Ola is on stage with his cherubic smile, and that during this time of the year could just mean 1 thing - the SIME party has begun. And this time, SIME will also be on screens at Stockholm city, a first for SIME.
[I am trying to live blog apart from running around doing a lot of things for the workshops and match-making. So I will try my best to summarize and of course will read them again end of the day to go through erroneous links]
09.00 We’ve got news for you!
News from the SIME stable, updates over the last year with the introduction of SIME Academy, SIME Networking Bazaar and Workshops. Some things change, some things just don’t! And the core of SIME is always the same, and so will be the face of SIME on stage, Ola Ahlvarsson!
09.10 The age of the unthinkable
We live in turbulent times
But that’s so boring, we have been hearing this story over and over again. But the online landscape is doing good, the platform is getting stronger though the market is shit. Branding might be dead, but originality has never been so important in history. Media companies are changing and the traditional model is not working. They are buying verticals front, right and center, adding their marketing firepower and making it into a business that works and adds value. Advertising has become the fuel, it’s not the engine anymore. Content is.
With that introduction, we move on to the first keynote!
09.30 The transformers – companies going from offline to online with a smile
Some traditional companies embrace digital opportunities and make digital part of their DNA while most fail miserably and see new entrants disrupt the old playing field.
Keynote by: Jesper Kärrbrink, CEO of Eniro, one of Europe’s most progressive classifieds companies, former CEO of Svenska Spel and author of criminal novels.
Key Takeaways:
- Transforming is painful. 5.5B SEK of Eniro is being transferred in tune with the new environment.
- And during transforming we always start from within the box instead of starting from outside
- The consumption has got bigger, just that the medium of consumption has changed.
Panel: Sara Öhrvall, Head of Bonnier R&D (Sweden), Jesper Kärrbrink, CEO Eniro (Sweden) and Claudia Gonzalez, United Nations expert on social marketing and the former marketing director of the World Economic forum (US).
The panel focused on amongst many things, the way to handle change within an organization, how to tap grass root level innovations, pursuing your change strategy against all the mentally blind folks who are waiting for a chance to bring you down and stop you from your path on change. Sara Ohrvall has a great piece on the SIME Blog about 5 key media trends, personalization, the quantified self, augmented reality amongst others. You can read the piece here
And we go for break.
10.30 Coffee tea you and me
11.00 May I have your attention please?
A thought provoking journey into your attention span and how new technologies create new (a)social behavior.
Keynote by: Linda Stone, author and thought leader with a background as VP at Microsoft and long time executive with Apple who coined the term “continuous partial attention”.
We are on the path of becoming towards wisdom workers from knowledge workers and there is no right or wrong. There are just 2 contradicting answers, both of which are true. Linda’s presentation was poised just about with the right pace with the right amount of information.
11.20 Marketing is dead long live marketing
The art of marketing is rapidly evolving into becoming the science of marketing fuelled by advertising technology, analytics and digital alternatives. But as the users formally know as “consumers” get more empowered, marketing directors and communications professionals face a new paradigm where honesty, relevance, creativity and knowledge will separate the winners from the ones not knowing what hit them.
Keynote: Steven Overman, founder of the Realtime Project, communications pioneer including Lowe Worldwide Global Strategy director for IPG Team Nokia as one of the enthusiast behind Wired Magazine as well as in many other innovative teams. Steven was in the room ‘94 when the first banner was created…
Panel:
- Steven Overman, founder the Realtime Project
- Fredrik Sellgren, founder Sellbranch, Partner of Result and former Swedish CEO of TradeDoubler
- Dirk Freytag, CEO of ADTECH, SVP of AOL
- Heleen van Oord, founder and CEO of DQ&A, elected media woman of the year in Holland
Key Takeaways:
- “We are in a time where the information I need will find me” - Steven Overman, about being relevant in real time marketing. Steve thinks its about being the change, it’s about match-making, and marketing is a 4 letter word that we should not use.
- “It’s not only about matchmaking but the perfect match, the right device, the right screen, the right message”Heleen van Oordt DQ&A
- “US markets ask more for advertising related to their content” Dirk Freytag SVP AOL
- the million dollar question is, if there is a secret recipe for good advertising, and there is 1 million that no one will get - Fredrik Sellgren.
The panel was interesting although most of the speakers agreed on most of the points, yet, the discussions was well steered to a point where you realize that advertising has such a long developmental spiral to go. It is at its infancy, and there is much to be discovered.
On that note, we break for lunch. We should get back in an hour with more updates.
Check our flickr stream in the meanwhile - http://www.flickr.com/groups/1123671@N23/
13.00 A hacker’s view on innovation and the future
Keynote: Paul “Pablos” Holman. Pablos is a futurist, IT security expert, and a notorious hacker with a unique view into both breaking and building new technologies. His projects at the Intellectual Ventures Lab are among the most futuristic in the world. He will show how the mindset of hackers is optimized for invention and share some of the projects from his lab.
No words can capture the presentation. From live hacking to turning it into a good cause, it was simply fascinating. I am going to try to get the recorded version of the talk.
13.45 New! Mobile opportunities
Keynote: Pekka Pohjakallio, Vice President Concepting & Innovation, Nokia (Finland)
Key Takeaways:
- how the phone could become your most important sales channel (and why you feel lonely without it…)
- why entertainment is the fastest route to the users hearts and wallets
- how online will really go mobile (and not the usual BS)
Interesting:
At any moment, there are 9M phone calls between Nokia Phones. Everything is not mobile. Things that have backward mobility can become mobile . The smartest thing to do is to build the ecosystem around the mobile phone, and build more intelligence around it. Nokia is all about people and places. And that explains the reasons for the recent acquisitions by Nokia - Dopplr, Plazes amongst others. And they are gunning for the people network too, think that’s a smart positioning move.
The keynote is now followed by the panel on the mobile innovations.
14.00 The Masters of Mobile
With Billions of phones carrying Billions of apps the era of the mobile has gone from vision to in your ear- and face user experiences offering a plethora of opportunities never seen before.
Panel: Pekka Pohjakallio, Vice President Concepting & Innovation, Nokia (Finland), Dan Olschwang, President and CEO of Jumtap one of the world’s leading mobile marketing and technology companies (US) and surprise guest.
Key take aways
- 3 is looking at interesting concepts and verticals that they want to launch and make use of the billing relationship better.
- Nokia is positioning itself as a service / entertainment company than a pure hardware company.
- Mobile Marketing is interesting and companies and agencies have slowly started allocating budgets for mobile marketing. The barrier level has never been so low for companies to enter mobile marketing.
- Touch is interesting, but that’s not the next wow. The next ‘wow’ is not touch, but being intelligent and relevant without having to touch - Pekka.
The discussion start end here and continue at the workshops Everything Mobile at 1615 Rigoletto 4, “Meet the 6 mobile innovators” tomorrow. The workshop schedule is at http://sime.nu/09/stockholm/agenda
[Rushing to workshops and match making desks. WIll come back for the post-coverage again]
