Probably the biggest highlight of a fast, hectic 2009 was November’s X Media Labs in Sydney which illustrated just how the world is changing as a result of new media channels, faster Internet and more powerful computers.
The organisers of X Media Labs, Brendan Harkin and Megan Elliot, describe it as “a meeting place uniquely designed to assist companies and people get their own creative ideas successfully to market, through concept development, business matching, and direct access to world-class networks of creative professionals.”
Brendan and Megan held the first event at the Sydney Opera House in 2003 but have since relocated to Shanghai. The Chinese connection was strong with the guest speakers including property developers and social media entrepreneurs.
Wang Xing, founder of Chinese social networking sites, Fanfou and Xaionai impressed everyone with the size and growth of the Chinese Internet market. It left no doubt where the eyeballs and where the wallets will be as we continue into the 21st Century.
More challenges were presented by Zheng Xaioping, founder of property developer BAZO, who went through the growth of Chinese cities and the directions government and investors are taking within those cities.
A local success was Zareh Nalbandian of Sydney’s Animal Logic who showed some behind of the behind the scenes footage of Happy Feet and a US advertising campaign for fast broadband featuring a jet engine assisted shaved rabbit. It illustrated how exciting, quirky and innovative work is being done in Australia.
To show the US isn’t out for the count, Susan Bonds, president of 42 Entertainment, showed how bringing together many strands of the online digital media tools created a massive alternative reality game for the movie Dark Knight.
Probably the most exciting presenter was Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin from the University of California’s Santa Monica Nanotechnology Allosphere. Her talk, a version of which is on the TED website, showed the possibilities in the new economy as arts, science and technology come together.
Not everybody has the resources of the US National Science Endowment, a big movie studio, or the Chinese government to support their projects, but as Brasserie Bread showed a few months back you can create a buzz using some of these tools quickly.
That’s the challenge for all of us over the Christmas break – to figure out how we can harness the power and opportunities the second decade of the 21st Century is going to present us.