting people show off that they were being responsible rather than looking like they were just driving a Civic?

I could go on, but as you can see, there’s much to discuss.”

Here is David’s preview on the Mobile Marketing session with Adobe’s Joan Delfino.

“I had a chance to chat with Joan Delfino today. She’s Adobe’s VP for mobile content and the session leader for session #2, also known as “Extending brands in new digital media. How to take advantage of mobile marketing?” She gave me a preview of her point of view on the topic and some of Adobe’s initiatives in this realm. Here are a few highlights:
We’re seeing a progression of adoption of data on cell phones, from text messaging to casual games to more complex games to deeper forms of content. As that progression occurs, we’re similarly seeing marketers pursue opportunities in these specific arenas.
Delfino expects that trial and error will rule the day in determining the lines where customers accept being marketed to and where they’ll rebel. As she said, though, if you can add value to the group you’re targeting, you’re far less likely to be seen as intrusive rather than helpful. Location-based services are a good example of adding value.
There’s still a love-hate relationship with carriers and their role as the gatekeepers to reaching customers with innovative services. Delfino speculated that that grip may loosen as the mobile Web experience gets better and better.
Adobe’s initiatives here are very interesting and forward thinking. It’s bringing its Flash platform to the cell phone in a few compelling ways. Flash Lite is what it sounds like, a phone-friendly version of the multimedia platform. Flash Home is an opportunity to create a customized experience throughout the handset when it’s idle, such as a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed phone. Finally and most interestingly, Flash Cast is a set of channels with content that downloads in the background and is cached and ready to go. This could be popular Web content or channels devoted to specific companies and brands. Some channels will be free and some may be premium. It feels like a big step forward for the mobile Web experience and a huge opportunity for marketers to think about content as their advertising rather than advertising to support other content.
I look forward to hearing the discussion at this session on Tuesday. This arena is maturing, companies are beginning to embrace it, and there’s so much potential here, both for customers and marketers.”

Rod Swanson, senior director of the EA brand, overcame an odd, persistent buzzing sound in his hotel room to chat with me about the Liquid Brand session he’ll moderate, “Co-Creation: What do customers know and why should brands listen?” Here are some highlights of our conversation and a preview of his session:

* IDEO’s lessons are a great starting point in co-creation. We have a tendency to create things for ourselves and not for users, but rapid prototyping and testing can help bring customers into the feedback loop early in the design phase.
* Offering customers the chance to customize a product is cool, but it’s not the same as letting them share in the design of a product, which is more powerful
* EA’s products are a great example of “enabling the user to be the storyteller, the hero of what we create,” Swanson says. That’s a wonderful idea, and we’ve seen it play out in its sports games where the features that get added year-to-year come straight from hardcore fans, as well as The Sims, where it released tools to let players produce art for the game and have “overshadowed what we created ourselves.” Other brands that we discussed include Adobe for its well-developed built-in feedback within its creative tools, and Amazon for the way it lets customers create content with reviews and such, driving sales by just giving them the tools to contribute and getting out of the way.

Not everyone is in the videogame business, of course, but what can we do to make customers the hero of our products?

David Lidsky joined Fast Company in March 2004 and currently co-edits the front of the book, editing Fast Talk, Next, and the magazine’s columnists. He is the co-editor of the magazine’s anniversary compilation book, Fast Company’s Greatest Hits: Ten Years of the Most Innovative Ideas in Business, published by Portfolio.

Prior to joining Fast Company, David worked at FSB (Fortune Small Business magazine) and PC Magazine before that. At FSB, he was an editor and columnist, penning the “Tech Skeptic,” a column skewering conventional tech wisdom. At PC Magazine, he covered the Internet in its formative years (’96-’99). But he asserts that the best character-building experience of his life was working as an associate at Marshall’s department store where he was once named an employee of the month.

As the final component of the Brand Summit, David is going to facilitate a panel discussion between the Brand Summit’s Session Leaders about the findings that emerged from the various sessions….with lots of participation from the audience (made up of Brand Summit attendees).

“We’re very excited that David is participating” said Alfredo Muccino, Chief Creative Officer from Liquid Agency - and one of the key figures behind the event, “David’s insight into the challenges that tech brands face during this uncertain economy, combined with such a distinguished set of Session Leaders, should make for a lively and interesting discussion”.

In fact we can pretty much guarantee that on February 26, we will have more talent, more experience, more ideas and more creativity in one place than anywhere else in Silicon Valley…or anywhere else for that matter.

The Session Leaders we’ve been able to gather are an outstanding group. Check out their bios on the site…and be ready for the fact that we’re about to announce a couple more that we’re very excited about. We can’t say who…but let’s just all say yahoo!!!

His global-branding insights, expertise and leadership provide results-oriented focus to TiVo’s global brand and communications strategies.

Prior to TiVo, Mr. Richardson was the CMO at Nortel…and prior to that he was the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer of T-Mobile U.K. and also served as an executive director for T Mobile’s global marketing board which lead strategy for the rebranding to T Mobile globally.

Overall…we’re very excited. Clent Richardson has plenty of experience and we can’t wait to hear him share his insights at the Summit.

As the keynote speaker at the Liquid Brand Summit 2007, Cammie Dunaway shared how Yahoo! Goes about building a 360º brand, and also gave us a peek at the latest Yahoo! Advertising campaign. Enjoy the video!