Q & A with James Cooper, Chief Creative Innovation Officer at JWT & 2011 Social Media Week Panelists

As Chief Creative Innovation Officer of JWT New York, James oversees the agency’s creative in the digital space. Outside of the office, he is a U.S. rated table tennis champ and founded the magazine Celebrity Ping Pong, in which he interviews celebrities like Susan Sarandon and art and business whiz kids, while challenging them to ping-pong matches.

This Wednesday, he’ll be a panelist on “Defend the Tweet” for Social Media Week. “Defend the Tweet” will bring together some of the most interesting people on Twitter from the marketing and advertising industries to make their cases in defense of a recent provocative tweet.

What was your social media eureka moment?
I’ve always been more of a twitter than a facebook man. I didn’t have a eureka moment on twitter. It just grew and grew. It goes through phases of being useful and fun.

What do you use on a daily basis and how?
Twitter mostly. I get my my news, both world and industry through that. I follow around 350 people and it’s rare that I miss something. The power of the crowd I guess.

What is hot and what is just hype?
Ping Pong is hot. The rest is hype. 

What do you see as being the next big thing at next year’s conference?
I’m not sure there is anything fundamental that’s going to shift. I see Twitter and Facebook as very set, nothing will topple them in a year. For me, Foursquare and all the other location stuff doesn’t have what it takes to go mass. People use Facebook and Twitter for multiple different reasons, news, photos, mail, chat etc etc. I don’t see how Foursquare etc goes beyond the basic task of checking in. I get that that is fun for some people and still a hugely successful business I just don’t think it’s another Facebook or Twitter.
 
What is the one takeaway you hope everyone gets from your panel?
That I am smarter than them. No, seriously.

Find James on Twitter and Tumblr; Sign up for “Defend the Tweet” here.