ChatterBachs… Composing Strategies

I had the privilege of attending digitalNow 2013 at Disney’s Contemporary Resort in Orlando, April 4-6. The notes below are based on my notes and tweets on what stood out to me and are not intended to capture all learning from each of the sessions nor the entirety of the three-day conference. I have put in bold and italics those comments I personally found to be the most impactful or thought-provoking.

Dr. Michio Kaku, Opening Keynote Presentation

• More power in computer chip in musical birthday card than all forces of WWII.
• More power in your smartphone than NASA had in 1969 to send a man to the moon.
• Like electricity, in the future the computer will be everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
• The word “computer” will disappear in next 20 years. Think “electricity”.
• Digitalization of transportation: Driverless cars may make words like “accidents” & “traffic jams” disappear.
• In the future your toilet will have more computer power than an entire university hospital today.
• How much to do the first gene sequence? $3 billion. By 2020? $100. An owner’s manual for your body.

Dr. Michio Kaku, Futurist and Author

Keynote panel with Dr. Michio Kaku

• We are born scientists until we hit junior high school. Junior high school kills scientists.
• We have to create a new sputnik to invigorate education.
• Day to day transactions are obsolete. We have computers to do that. We have to elevate the workforce.
• When hot shot programmers get tired of making social media, they can build firewalls to protect data.
• Some predictions don’t come true: paperless offices, people-less cities. We want proof of kill, & we’re social.

Dr. David Metcalf and Jenny Levine, The “Maker Society”

• Networking Uncommons designated section at conference: have your own session or meeting there, charge your laptop, etc.
• At ALA they’re trying to create a hacker association… engage people w/out a long-term commitment.
• Make your association hackable? You have to break bureaucracy & red tape, engage people on a project basis.
• Encourage organization hacks. Put unofficial events in official program for event.

Stuart Meyer, Your Association.TV

• By 2017 82% of all TVs sold will be smart TVs.
• More than half of senior execs share videos weekly with colleagues. 80% watch more video now than last year.
• Video-based storytelling leads to emotional proximity.
• Two goals with video: give immersive experience to connect to place & people they can relate to.
• Video: Today there is less members-only content because sponsors want more eyeballs.

Susan Etlinger, Day Two Opening Keynote Presentation

• The HIPPO problem- the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion.
• The challenge: Different kinds of media- print, digital, etc. Concept of paid, owned, and earned media. Received on various devices.
• Different purposes of media/content: awareness, consideration, intent, purchase, support, loyalty, advocacy
• Average global company has 178 social media accounts.
• Geico is easier to monitor on social media because it’s not a verb or noun otherwise. The Gap is, has different meanings.
• Advances in technology- Smart carpets detect falls, unfamiliar footsteps.
• Social data is a dress rehearsal for big data.

Susan Etlinger, Industry analyst with the Altimeter Group

John Dorman and Grant McInnes, “Getting the Biggest Bang for your Mobile Buck”

• When you go to the Texas Medical Association web site via mobile, it sniffs that you are on mobile & sends you to a different site.
• WordPress has a theme with responsive design built into it.
• Responsinator- see how web sites look on different devices.

Stephanie Young, “Innovation by Disney: Transforming the Customer Experience”

• After 21 years with Disney, she is constantly surprised & delighted by guest experience.
• Passion for storytelling is the Disney difference… it fuels its culture & its people.
• How can we take what we do & make it better?, a question asked at Disney.
• Disney uses RFID to track cast members’ costumes: check out, return, inventory, laundry.
• We can’t keep everything behind the curtain until it’s practically perfect.
• Innovation cannot take away from current work that we’re doing.
• Does technology enable you to better deliver on your core values?
• What’s in your fan mail? What are your members/customers raving about?

Dr. Alexander Pasik, “The Impact of Emerging Technologies on Associations”

• If you’re not analyzing operational data, why are you thinking big data?
• We don’t need systems that spit out reports; we need systems that use data to help us figure out what to do.
• What are social networks? Personalized associations.
• IEEE saved $500K by moving from in-house email to Google, did it in a weekend.
• Redefine membership in the context of existing platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, & Google+.
• Think about cloud security in same context as “Is my money safer under mattress or in a bank?”

Maggie McGary and Andy Steggles, “Social Media as Viewed from the C-Suite”

• Speed of technology adoption: 50 million users, it took radio 38 years; Twitter, 9 months.
• 3 reasons why execs adopt social technology: fear of falling behind, to get work done &/or to build culture of innovation.
• HR & IT are 2 departments most indifferent to social media.
• Having a complete LinkedIn profile w/ headshot is a living resume. It’s your business card- online.
• Using Google+ helps your findability, appear in Google search results.
• Think about like & share. It’s a different function in an activity feed. What if “approve” started a workflow?
• Internal facing software like Yammer & Chatter can help improve company workflows.
• The most at-risk members- the ones least likely to renew- are traditionally those that are least engaged.

John Maeda, Day Three Opening Keynote

• “Bad design is irrelevant. It is superficial, pretentious…” -Paul Rand
• “Design is the method of putting form and content together.” -Paul Rand
•  “I like people who have big dreams and execute well.” -a student of John Maeda
• 80,000 biological specimens at RISD. It’s like a library. “At RISD you can check out a turkey.”
• Innovation= Art + Design
• Artists think in the macro and the micro simultaneously.
• Traditional leaders avoid mistakes; creative leaders accept that mistakes happen & learn from them.

John Maeda, President, Rhode Island School of Design

Interesting stats & quotes

• Between now & 2030 someone turns 65 every 8 seconds.
• Every person is as powerful as a newspaper.

I’d also like to thank those who aided my understanding through their tweets: Tom Hood, Greg Melia, Elizabeth Engel, Jackie Brown, Sheri Jacobs, Scott Wiley, Dan LaBert, Stuart Meyer, Amy Bassett, John Mancini, and others.

What stood out to you from digitalNow? What were the lessons learned? What other blog posts or resources on this conference have you found to be insightful?