What I thought was awesome about The Conference

On August 30th, 2011 Mark Bandte wrote:

So Henriette and I were at Media Evolutions 'The Conference' ( http://mediaevolution.se/theconference/ ) last week, and I thought it would be cool to give you guys the low-down on what was cool and such.  All in all I think it was great, and the general feedback from the attendees was positive.  It was full of inspiring talks, great projects and a great look into the future of digital media.  So let's get down to the particularly cool bits:



Generaly Cool Stuff

Guitar thing - WildChords

Blackberry hosted a competition, where the winner was drawn at The Conference.  The idea was to build an app for the blackberry errr…tablet thingy.  So these Finnish dudes built an app which teaches you, quite simply, how to play the guitar!  No plugging in, nothing.  Just take a guitar and play the notes as they come.  It's way cool, and you can check it out here: www.wildchords.com/

Unfortunately, they didn't win - 'Visit Sweden' did, and their app will be released on the blackberry Tab thingy when it gets released in Sweden.  Good for them. 

note - I googled for those interested - it's called the playbook ;)

Another cool app was Tunaspot, which is a location-based game where you can make playlists and soundtracks, and drop them at locations.  Then, passersby can pick them up and download them.  Cool huh?
It's not completely available yet, but very soon.  Check them out here: www.tunaspot.com

Electric car

So MIT makes this electric car, which kind of half folds up so you can jump out the front.  The cool thing is that they are doing a test in a few cities, among others Malmö so I'm looking forward to see the snazzy broom broom around!  You can see a quick video of the prototype they had at The Conference here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1MSMj08BVU


Cool stuff on Day 1.

Man & Machine - Amber Case

One of the best speeches at the conference.  The theme was 'being a Cyborg' - which was about how connected we all are in regards to the past.  She spoke a lot about Steve Mann, who is a guy who has gone one step further, and wears his home made computer whilst he walks around.  It started out as a massive thing which drew a lot of attention in the beginning, but has been developed to the point that he can wear it as a pair of glasses!  This got me thinking - when will it end!?  I spoke briefly with Amber after the talk about the point of no return - as in "If we ever start to augment our own bodies - let's say, starting out with small implants for headphones, which gets replaced with mobile devices and on from there, where will the line be drawn?  She said that she would never add anything to her body, and I think a lot of people are probably in the same boat, but still - if enough people end up trying something and it works, and is great, it wouldn't take too long before we have a very Manga-type cyberpunk-esque future, right?  

http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3017762/amber-case-geoloqi-from

How to live a Hyper-connected Life:
The Bulletproof Executive - Dave Asprey

I thought this was really cool.  Dave has 'bio-hacked' himself for the past few years, taking brain scans, and studying up on how to optimize his body and brain functions, and is now feeling the best he's ever felt, regardless of the fact that he eats around 4500 calories per day (which a large part of it is beef and butter!) doesn't exercise, and sleeps less than 5 hours a day.  He came out with a set of electrodes on his head, which were hooked up to a 9 volt battery which was giving him the optimal current to put him in the right state of mind to stay focused and alert.  He has, in the last few years, upgraded his IQ by 20 points, fixed his poor vision, and trimmed himself down from a massive 300 pounds of weight!   Intriguing stuff huh?  Read more about The Bulletproof Executive on Dave's blog: www.bulletproofexec.com/ 
http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3017849/dave-asprey-bio-hacker-how

The Winter of our Disconnect - Susan Maushart

This was a great story about Susan, her 2 daughters and her son, who were all living a life which was mainly carried out online.  They were constantly online, be it internet, gaming, phones - until one day Susan had had enough.  She basically pulled the plug for 6 months, as  a type of experiment, but mainly to try and get her family to connect again.  It was really cool to hear what happened to the whole family - they apparently went through a stage of complete boredom, and then ended up filling the boredom with things like playing the saxophone (and apparently writing a book!).  The book is available everywhere - I think I would like to give it a read.  Check out her site if you want to know more: http://susanmaushart.com/
http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3017942/susan-maushart-megan-miller

The Future of Games

Yeah, I'm a little bit of a gamer, so I definitely wanted to check this one out! =D  They spoke a lot about the difference between 'gaming' and 'playing', and the fact that the majority of digital games made for kids are focused on manipulative play - and the other types (Discovery, Physical, Creative and imaginative) are very much untapped resources.  Maybe the future of digital gaming marketed at children could tap into these other types, so as we don't raise a generation of soulless, brainy kids that have good hand-eye coordination, yet no creativity.  I think it's great!


Cool stuff on Day 2 (which was better than day 1 imo)
Creation - Bill Drummond

Completely off-the-wall and funny guy. It was great and all, but I still felt it was kind of irrelevant.  But still great fun.  He talked about the evolution music, and how, since the iPod, music has gotten to be kind of….commonplace.  That people have gotten to be apathetic about what they listen to, skipping from track to track without really hearing what it is they are listening to.  And that it has actually been heading in that direction since we started recording music.  He talked about his project 'The 17' which is basically this:  "Imagine you wake up tomorrow and all music has disappeared".  All knowledge of music is gone, and yet you still have an inkling that it existed.  How would you make it?  He has been making a lot of 'one time shows' where he would take 17 people and instruct them to sing a certain tone, all at once in the middle of a city, or in a building, and once they had sung it, that was it.  No recording allowed.  So it was about having the people involved to be the ones experiencing it.  I like that.  All of a sudden the two sides of the room were chanting together.  Not so much to do with digital media, but still entertaining and thought-provoking.


New Business Opportunities with Disruptive Thinking

I loved this one, obviously.  'Disruptive thinking'….Business Unusual'…Same thing, right?  

These speeches were all about those companies who break ground in their industry, by thinking outside of the box.  By not following the same methods that they always have, but by not being scared of pushing things too far - by daring to be different.  And anything that invokes change is great in my books!  That's kind of all it was about…Pushing the envelope, not getting stuck in old patterns.

Funding Creativity with the Crowd

A great set of speeches regarding crowdfunding sites, and how they can help 'The Little Guy' get bigger.  I especially liked the talk by Simon Close about getting funding for his documentary film 'The Pirate Bay - Away from Keyboard ( TPB - AFK ).  He drew in over $50.000 US in around 3 weeks for his film, by using Kickstarter…Not bad eh? They are waiting for the court decision before the release of the film - something to do with the courts not wanting the film to affect the outcome of the verdict, but see more at http://www.tpbafk.tv/blog/
http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3027203/simon-klose-film-director

There was also a fantastic section by Britta Riley from WindowFarms, which intrigued me a lot, because I'm all for green.  It's a project which teaches people how to grow a type of indoor farm, right in the window sill.  Way cool.  She also earned a buttload of cash for research by using Kickstarter, but it still has only gotten in about 1/4 of the money back from how much was used on the project, so if you're into it, check out the site.  You can buy kits and fertilizers and all kinds of stuff.  There is also a wealth of info about how to do the whole thing yourself.
http://www.windowfarms.org/
http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3027383/britta-riley-the-windowfarms

Closing Keynote with Riyaad Minty - Al Jazeera

This was probably the most poignant speech I saw at the whole conference.  I have never been much of a 'news guy'.  I don't know why.  It's never been something that I was into, although I have the sneaking suspicion that it it will be at some point.  But I love the way that Al Jazeera works, and he sold it for me.  I love the fact that they use peoples videos, and listen to what people are saying, instead of finding their own angles on the news based on what they think people want to hear.

Mr. Minty spoke at length about the network, and how it is that they differ from other news stations, by having the trust of the people  because of the fact that they broadcast what is really out there, no matter what.  Even if they get blocked in certain countries where something important is happening, they will find a way of getting the information from their sources, and also giving it out to the whole world, and to the country where they are blocked - even by radio stations if needs be.  Maybe this is the way the media used to be, but lost their way somewhere along the line?  Luckily enough, the internet is here to save the day yet again!  With complete freedom of information, everyone is at liberty to tell their story.  Everyone!  That's great, especially if we have some trusted medium which we can use to spread it.  Huge fan!

http://mediaevolution.23video.com/video/3027903/riyaad-minty-al-jazeera


All in all, I was wicked-happy with the whole thing.  All the videos of all the talks are here: http://mediaevolution.23video.com/channel/3014916/the-conference-2011?p=1 so feel free to go through and get some inspiration -
I know I'm going to watch the ones I missed out on!

[media, evolution, conferences, the conference] [6 comments]

Spreading yourself too thin, or just branching out?

On August 15th, 2011 Mark Bandte wrote:

So I'm one of those people who is kind of good at many different things.  I been around, y'know?  So these things I can do, be it making some films for the web, selling snow to eskimos, consulting people on social media, or even fixing a broken roof - they are things that I can do here and there for customers or friends, and sometimes even make some money from  it (or barter for services and products).  But how is it that I could promote myself as "singer, internet extraordinaire, filmmaker and roof fixer"?  These things are quite different, and anyone who knows anything about SEO will tell you that it would be pretty damned hard to get a site going with all those things combined, but hey - I don't really care about that so much.  This is where word of mouth comes into play, and that good ol' word of mouth is my bread and butter, especially when it comes to Toothless Tiger and social media in general. 

After all - social media is just amplifying the word of mouth market.  Getting the message across to more people than you would normally talk to in person, simply because they are on you contacts list.  I have actually gotten some cool jobs merely by an acquaintance noticing my photos (which I have neither studied nor proclaimed that I am great at), and me saying 'Yeah…I can do that' and them telling a friend who books me.  What luck!  Or is it?  Is it not a way of promoting ones self simply by doing?  By living?  By showing yourself, and your abilities?  It's especially the 'showing' that's important here, I think - because if you aren't showing the world what you do, how is it supposed to know?

So I figure that if I just do these things as they hit me, and do them as well as I can [as well as being as charming as possible while doing so ;) ], that I might just get remembered in those certain conversations where other people or companies need the same.  Remember the olden days? Someone would hook you up with the fix-it guy who would come to your house  do your plumbing, your lights and your tv.  I like that.  But more like a modern version, where I can drop by, take some photos and film, make you laugh and sell you some snow….and sing while I'm doing it  And in the end, hopefully you will have some information, some inspiration and a film that you can put on your website and sell a gazillion whatever it is that you sell.

[social, media, word, mouth, film, web, photos, consulting] [1 comment]

Round one - Traditional advertising vs Social Media - FIGHT!

On April 27th, 2011 Mark Bandte wrote:

I've been thinking a lot lately about the cost of advertising via conventional methods - ie. newspapers, magazines, billboards etc - as opposed to social media.

I've previously worked with design furniture, where, in the beginning we used to put in our monthly advertisements, and give our money and just trust that it worked.  I mean - hey, that's just how we do it, right?  After a while, we started to ask our clients where it was that they had found us, and we were quite shocked at how little people had seen us in magazines and such.  Most people had either found us online, or had been referred by friends or family.  Good ol' word of mouth never fails, I guess.  Well, who would you trust more?  Someone you knew (even if you didn't know them very well), or a random picture with some writing in a magazine or newspaper? It's not like the magazine is really putting you in there only because they think you're cool- you have to pay through the nose for that space.  I think that maybe people get a little desensitized after a while (I know I have).  Don't get me wrong - it's great for visibility, but if you are a small to medium business, it's not the easiest thing to throw €1500 - €4000 for a page which someone will see once or twice and then throw away.  

So why not invest €5000 or so, and learn how to use something which is essentially free (albeit the time used) , and use it well?  

Learning how to post great and epic content, how to be visible and accessible to your customers, how to build your brand and show the personality of the employees, and sharing your work and products with your clients, directly, is pure gold!  Imagine: The beauty of word of mouth, fused with advertising! And all it costs is your time. 

Keep on rockin' in the free world!

[advertising, social, media, conventional, magazines, newspapers, billboards] [5 comments]