Juicy Info

Been to a couple of brilliant conferences this week. Content-wise, they were quite different yet complementary in many ways. They both looked at how technology is playing a bigger part in the advertising and media worlds, one focused on digital creativity, whilst the other focused on Twitter’s far reaching applications in society.

140 Character Conference (#140conf)

Jeff Pulver‘s brilliant 140 Character Conference at the O2 (#140conf), delved deep into how Twitter is permeating our society, bringing together over 60 speakers from multiple fields.

Over the course of the day, we heard stories from those in media, education, law enforcement, politics, marketing, PR, advertising, small business, charity as well as web experts.

It was clear Twitter has become a lifeline for many organisations, whilst others are coming to learn the benefits it can bring. Twitter has moved on from being about ‘what you are doing’ to a place to find out ‘what is happening.’ It is a portal through which information is being shared and communicated, filtered, refined and shaped by probably the most effective engine – Humans. As Nick Halstead from Tweetmeme pointed out: “The Twitter collective is a more effective filter/aggregator than Google.”

Looking at one of the major tipping points in its history, Maz from Sky, talked about the Iran election and how it has exposed the more serious side of Twitter, exposing the harsh realities of what is happening in our world. This event was recently named by the Webby awards as one of the top ten biggest moments in web history from the past decade.

For me, some of the most fascinating examples came from the public sector, where  Police officers are now using Twitter to move closer to communities, engaging them to help them fight problem areas and to build positive links with people.

Stephen Fry pulled out the best quote of the day, reminding us that Twitter is “human-shaped, not business-shaped and that it is the ‘citizens who make it what it is.”

He warned that with businesses moving into the space, there is the danger that it will lose its ‘organic buzz,’ forcing users to move away. Meanwhile, rumours are now circulating that Twitter is to start offering business tools by the end of the year as it looks to build a business model around its social network.

Creativity‘s CAT (Creativity + Technology) conference (#crcat)

This conference homed in on technology’s role in shaping creativity in the fields of advertising, design and production, held at the beautiful Saatchi Gallery on London’s Kings Road.

A thread than ran through the day was that as technology becomes more sophisticated, the onus is on the experts to create an ever more simple, but valuable user experience that enhances aspects of everyday life. It’s about how these technologies can enhance the human (user) experience.

As people spend more time online they are becoming less tolerant of sites that do not work well, or are difficult to use. A report just out from Forrester underscores the more touchy-feely impact that online brands need to achieve. It finds that the most popular traits of B2C online brands (from a consumers perspective) are being ‘trustworthy’, ‘helpful’ and ‘relevant,’ outshining technological benefits (innovation, speed), which sit further down the list.

So what does it take to deliver a great user experience in a digital environment?

A presentation by Lastminute.com, touched on how they were limiting choice to  improve their customers’ experience. Their new Topsee iphone application, is based on consumer insights that found their online search process is NOT fun and with so much choice available the ‘business of choosing is hard work.‘ To overcome this, they have created Topsee, a location-based information service that offers users a selective and simplified choice of what to do in their local area, focusing on the ‘best bits’ as chosen by key bloggers. It aims to deliver a useful, yet fun user experience.

Later on in the day, Ian Tait from Poke spoke of how simple, small ideas that draw on technologies can often be powerful, giving their own Bakertweet example. It is an application that enables bakers to tell people when freshly baked products have come out of the oven. He pointed out that technology does not have to be about the big and most innovative – small ideas can have a huge impact.

These are just some of my takeaways, which only scratch the surface of the content delivered. You can read more on Creativity.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.