Day one of what’s going to be an extremely busy week at Cannes showed how digital technologies and the Internet are changing not just the advertising industry but all sectors of industry.
Schematic’s Dale Herigstad showed, among other things, where Microsoft’s Project Natal is pointing the direction of where computer controls are going.
Being able to remotely control equipment with body movements and facial expressions is going to be a massive change for entertainment, communications and many other sectors.
This theme was expanded upon by Andy Pimental of Razorfish who demonstrated his vision of where television is going.
In Andy’s future, the game controller and console are doomed. Movement recognition like Project Natal coupled with games being on the cloud means the game industry is going to be very different in a few years time.
An interesting aspect with Andy’s presentation is that most of the technology is already available to achieve his vision, as he put it “it’s the business constraints, not technology, that limits us”.
From a presenter’s point of view, the use of mock Tweets to illustrate points was a nice touch, too.
Kevin Eyres of LinkedIn probably had the most impact. While much of the presentation focused on how LinkedIn can be used as a marketing tool, Kevin’s comments at the beginning about every individual is now entreprenuer thanks to reduced job tenure and security really illustrated the challenges businesses and governments are going to face in the connected world.
There’s some interesting challenges for all businesses ahead, not just the advertising industry. There’s a lot more to come.