Takeaways from the 2024 Milken Institute Global Conference

I am heading back to NY after attending my first Milken Institute conference. Hordes of leaders took over the Beverly Hilton hotel in LA, and I was honored to be invited as a speaker on a panel called “What Matters Most in Marketing,” moderated by Michelle Mikoljak Stevenson and featuring a diverse mix of industry experts: Raja Rajamannar (Mastercard), Kathy Baird (The Washington Post), Kenneth Mitchell (Levi Strauss & Co.), Joe Gagliese (Viral Nation), and Ella Kieran (WPP). We covered a wide range of topics from brand loyalty and entertainment marketing to climate change and the impact of social media and influencers on the upcoming election. Speaking at Milken was an honor - it was fun and quite different than my typical advertising industry conferences. Mostly it was incredibly inspiring to pop in and out of diverse sessions where I heard from government officials, corporate leaders, economic and non-profit changemakers, and celebrities. Here are my top 5 observations:

1) 📱DIGITAL IMPACT ON KIDS & MENTAL HEALTH — This one really hit home as my school aged kids are still relatively immune to the dangers of tech and social media (because I am delaying their exposure as long as possible). The big takeaway was that people want the government to act, and we need regulation to keep people safe. With seat belts we didn’t ask every company to invent their own solution — legislation was enacted and then companies started to compete on safety standards. Lots of discussion of “engagement vs enragement” — changing objectives of algorithms to focus on positive outcomes of time spent on platforms (vs using dangerous triggers). Sherrie Rollins Westin from Sesame Workshop discussed establishing digital wellbeing from an early age. What does Tech for Good look like? Will parents begin to model better behavior? An eye opener for me.

2) 👩FEMALE LEADERSHIP IN KEY JOB SECTORS — I enjoyed this panel which featured Caryn Seidman Becker, Chairman and CEO of CLEAR, Nicola Mendelsohn CBE, Head of Global Business Group at Meta, and Doniel Sutton (she/her), Chief People Officer at Pinterest. Lots of discussion about flexible work which was said to be in the top 3 most important aspects of work after healthcare in a recent McKinsey report. Chris Perry, President of Broadridge said “promoting women in the workplace is a co-ed sport.” Caryn was particularly inspiring as she talked about being her authentic self, promoting from within, tackling toxic cultural norms, and screening candidates for “heart, mind, and hustle” — after the panel I let her know that she just hired my amazing former colleague Heather Berko as her new VP Marketing! Overheard from a woman in the audience: “I am so glad I came to this session instead of listening to Elon Musk.”

3) 🔫UNSTICKING THE GRIDLOCK ON GUN VIOLENCE — I’m on the Media Advisory Board of Sandy Hook Promise so I made sure to attend this session featuring co-founder Nicole Hockley and other gun violence prevention leaders, including the mayor of Miami. A horrifying stat: there have been ~45,000 victims of gun violence since the 2023 Milken conference. This public health issue can only be addressed by a combination of government, corporate and community change. Ellen Alberding, President of the The Joyce Foundation stressed that the reputational risk for corporations getting involved is exaggerated and most people in the U.S. strongly support common sense gun laws. Nicole said that safety and love of children binds us all and parents who are gun owners are very interested in safe storage, but fear being demonized for speaking out. Getting gun shop owners to distribute gun locks is one effective tactic. I believe gun violence prevention is one of the most important issues of today, yet maddeningly one of the most challenging to solve. Only in America!

4) 📰JOURNALISM TODAY — I worked at CNN between 2017-2021 (Trump! Covid!) so was very interested in this panel featuring leaders from Puck, Axios, and The Ankler. The business models of today’s new news outlets revolve around a combination of subscriptions, events and advertising, and a slimmed down staff with a focus on email newsletters — and everyone is competing with Google. Two hot topics included local news (everyone believes it is important but no one reads it) and billionaire ownership of news media (the reinvention taking place now doesn’t require this “custody approach”). There was also a chat about AI and how counter it is to the fundamentals of journalism. On the contrary, in a separate session about AI, Ashton Kutcher said it has changed the technology investment game and he is more excited than ever for what’s next.

5) ⚽SOCCER IN THE US — Everyone loves David Beckham. Attendees stood in a very long line to get into his session, and it’s no wonder as I’m sure some of his 164M social followers were in the audience. He was interviewed by Authentic Brands Group head Jamie Salter and aims to make soccer (football) more relevant in the U.S. It seems to be working, as Lionel Messi was one of the top Google Trending Topics of 2023 — following multiple blockbuster movies that topped the chart (The Super Mario Bros, Guardians of the Galaxy, Barbenheimer, Taylor Swift).

This was a very different type of conference for me, but extremely enjoyable and informative. While in LA, I was also able to connect with a few friends and business colleagues — seeing Michael Malone , Jason Adelman , Irina Gilbertson , Alisann Blood , and Lindsey Scheftic was the icing on the cake!