So I spoke at the amazing and well organized Thinking Digital (@thinkingdigital) conference in Newcastle this week. The other speakers were amazing and I found the conversations and discussions meaningful and intelligent - I'd highly recommend it, also Newcastle is a lovely city!
At the conference I gave a speech on Friction - whose core messages were that Friction is both power generated, creative catalyst and enemy of consumer, business and product experience. I also talked about some of the drivers of friction, good, bad and unavoidable. I referred heavily to a friend of mine Gerd Leonhard @gerdleonhard 's presentation called Friction is Fiction, which I think is fabulous and which talks a lot about some of the bigger challenges facing media companies and the advanced thinking required of them to successfully navigate what I regularly refer to as the "moment of singularity" which they face today.
The funny thing is, my statement of this line of Gerd's "Data is the New Oil" which talks about the fact that we still use less than 2% of all data collected in the modern data-sphere and internet ecosystem - and that this represents an enormous opportunity; coupled with the similar attendent risks (privacy, security, identity) as well as its capitalist opportunities.
The phrase when Viral, re-tweeted LOADS of times, and even inspiring someone to make a button! (I hear a t-shirt is coming!).
A strange and flattering reminder of the power of social media, though I think that this quote is a far more valuable insight: “You have to build a business around your customers. Every successful business I have ever invested in knew who their customers were intimately, and that created value around long term quality relationships.”
It was still a lot of fun, and I'm glad Gerd is also getting his due (we've both been invited to TedX !)
