Shesays SCAMP conference at Lbi
Having been curious about digital advertising for some time, I found myself at Lbi on Brick Lane, at the SCAMP conference organised by Shesays which is an organisation with the aim of getting more women into the male-dominated world of digital.
The range of speakers was so diverse and I came away feeling like I had gained a lot from the experience.
Nicole Yershon - director of innovative solutions at Ogilvy
Unfortunately I missed the beginning of Nicole’s talk as I was signing in stragglers, but what really made an impact for me from what I did catch was the fact that traditional modes of working are being slowly broken down. She said that in order for campaigns to be successful, ad agencies must be willing to involve themselves in partnerships with freelancers that are honest and fair. With so much technology around us, we need to have the freedom to outsource for skills in digital and mobile technology and so on. With this in mind, she stressed the importance of networking - her little black book sounds rather impressive!
Jenni Lloyd - strategy director at Nixon McInnes
Jenni analyses digital and social behaviour. She explored the way that data, such as trends on Twitter can be visualised in a stimulating way, which can enhance the TV viewers experience of a program that they are watching. For example, her company created the BB11 ‘data copter’ which captured tweets about the final Big Brother opening night, detailing what viewers were tweeting about and how they felt about the new contestants. Interestingly, she said that by analysing the data, one could potentially predict who could be the likely winner of the competition.
Something she said which I really liked was that, “today, we are constantly disrupted and we enjoy it”. There are so many things that can attract our attention and stimulate our imaginations, but we enjoy this as social beings, and in fact thrive off it.
Katie Streton - head of insight at Imagination
Katie told us about a great project that she is working on at the moment - I am not sure whether I am still bound to the promise of secrecy that we made before the talk so all I will say is that it is a cool idea but also something very doable, very practical.
I liked the fact that she was willing to take a risk with pitches, but also offering a safer alternative in case the client doesn’t bite. However, she admitted, “who want’s to be safe and predictable?”, which just about sums up the spirit of the day.
Katy Lindemann - senior strategist at Naked Communications
I loved Katy’s talk - the idea of making commuters’ lives more bearable by bringing a game element to the tube is ingenious. Chromaroma follows peoples’ travels around the tube, tracking the data on their Oyster card. What is great about this is that unlike Foursquare, where you have to remember to ‘check in’ at every destination, with Chromaroma, you need do nothing but go about your daily activities as normal. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the next few weeks and months - I have signed up to test it so hopefully will be able to use it by the time I’m back in London in August!
Gavin Brook - technology director at Albion
Gavin - our token male - explored the development of technology recently and the scope of possibilities at our fingertips. He mentioned the ambient umbrella, which I had already heard about - a great use of technology today which is cheap and easy to provide. He argued that we need to be able to provide an integrated experience which is not just about launching a website but providing something which is a fun, memorable experience.
Incidentally, I think the Baker Tweet sounds like the coolest thing ever. I want one.
Tiffany St James - head of public participation for the UK Government
I thought Tiffany’s talk was fascinating - mainly because I knew nothing about what she was talking about! I still thought that the Government was stuck in the 90’s when it came to data, so was pleasantly surprised and impressed that she has somehow managed to bring the government into the 21st century. Not only that, but she talked about so many cool apps that had been created thanks to the open source nature of the government data that I’m probably going to be tweeting about them for days to come. Somehow, she managed to convince me that data can, in fact, be beautiful.
Candace Kuss - director of planning/interactive strategy director at Hill and Knowlton
Candace talked about the dark side of user generated content and explored its potentially devastating affects on brands. Using the anti-BP material on the internet as an example (including the wonderful BPGlobalPR), she explained that whilst you may have an agency working for you to promote a certain image, there are thousands of people in the world with lots of creative energy who may wish to work to destroy it. As such, she argued that if companies are willing to have a presence on social media, they must have a contingency plan in place for if things go wrong, and they must be willing to communicate with their customers in a relaxed, informal way. And a little humour doesn’t hurt either (- although obviously not for BP right now!)
Georgina Voss - researcher at Tinker London
Georgina finished up the day with a discussion about smart homes. She said that despite having the technology to utilise modern technology for use in living spaces, consumers have been slow to take it up. She argued that there is a fear about technology in the home - that it will control us, that we will have to adapt our lifestyles around it. However, things are hopefully changing, and the Homesense project that Tinker are working on at the moment aims to develop new ways in which people and technology can co-exist together happily. (I personally loved the idea of a soil sensor for plants which monitors when they need to be watered, sending a tweet requesting a drink!)
As you can see, it was a busy and varied day - well worth travelling down from Bath. I met some interesting people and am looking forward to the next Shesays event in August! Digital here I come!
