Characteristics of new digital media and music environment:

Agile – able to move quickly to develop, produce & release

Independent – no longer controlled by traditional owners

Interruptive – whole industries being radically reinvented or fragmented. Rather than be protectionist we must embrace this otherwise we will be left behind.

Collaborative – clusters, crowd sourcing, geographically diverse

Fresh content – amazing amount of new, fresh content every day which can be organized and curated.

Fluid transactions – push button downloads for apps, music, books, TV shows & movies. New commerce models ie Facebook credits for content.

Issues and Needs for Australia

- Hi speed broadband required to keep pace with rest of world

- Better fostering of innovation – funding, tech VC market (tax incentives?)

- Digital Education – both business and students. Greater emphasis on modern digital practices. (NLYZR study). Strongly question whether current tertiary education is preparing people for the digital economy.

- Celebration of success – plenty of talent and up & coming media & music stories that need to be told. We’ve been proposing a leading event…like sxsw. But needs support and funding.

- Intellectual Property laws and processes are archaic and barely viable for current fast moving digital environment. We require a very different approach to licensing, IP, property “rights” and other elements of the underlying framework.

- Retaining talent in Australia – Oz mafia in Silicon Valley, moving where things happen.

- Overall need to decrease friction and roadblocks to enable rapid delivery of content and transactions.

Rather than laws to protect old establishment industries, new laws to enable creation of new business & industries.

Guy Kawasaki

UPDATE 23 SEPTEMBER 2011: Tim Ferriss has just been added to the lineup for The Business Growth Summit. Sign up now to watch Tim and other great speakers online.

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There are so many inspiring bloggers, marketers and business leaders out there that it’s nearly impossible to see them all. You could fly to Texas for SXSW Interactive or San Francisco for one of the better web conferences like Web 2.0, but even then you won’t catch all the presentations.

That’s where The Business Growth Summit comes in. Here’s an innovative way to catch some of the worlds best marketers, business leaders and speakers all under one roof……yours.

Chris Brogan

The Business Growth Summit is an online conference that allows you to watch what you want when you want, and its happening right now until 30 September.

Already there’s been some excellent presentations by Guy Kawasaki, Peter Kim, Rick Liebling and there are plenty more to come.

Entry is FREE. All you need to do is register and you’ll be sent the links to view each of the presentations.

Dan Schawbel

By the way, I believe I am the only Australian presenting at The Business Growth Summit so please check out my short video: 5 ways to turn your website into a marketing machine and help me fly the flag. I have included a special NLYZR offer on the site beneath my bio if you decide you’re inspired enough to tackle your online marketing.

Every year there are a range of conferences I’d love to attend. There’s nothing like hearing from some of the best in the business to fuel your creative fires or pick up some excellent ideas that could take your work to the next level.

I try to get to at least one major international conference each year; SXSW in Austin, the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco, iStrategy in Sydney are just a few on my radar. The problem with many though is the time and cost involved, especially when you’re based in Australia.

But now we have the opportunity to attend a world class business conference without leaving the office or couch. Best of all, it includes many of the people I’ve flown across the world to listen to. These people are all leaders in their field with some valuable insights into modern business practices.

The Business Growth Summit is a  free online event featuring over 30 leading experts sharing strategies on how to grow a business, leverage opportunities, and increase profits.

Speakers include Guy Kawasaki (international bestselling author), Chris Brogan (top 5 ranked blogger), Amy Cosper (editor at Entrepreneur Magazine), Jon Gordon (bestselling author), Ryan Blair (multimillionaire serial entrepreneur), Tim Sanders (former executive at Yahoo!), Michael Hyatt (chairman of Thomas Nelson Publishers), and more.

I’m very proud to have been invited to join these leading identities to be one of the presenters at The Business Growth Summit. I’ll be discussing The 5 Ways to Turn Your Website into a Marketing Machine.

See www.TheBusinessGrowthSummit.com for details and to REGISTER today!

Recently I have been proposing a festival for Newcastle along the lines of SXSW in Austin,Texas. We’ve had some really good discussions about it at The Lunaticks Society events and Newcastle Coffee Mornings.

I am proposing that we call it The DiG Festival (Design, Interactive and Green-tech).

I have told anyone who will listen that Austin during SXSW is one of the most exciting places on the planet, and it’ be great to create some of that excitement here too.

I just came across this excellent little video that really illustrates how exciting SXSW really is. The Interactive section runs fro about 1.45 to 4mins but the whole lot is worth a look and could be inspiration for a larger event in the future.

Could you DiG a SXSW in Newcastle? I know I could.

Some of the action at Web 2.0 Expo in SFO

Its important to get out of the office (and country) sometimes to stimulate ideas, meet some more interesting people and expand horizons. Here are some of the conference and events on my radar at the moment:

Newcastle Digital Showcase hosted by The Lunaticks Society of Newcastle – looking forward to hearing from local innovators.

TEDx Newy – still being planned but should stir up some stimulating talk later this year.

Web 2.0 Expo in New York City – I attended the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco in 2008 and the Web 2.0 Summit there last year. Both great events where I learnt a lot. The NYC event promises to be just as good.

SXSW Interactive – This is an amazing event. Mad, stimulating, hectic and informative. Anyone working in tech and new media should visit SXSW at least once. I attended in 2008 but missed the last two. Aiming to get amongst it again in 2012.

I’m a strong believer in the “innovate or die” approach to business.

We’re in an unprecedented age of innovation and change. Not since the industrial revolution has the world experienced such rapid advancements and wholesale change as technology has freed information and enabled incredible leaps in communication.

Over the last few years much of this blog has been dedicated to the changing nature of media and marketing; two areas heavily affected by 21st Century innovation, and it has allowed me to study business models that need to rapidly evolve or become extinct.

But these days innovation is crucial to most industries and communities. The powerhouses of modern business have been the most innovative companies: Google, Apple and Facebook to name just three. They’re now being joined by companies like Groupon (who are innovating around retail), Netflix (innovating around home entertainment) and Zygna (innovating around gaming or micro gaming). While these companies are pushing innovation previous industry leaders in the same categories are dying.

I’ve long believed that the way forward for an old industrial town like Newcastle is not to look at the past, but to embrace the future. While steel-making might have been Newcastle’s past innovation and technology could be it’s future.

Web and mobile innovation could be the path to future prosperity in Newcastle. If ever there was a town that should lobby hard to have the National Broadband Network sooner rather than later, it’s Newcastle. Running high speed broadband cable down the currently dilapidated Hunter Street could enable smart start-ups to reinvent the area as an Innovation Capital.

Cheap rents, great lifestyle and a large University all combine in Newcastle to create a perfect environment to attract talent and foster innovation.

While this vision may be a little way off, there is already a nucleus of innovation in Newcastle. They’re not making a big noise yet but I think they will soon.

And that’s where the Lunaticks Society’s next event comes in. On Tuesday 3 May they’re holding their first Digital Showcase. Its a festival of innovative ideas where presenters will be offered the chance to give an elevator pitch in a 15 minute session to an expert panel of judges and audience of digital enthusiasts, creatives, entrepreneurs and investors.

If you have a great idea you’ve been working on and want to share then contact the Lunaticks to be one of the presenters. If you’re keen to hear from some innovators then roll up and join the audience.

I’m really hoping this will be the catalyst for a new era of innovation in the area; one where businesses begin to realise they must innovate or die.

These are my paraphrased notes and observations from the presentation by Katherine Savitt at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on 17 November 2010.

Z future is here

Generation Z are those children and teenagers born between 1992-2010. In the USA they number 65 million. In first world countries they number 275 million, while worldwide there are 1.6 billion Gen-Z’s.

They are the first generation of digital natives, people who have grown up with the internet and connected devices. They are not amazed by the digital age, they take it for granted.

Gen Z represent the age of acquired attention deficit disorder. They are used to using multiple devices at once, and doing it effectively. In fact, neuroplasticity theory explains that, as we evolve with machines and multiple smart devices, we as humans are actually able to process much more with multitasking ability, despite what we always believed about the need to concentrate on one thing at a time.

Gen Z have an expectation that life follows video games. Ie. you should receive validation for your wins and be able collect things along the way.

Gen Z have also reclassified cheating due to their online and gaming habits. Ie. game cheats and shortcuts aren’t a bad thing, they’re seen as smart.

Gen Z are the new curators:

• Entertainment should be on demand rather than dictated by suppliers. This is the new normal.

• Commerce: while past generations were brand loyal and wore them with pride, Gen Z is no slave to a brand or badge.

• They are extremely Social. Gen Z will buy not because marketing told them to, but because their friends recommended it.

Gen Z demonstrate 3 key behaviours: Share, Express, Consume

• 62% report 250+ friends are on a social network

• 86% have shared a video this month

• 65% have shared this week

• 73% report “discovering through my friend” as most important way to find new products

• 93% have created or shared content online (video, photo or post)

There is no hiding for marketers from Gen Z. They curate and kill or passionately market something depending upon whether it resonates with them or not. They can be a brand’s best friend or worst enemy.

Z future is here

Generations X & Y are actually influenced by Gen Z now.

Brands don’t need to worry about getting more creative in order to win over Gen Z, they need to get curated.

Its important to make your brand open, easy, amazing and be able to be curated.

The recurring question everyone is asked at a large industry event, like the Web 2.0 Summit, is “what do you do” or another variation, “what does your company do?” Your answer tells a lot about the focus and marketability of your company.

Drinks break at Web 2.0 Summit 2010

Most people answer this with a long, rambling description, often requiring a few follow up questions to clarify things for their interrogator. Alarm bells should ring if this is your typical response.

The smart and focused companies provide concise, easy to understand explanations. Think about how Apple always describes their killer products: iPod = 1000 songs in your pocket, iPhone = the web in your hand etc.

I met a lot of very smart start-up founders at Web 2.0 Summit and it was clear that the good ones could, without fail, explain their idea or business in a handful of words. They had their elevator pitch down pat as a result of being put through the ringer by VC’s in a very competitive market.

We all need to be able to explain what we do in a similar fashion to this.

I found myself refining my explanation every time I’m asked…and I would have answered that question about 40 times a day at the conference. It’s been an interesting case in test-marketing. My clunky, long-winded answers might cause eyes to glaze over, while my sharper, more eloquent responses tend to create genuine interest.

Think long and hard about your best answer to “what to you do”. When you get it right and receive genuine interest at industry events, you might finally have a sales pitch that you can use in your marketing too.

I’m attending two major conferences in the next month, in different parts of the world and for very different reasons.

Craig Wilson & Guy Kawasaki at SXSWi 2009

Its easy to dismiss conferences these days, probably because there are so many of them, especially around marketing, social media and tech. I’m fairly confident I could fill up most of my year attending all the industry conferences that hit my inbox. On top of that there are the regular social media and tech get-togethers, like Social Media Club and Digital Citizens. The options are endless, and for many who attend numerous events each year it is easy to become complacent and dismissive of the content. For industry “veterans” much of the information is considered basic or already familiar.

But in my view many of these conferences play a big part in the growth of our industry and shouldn’t be so lightly dismissed. Its also why I am fairly selective about the events I do attend – I’m interested in the one’s that I think might make a difference.

The two conferences I am about to attend both address very different audiences and serve different purposes, but in my mind are both equally important.

Firstly, I am flying to San Francisco to attend the Web 2.0 Summit. This is an invitation-only event with some of the biggest hitters in the industry attending and presenting. Its an annual event where leaders of the Internet Economy gather to debate and determine business strategy.

I expect Web 2.0 Summit to be a real eye-opener for me, exposing me to cutting-edge thinking and a strong view to where the industry is heading. Its clearly a stand-out conference by any standard.

Speakers include: Mark Pincus from Zynga, Eric Schmidt & Susan Wojcicki from Google, Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, Don Mattrick from Microsoft, Susan Lyne from Gilt Groupe, Robin Li from Baidu, Evan Williams and Biz Stone from Twitter, Carol Bartz from Yahoo!, Mark Benioff from Salesforce.com, Scott Thompson form PayPal, Jeff Weiner from LinkedIn, Tony Hsieh from Zappos and many more.

The following week in Sydney I’ll be attending the iStrategy Conference. Rather than being aimed at the tech and social media industry, iStrategy is a gathering for Business, Marketing, Business Development, IT and Creative professionals involved in all aspects of online media and strategic management positions.

I see iStrategy as an important cog in the education of the corporate world about online marketing and digital strategies. While I am hoping to learn a few things here, I am more interested in understanding what the corporate world is learning about the industry and how open they are to new ideas.

Once again, its crucial because this sort of education and discussion grows our industry and creates greater demand for the services of digital marketing professionals.

Speakers at iStrategy Sydney include: Nick Love from MySpace, Kerry Bridge from Dell, Craig Hepburn from Nokia, Cliff Rosenberg from LinkedIn, Andy Ridley from Earth Hour and World Wide Fund, B. Bonin Bough head of Social Media for Pepsico, Harry Lowes from Digital Marketing at Commonwealth Bank, Naomi Simpson from Red Balloon, Glenis Carroll from Fairfax Digital, Emily Raynor from Austrereo, David May from JetStar and many more.

I’ll be very keen to hear what these people have to say about digital marketing here in Australia and the reaction of the corporate leaders who are attending.

Two big digital media conferences. Both important for different reasons.

This week will be a conference-heavy one for me with plenty of focus on the future.

I’ll be attending the Australasian Media and Broadcasting Congress in Sydney and sitting on two panels.

Panel 1 is to discuss Where is advertising heading? We’ll be looking at what the emergence of new platforms and players means for advertising spends on traditional media, questioning whether brands will continue to advertise en masse and even looking at whether technology such as 3D TV is the future for advertising.

Panel 2 probably has a lot of similar themes for me as we look at Strategies for successfully transitioning to a broadband economy. We’ll discuss what media companies need to do to survive in the changing technological environment, using the online channel to develop content and advertising products that cater to the on-demand media consumer and how media companies will generate revenue online.

The rest of the conference topics focus heavily on the digital age so its going to be fascinating to see what the rest of the industry is thinking.

The Australasian Media and Broadcasting Congress is on 20-22 July 2010 at the Swissotel, Sydney.