Duncan Arbour 29 September, 2008 17:22:PM
Guy Laurence is CEO of Vodafone Netherlands, and - for added delight - he’s interviewed by Kara Swisher of AllThingsD, already responsible for one of PICNIC’s great lines this year: “Apple’s design philosophy is tasteful fascism.”
After the disappointment of the previous Google presentation, this is a treat.
Duncan Arbour 27 September, 2008 11:52:AM
As you’ll have gathered, our hosts for PICNIC08 were our awesome Dutch colleagues over at LBi Lost Boys who were co-sponsoring the event.
It’s been a great week for the Lost Boys team, they’ve just made the top 5 list for dutch advertising agencies, and they were also around covering PICNIC for their own Lost Boys TV broadcasts - myself and Dom ended up on camera (you can watch it here…) but what we’re most interested in is the bit towards the end of the clip where Igor, Lost Boys’ MD, gives his opinion on our current issue the magazine. If you can speak Dutch and can give us the gist then let us know…
Duncan Arbour 27 September, 2008 11:45:AM
Gav and Dom, hard at work…
…The PICNIC grounds…
Why, what a fine looking magazine that is…
Duncan Arbour 27 September, 2008 11:30:AM
Google's Gisel Hiscock
So, this is what the programme has to say, be advised - it’s misleading as hell: “Google’s European Director will talk about some of the company’s newest initiatives and strategies. From Andriod to AdSense, and from Streetview to bringing internet by satellite to Africa. With a special focus on Google’s European business and development strategies. This is lies. Though Android is touched on at the end.
WARNING - do not read this post if you want to learn anything of note about Google.
Duncan Arbour 27 September, 2008 11:19:AM
Dom blogging it live at blog.lbi.com
Comparing notes in the Amsterdam sunshine
Dom and Duncan 'chasing down the story...'
Gavin posing shamelessly.
Duncan Arbour 27 September, 2008 11:04:AM
A Swarm of Angels...
And yet still more from Gavin, this time looking at a number of examples ranging from the film industry, through music, and finally highlighting how collaborative platforms could (please, bring it on…) help twist the knife in the side of bloated traditional media businesses. Oh yes…
Duncan Arbour 27 September, 2008 10:23:AM
The cuddly face of modern design practice...
More from Gavin Edwards helping to cover PICNIC08 for us, this time on the Design as a Collaborative Process session featuring Bill Moggridge of IDEO (who Gav appears to like) and Younghee Jung from Nokia who doesn’t get such a good response…
Duncan Arbour 26 September, 2008 11:54:AM
Gav’s already written a little about the presentation given by Radi Haladjian from Violet, but worth saying some more I think - the Internet of Things is way cool, and Rafi and Violet are as close to bringing it about as anyone else - plus Rafi is one of the most engaging presenters I’ve seen for a while so well worth another look.
Duncan Arbour 26 September, 2008 11:36:AM
So, another post from Gavin, and I would use one of the pictures from our catch up drink last night but, to be honest, they wouldn’t show him at his best. This time, he picks up another perennial LBiQ favourite topic, the future of TV.
Duncan Arbour 26 September, 2008 11:18:AM
As promised yesterday, Gavin Edwards of LBi is doing a spot of LBiQ.net guest writing.
Here he is on Rafi Haladjian, creator of Nabaztag and - if you believe Gavin - a man who’s next venture (the Mir:ror) is a steal of something that Gav did at college…
Duncan Arbour 26 September, 2008 10:56:AM
Everyone loves Nike+, you can’t move in London these days for the same agency types who once happily swanned about saying “Ooooh! You should get a brand profile on MySpace” now saying “Well, of course, it’s all about marketing as a service now, just look at Nike+”.
The thing is, they typically can’t give you any other examples, and they don’t really understand Nike+ either. One guy who does, though, is Michael Tchao, the man with one of the most desirable jobs in marketing.
Duncan Arbour 26 September, 2008 10:37:AM
OK, a little late to get this post up which I’ll blame on the quality of the PICNIC drinks reception held by LBi Lost Boys at the end of the day. A chance to see some fantastic work (live in a week or I’d like to it now…) for Mitsubishi as well as to lay into more of the local cheese and beer.
But that said, Dom’s already covered Clay Shirky quite comprehensively here…
Duncan Arbour 25 September, 2008 14:28:PM
So, second day at PICNIC and myself and Dom are lucky enough to have been joined by LBi’s awesome Gavin Edwards, delayed by pitch and client commitments. Whatever the above picture may suggest (look carefully and you’ll see an early release copy of LBiQ issue 4 on the table under all the beer), the deal is that Gavin’s basically the responsible one…
Duncan Arbour 25 September, 2008 14:15:PM
Well, not cottaging at all, but what’s the point of reading Copyblogger if you can’t try to put the ‘Diggable headlines’ principle into practice?
So, dealing with the excess lunchtime Heineken, I came face to face with this random toilet based execution from tvents.nl who are busy promoting their video tech with a dedicated PICNIC site. Not just a good placement, but a really well utilised QR code.
Not just is it the first time I’ve seen anyone dare to challenge the formal black and white orthodoxy of QR righteousness and present the code in colour, but - as we noted about this time last year - until QR reader software (check out Kaywa if you’re into this kind of thing) becomes standard on handsets, the only people you’re going to reach outside of Japan are the early adopter techno-tribes who’ll snap any code they see.
PICNIC couldn’t be a better place to put this into practice.
Duncan Arbour 25 September, 2008 8:40:AM
Phil Oakey - Assymetry Incarnate
I’ll keep this one brief, as Dom managed to get his coverage up last night, and you can find a good write up here on Ethan Zuckerman’s blog. (Looking forward to seeing Ethan speak on Africa later).
Linda Stone (very accomplished facilitator) starts off by playing a video that I’m prepared to bet you £10 you’ve already seen.
Surprising that it’s being rolled out in this setting, but on the off-chance you haven’t you’ll find it below, then click on ‘read more’ and get onto the meat of it all…
Duncan Arbour 24 September, 2008 19:59:PM
Stefan Agamanolis of Distance Lab is ex-MIT.
These days his mission is “is to bring together engineering, design, and the arts to challenge the way people think about distance and to help overcome its disadvantages in learning, health, relationships, culture, and other domains.”
Duncan Arbour 24 September, 2008 19:33:PM
If you know of Aaron Koblin, it’ll probably be for one of two reasons:
- You followed the online debate around Sheep Market (very big in PICNIC’s graphics this year)
- You think the video he did for Radiohead’s (amazing) House of Cards, the one that didn’t use any lights or cameras, is, well, amazing.
The way he puts it, he “Creates software that visualises data”, and believes that data systems tell stories about our lives.
All I can say is, he’s patently a genius and - after enduring a keynote with no visuals - this is all appropriately inspiring. The day gets into proper gear.
Duncan Arbour 24 September, 2008 19:26:PM
Clay Shirky - the "bald Tom Hanks"
It’s 15 minutes into Charles Leadbeater’s opening keynote on collaboration and creativity when I get over my longterm personal issues with Twitter and check the pulse of the room.
Blaming the rush to the venue (running late due to abysmal service by BMI and the crazed antics of Ramon, our Colombian cab driver), I assumed that exhaustion was responsible for my lack of any stimulation.
Surely it couldn’t be a case of getting bored by an opening keynote speaker… ?
