The Sunday keynote interview featured Nate Silver of fivethirtyeight.com, a political website that was created prior to the ‘08 presidential election that used a unique algorithm to predict the outcome. His career started by using an innovative approach to analyze baseball statistics, and this election allowed him to take the approach to a new level. By factoring in the complexities of humans beings, his statistical analysis changed political polling forever.
One of the biggest takeaways occurred during a discussion of his projects since the election. While using his method to predict the outcome of the latest Academy Awards, he realized it didn’t take into account the Academy’s reluctance to give an award to someone who had previously won. In the category of Best Supporting Actress he realized this error would result in the wrong prediction, breaking his first rule: never use a model that predicts something that you know will be wrong. “If you know you’re gonna be wrong, keep working on you F*@#&! Model.”
This statement applies to so much more than just gathering statistics. Whether it’s voter polls, educational curriculums, business models, group projects, personal interactions, etc. if you know in advance that the approach you’re taking will not lead you to the solution you’re trying to achieve DON’T KEEP DOING IT JUST TO DO IT.
Unfortunately, changing this model will likely be difficult: if it was easy you’d already be doing it, but instead it requires going back to the drawing board and reassessing the process. At times this might be scary as hell or hard to embrace, but saving the time, energy and resources that are spent building an unsuccessful finished product will be so much more useful in the end, and will truly allow for a sense of personal or organizational pride.
We went to the Interactive Tradeshow today to check out what was on display and to see if anything was interesting. It was good timing too, because we got there right at the start of the Block Party, aka free food and drinks. What a great draw to an otherwise boring Tradeshow, too. The booths that shelled out the extra dough for food and drink enjoyed more engaged and larger crowds by far.
The swag was smart too. With everyone carrying around cold drinks, the booths that offered free drink-cozies were well-trafficked as well:
Other booths used music, giveaways and dressed up characters to attract attention:
One of the coolest displays we saw was Pixton, an easy to use comic strip creation online app. Check out their pitch and how they sell and demonstrate the product:
Main takeaways from tradeshow:
Have freebies, ideally food and beer, in order to attract attention.
If you’re at an interactive conference, make your booth interactive. Everyone likes to play with fun technology.
Have a flawless demonstration that is engaging and enthusiastic.
One of the speakers I was looking forward to the most was Scott Belsky, of Behance. When working on another project and soaking in how people foster ideas, become ‘creative’, and be inspired, I stumbled upon Belsky’s work. His company doesn’t claim to care about inspiration or where ideas come from. Instead, they only care about making these ideas happen.
He calls this method for making ideas happen the Action Method. Watch him explain it here:
In a makeup that resembles most agencies, Belsky asserted that there were three main members of creative groups currently: doers, dreamers, and incrementalists. The doers and dreamers are typically paired together, while the incrementalists are the ones who can do it all, and the ones sought after. Unfortunately, they don’t have much focus.
Belsky also had something interesting to say about periodical meetings… something we have all been guilty of scheduling:
Other quick ideas on productive creativity included:
Seek cross-pollination, push your comfort zone
Don’t become burdened by consensus
Get respect for your strengths
Make sure that leaders always talk last, don’t kill ideas before they can be said
Seek restraints on projects where there are none
Hire for initiative and value chemistry over the people themselves
And finally, share ideas liberally:
These lessons will certainly be embellished later, but as a parting thought, “Nothing extraordinary is ever achieved through ordinary means”.
This afternoon, interactive web designer Brendan Dawes was a member of a panel focusing on the importance of showing the creative path rather than the final product alone. One of his most interesting examples was a news site he created which changes the way people receive the news they’re searching for. Without giving too much away, the journey to find information is clearly the principle function of his creation.
Just click on the link, press “open doodlebuzz” and start experimenting.
A discussion of interactive marketing campaigns used “the pencil analogy” to change my way of thinking. On one side of the spectrum there is a standard, #2 pencil…on the other is a military helicopter.
Anyone can use the #2 pencil. It has the ability to write and erase. There is no user manual, online tutorial or insider tips. Everyone can pick it up and immediately start using it. Then there’s the military helicopter. The helicopter uses hundreds of buttons, knobs and levers to control the way it operates. An individual is required to complete moths of tedious training and virtual simulations before ever being allowed to sit in the pilots seat and raise the machine off the ground. In essence it is impossible to fly without any previous knowledge.
Currently, the majority of interactive marketing campaigns function like the military helicopter. The interfaces are complex and users require above average understanding of programs to access them. The session entitled, “Interactivity Beyond the Screen: Branding in Four Dimensions” concluded that to be successful these campaigns need to function like the pencil, at the most basic levels of understanding.
While I agree that interactive campaigns need to take into consideration the reach of their messaging, I believe a campaign can find a middle ground to reach all audiences. A pencil campaign will quickly lose the interest of the technological and intellectual elite, while a helicopter campaign is too complex for the average consumer to keep up with. Instead, brands need to develop campaigns that use a common voice to embrace the pencil for the common citizen and the helicopter for enthusiasts.
The future of interactive marketing requires engagement and a meaningful dialogue between branding campaigns and a range of audiences. Until this is achieved on an interesting , multi-platform level brands will suffer.
Yesterday, we both attended the first core conversation at SXSW with Thom Singer who shared some tips on networking at the event. Tyler and I are both somewhat extroverted people, so it seemed as though the session was somewhat more targeted to the introvert. But there were still some very great tips that sufaced to the top:
Show everyone respect. Even if they aren’t the CEO of the company you want to work with, doesn’t mean they don’t have the CEO’s ear, or perhaps will be their own CEO very soon.
Take baby steps. At conferences like SXSW, there are 12,000 people. Focus on small steps by meeting just a few everyday. If you go away with 5 solid new connections, then you have had a very successful time.
Put yourself second. When you meet someone new, focus on asking them questions first. Don’t verbally vomit about yourself because frankly, no one will care. After you hear about them, they will likely ask about you, and they will do it with a positive frame of mind.
Take notes. After exchanging business cards, quickly write down descriptors of them so that you can remember the experience. This will make following up much easier.
Follow up. Meeting someone and exchanging business cards doesn’t mean that they are now in your network. All it means is that they are now someone you have met. Follow-up with them and add value to their lives. Your network is only as strong as the value you add to it.
And finally, have business cards. If you don’t, then it shows the other person that you are a taker… and an unprepared one at that. Treat every new encounter as an opportunity for new business.
We are two University of Oregon seniors on our first journey to the state of Texas for the SXSW Interactive Festival. Recently named 2009 Bedbury Scholars, we come armed with laptops, digital cameras, flip video recorders, internet accessible phones and a desire to learn from everyone and everything we encounter. As the saying goes, “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” we'll soon find out for ourselves.
