Impressive line-up of Speakers for this year's Global Brand Forum in Singapore

Now in its fifth successful year, the Global Brand Forum has unveiled yet another stellar line-up of the worlds leading brand and business icons to speak for the first time in Asia, at this year’s Global Brand Forum in Singapore. This year’s theme of the forum is “The maverick approach to brand building”.

S Karthik, the founding chairman of the Global Brand Forum, said, “In a world of manu”fake”ture, and low cost imitators, the only sustainable strategy for leadership is the maverick approach to brand building. That means having the courage to step outside one’s comfort zone and go against the grain. This is one of the reasons why the Global Brand Forum 2008 has chosen to bring to Singapore some the worlds leading marketing mavericks.”

Spread over two days at the Ritz Carlton Millenia in Singapore from August 14 to 15, these celebrated speakers will share and discuss their experiences, learning and insights on what it takes to build maverick brands.

Speakers for the Global Brand Forum 2008 include

Jimmy Wales: Founder of Wikipedia, a free and open content encyclopedia in 2001, and Wikia, a privately-owned free web hosting service set up in 2004. He serves on the Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation. His work with Wikipedia, has become the world's largest encyclopedia, and led Time magazine to name him in 2006, among the “100 most influential people in the world”

Spike Lee: Multi Awards-Winning American Filmmaker, Writer, Actor, Music Video Producer for Chaka Khan, Tracy Chapman, Michael Jackson etc. His debut film, “She’s Gotta Have It”, earned the Prix de Jeunesse Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1986 and his third film, “Do the Right Thing” garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay and won Best Film and Best Director awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association in 1989. His epic drama, “Malcolm X”, received two Oscar nominations. He also directed “Inside Man” and is the ad filmmaker of the famous Orange and Nike Air Jordan commercials.

Al Ries: Celebrated marketing strategist and repeat best-selling author. Al Ries is the architect behind the marketing tool known as brand positioning. In 1980, he wrote his first book, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind which has become an industry hallmark and one of the best selling advertising books of all time. He is also a best-selling author of 11 books on marketing.

Will Wright: Chief Designer of Electronic Art. Known as the “Spielberg” of the gaming industry, Will Wright is creator of The Sims game franchise. In 2007, he received a fellowship from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He was given the Lifetime Achievement Awards by PC Magazine in 2005, a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Game Developers Choice Awards in 2001, and was the fifth person inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 2002. His next video game, SPORE, is scheduled for release in September 2008.

AL Golin: Founder & Chairman of Chicago-based GolinHarris. Voted one of 100 most influential public relations people of 20th century in America; whose first handshake with McDonald’s Founder, Ray Kroc in 1957, helped lead brand McDonald’s to forward-thinking visions and innovations until today, 51 years after.

Joanne Ooi: Radical Retailer of Shanghai Tang. One of China’s first luxury brands did not have a smooth ride until Joanne Ooi joined the company. She helped boost sales, up almost 50% since 2003, and doubled the number of stores to 30 worldwide in the next three years. To reinvigorate the brand, she created bold design statements that combined Chinese cultural references and sleek, contemporary clothes.

Harry Hui: Chief Marketing Officer Pepsico International, China. A veteran expert on youth marketing, (formerly with Universal Music and MTV), Harry Hui steers Pepsi product pitches to China’s next generation. The brands under his wing include Pepsi Cola, Gatorade, Tropicana, Dole, 7Up, Mirinda, as well as other locally developed brands. China’s youth is large, demanding and growing. Hence, any major player needs to understand this psychographic and what it takes to capture the China market.

Vikas Malkani: The Enlightenment Specialist. Founder of SoulCentre, Vikas Malkani is one of the world’s leading teachers of spiritual awakening, personal growth and self-awareness. His forte is to make ancient spiritual wisdom simple to understand and apply, thus creating a life of health, harmony and abundance on all levels. He has written numerous books that involves the disciplines of meditation, spiritual wisdom and yoga.

The Global Brand Forum 2008 is held in association with the Straits Times. Early registrations are advised and tickets cost Sin$ 3500 per participant for the two day forum.

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