At bTWEEN 08 the motto was Seed Share Sell -- with many of the UK's digitial industry gathering to offer up ideas,
listen to ideas, and in some cases sell concepts. It was a mash-up that saw indie and fringe digital media types meet up with the mainstream superstars of the digital media industry, and it was a match that proved fruitful for all.
Last week I was part of bTWEEN, held at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry, representing my agency Hai Media Group, where my seed idea for a promotional
campaign called Rare Fruits was among the final selections to win a £5K prize, and possible
commission by a company to support their marketing efforts. Along with my
talented media partner Isabella Hu of Ecolocate, we bravely faced a panel of
digital media and branding experts to showcase our idea. We were
honoured that our Rare Fruits idea for the Branding Talent competition was
selected, and nervous to present our ideas to 4Talent, BBC, Aegis, Ogilvy, and
others.
It was a learning experience, and one that took a lot of
courage for the many small entrepreneurs or, simply a few folks with good ideas, to face
their more senior peers in the creative digital industry. In talking to other finalists, many
likened the situation to being in the TV show Dragon’s Den,
complete with its very own Digital Dragonoids. The finalists presented their sometimes
fragile ideas to a panel of experts, most who were helpful idea
cultivators, and never shy about picking and preening at concepts, all in effort to
help support making the ideas a reality. As the experience moved along, bTWEEN,
for me, as I do not speak for others who attended, morphed into far more than
just a contest entry.
The two day conference included a star studded line-up of speakers from the
emerging
media space. Highlights for me was learning more about Flourescent
Media from Carolyn Maze, hearing what’s happening with music in the emerging
media landscape from Kevin
Bacon of AWAL and seeing all ages represented. Teenager jellyellie spoke and over 60 cartoonist Bill Tidy drew pictures and
told stories. Cory Doctorow, co-founder and editor of Boing Boing focused his
talk on digital rights, and Matt Locke, Commission Editor of Education &
New Media at Channel 4, was an excellent ‘navigator’ of current happenings with
this innovative broadcaster, including youth programming.
Keynoter Kaiser Kuo, from Beijing, gave bTWEEN attendants an
insider’s look behind what many Westerners
describe as being “the great
firewall of China” with his speech Censorship, Culture and Chinese Netizens.
You can read his thoughts about the conference here.
He was a popular person at bTWEEN, as attendants discovered that he is also in
a Chinese heavy metal band called Tang Dynasty, in addition to his role as Group Director
of Digital Strategy with Ogilvy (China). He won the prize for being the Most
Inspirational Person at bTWEEN.
I met other competitors who’s ideas were representative of
new creative, new technology, social and environmental motivation and above all
enthusiasm and passion. Here’s a few magic moments that I witnessed at bTWEEN:
1 + 1 = A Better Business Model
Andy Davison presented his idea for regenerating abandoned
and derelict space in communities across the UK, that involves documenting the
effort with film over a three year period. The documentation would track
progress, but also provide a film archive that a broadcast outlet (Channel 4,
BBC or other) could turn into a documentary or film about how the UK is Going
Green. Andy’s professor also attended to support the idea and
offered this commentary about the project:
“Exactly the kind of thing we should be supporting in this
age of environmental destruction. This is something we should all get behind -
use new media tools to do something REAL and meaningful in the world.” –David
Robinson, Lecturer, University of Bradford
The magic happened when later that night I met Mark Alexander,
who’s seed idea is called Hugs Everything, a concept he describes as “Facebook
for environmental awareness.” As it turns out, his idea complements what Andy
Davison is getting up to, and the two have connected and have started meeting
to incubate how to bring their mutual ideas to life.
Like I said in the title of this blog post -- Rare Fruits are growing from bTWEEN!!!
1 2 1 = Incubation
Among the senior mentors attending bTWEEN was Steve Taylor,
Director of Development & Innovation for Aegis. Steve was a judge in
the Branding Talent competition, and from what I understand was instrumental in
pulling in more agency creatives to bTWEEN than have previously attended,
making the conference a real mix of agency types, entrepreneurs and
technologists. He also set up his own mini-incubation lab at bTWEEN, where he
kept back-to-back appointments to discuss new business ideas with
entrepreneurs. I heard that he met with more than 20 people, helping them
better define what role they can play in the industry.
Somewhere in bTWEEN
bTWEEN included a number of features that I’ve never
seen used at conferences before. The organizers deserve praise for incorporating:
Live Webcasting
The crew of Kinura worked non-stop to keep the speaker’s
discussions and other happenings broadcasting live from Manchester. The webcast
included a chat feature, that allowed anyone watching the speakers from
elsewhere to contribute, and ask speakers questions. The chat also made for hilarity at
times, when the chatters commented on speakers presentations, or in some cases, got sadly
mean about a few things. bTWEEN's chat feature was created by muchosmedia.
Another highlight was Timelines, a techy feature that allowed
attendants to ‘bookmark’ points of interest, connect with people, and re-visit
the experience online, using RFID tagging devices, supplied with registration
badges.
Most amazing was that so many of the new technology industry
of the UK were in attendance, alongside what can be
credited as part of the
very beginnings of computing. At 60-years-old, ‘The Baby’ was probably the
greatest star of the bTWEEN show, as it’s the world’s first stored-program
computer. The Baby was designed by a dream team of engineers at the University of Manchester
in June 1948.
My Photo Magic Moment
For me, one terrific magic moment was meeting a truly
impressive multimedia installation artist, who I plan to spotlight
in the
future on this blog. While chatting about his upcoming installation in the
north of England, we started taking some photos. He took my camera and informed
me that he would take the best photograph of my life. Sure I thought, whatever,
I can’t stand most photos that are taken of me. But he proved his artistic
genius on the spot, and sure enough this is the best photo I’ve ever had taken
in my life:
Thanks for the best photo of my life Simon!
What's happening with Rare Fruits?
Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention what became of our
contest entry. Well, we didn’t win
the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,
but we did win plenty of valuable insight and
counsel for pitching our Rare
Fruits idea to others. The champion of our Branding Talent competition was
Robin Cramp, who’s Little Me idea won over the
judges, and may likely be developed further for use with Littlewoodsdirect.com.
We got awesome feedback from the mentors about our idea, including spot-on tips from 4Talent about what we can do with the Rare Fruits idea. I'm now cultivating the seed of the Rare Fruits idea, and hope to see it grow into something absolutely beautiful, in time.
I'm growing rare fruit,
-Lisa
Who’s
Lisa Devaney?
I
head the Hai Media Group, a multimedia communications company based in London,
offering client’s traditional public relations, combined with new technology
marketing strategies. I also perform, creating original Cabaret-style comedy
skits for festivals, theatre and parties. Find out more about me, and the
talented entrepreneurs I collaborate with, by visiting: www.haimediagroup.com
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