Roberts shares some provocative thoughts on the death of traditional media and the rise of new media; and how that goes hand-in-hand with the death of traditional advertising agencies and the rise of the new creative.

Finance Colombia: Welcome to Colombia, welcome to Medellin. Is this your first time here?

Kevin Roberts: It’s my second time in Colombia, first time here (in Medellín).

Finance Colombia: Great, tell me about your first time, where did you go?

Kevin Roberts: Bogota

I want to spend more time here because I think this city, Medellin seems on the move.

Finance Colombia: It’s like a whole different country, from one city to another isn’t it? You were in Cartagena yesterday, right?

Kevin Roberts: Cartagena, of course. I never left the whole town for 4 days, I stayed, I drank in every sight and sound, I ate everything, and saw some great places, met some great people, I found this great little place called the Casa San Agustin, (see map below) terrific. I would bike out every day. And I liked it. Bogota, when I went there, a few years ago, it was very different, I think, I’m coming back in January, but I want to spend more time here because I think this city, Medellin seems on the move.

Finance Colombia: It is, it’s like the Silicon Valley of South America. One of the things that fascinates me in Colombia is that every city is like a different country. It is like the difference between New York and Los Angeles.

Kevin Roberts: Where are you from?

Finance Colombia: I’m from Columbus Ohio, in The States. I’ve been here for 6 years, but still, every day I learn something. So, we are publishers. I publish three different publications, only one is focused on Colombia, the other ones focus on financial back office processing (FinanceAmericas) and there’s one that’s one about technology (Cognitive Business News), but I publish Finance Colombia, which is the only English language publication focused on Colombia’s financial sector.

Kevin Roberts: And on what media? Online or physical?

“I think the world of agencies, the way agencies function would disappear” – Kevin Roberts

Finance Colombia: It’s all digital because if I mail a printed magazine to London, it’s no longer news when it arrives, it’s history. It’s interesting because it seems like people that are older than me still take print publications, but people that are 20 or 30 or 40 years old, they consume media digitally.

Kevin Roberts: I take all my newspapers online, right? So I take the New York Times, The Times, the Daily Mail, The New Zealand Herald, but I take my magazines physically, because I’m not interested in the news, it’s not news then, I’m still interested in editorial content and I’m still interested in quality reporting so for instance, and I like the touch of the paper, I like the photography, so I’d still get Condé Nast Traveller,

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This year the event brought in seven globally recognized keynote speakers, and is organized by WOBI (World Of Business Ideas), an international event organizer that holds similar forums in México, Spain & Portugal, as well as Colombia’s capital of Bogotá.

Martha Lucia Maldonado is the Colombia Country Manager for WOBI

“We do three different types of events. The first type is the World Business Forum held in various locations. The second is the World Leadership Forum. Here in Colombia we hold that, but in other global locations we have the World Marketing & Sales Forum, the World Innovation Forum, and there is a third type of event we do, our seminars,” said WOBI Country Manager Martha Lucia Maldonado in a conversation with Finance Colombia. “Here in Colombia, this year we organized two. The first one held here in Medellín was WOBI Digital Transformation, and the second one held last October in Bogotá was the WOBI Family Business Seminar. These are targeted to a very specific niche of attendees with very focused themes.”

Keynote speakers this year included management guru and author Ram Charan (pictured above), Saatchi & Saatchi former CEO Kevin Roberts, paleontologist Ignacio Martínez Mendizábal, tsunami survivor Maria Belón, human resources expert Alejandro Melamed, mountain climber Edurne Pasaban, and Colombian influencer Sylvia Ramirez.

“Today Medellín is going through a crucial moment in its economic development and positioning in the world, today we are protagonists in the hemisphere for our determined commitment to social and urban transformation, in sponsoring events, in the arrival of visitors, investor confidence and the support of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs in the generation of productive dynamics, said Paula Andrea Zapata Galeano, Secretary of Economic Development for the city of Medellín. “However, these achievements are not exclusive to the public sector, the union of efforts with entrepreneurs, academia and citizens has been key to achieving these common goals. For that reason, we are happy to be the hosts of the World Leadership Forum again, the largest meeting of leaders in the region.”