Sharpening the Technology Knife - Which talks for WebSummit '17 ?

The true effects of Internet & Global Economics are quite clear these days. We think the way we do business needs to changed fundamentally, most current strategies fit an age that is rapidly passing.

Katty and I will be heading to Portugal in a couple of days for Web Summit 17. As Design+Development advisors we are taking a break from the Prototyping a new Conversational+Audio Product to get fresh perspectives, hopefully we'll be well challenged.

Going through the talks several things stand out:

Can Innovation, Regulation, Entrepreneurism and Conservatism co-exist

We've been seeing a lot of downsides in the past year to the success of Technology. Few of them should be inherit in Technology, but do the powers that be realise that. Will there be a backlash from Regulators, Politics, Media and Big Business?

The Big Four Tech companies are enable new ways to market products that fit well with Small Business. Yesterdays mass media advertising is hard to do when you are a company with 20 employees. We have seen this difference ourselves with a Restaurant project in Portugal where Facebook has enabled spreading the sense of what they do to tens of thousands of people who actually care. In the past that would take years not 6 months. Amazon(and Alibaba) allows small businesses to sell products all over the world. While it has a lot of destructive potential, it also enables new opportunities for independents.

Direct Engagement between Brand and Consumer

Conversational tools such as Intercom are spreading from Customer Support to On-boarding and beyond. This is the polar opposite approach of mass media. When will your sales funnel be represented as a single conversation from first contact to regular customer?

People and personal brands are gaining importance. Of course brands will remain important, but we increasingly trust people more than abstractions such as brands. Should our business strategy not reflect that?

And how does that affect the way we Design+Develop products. Should people be more prominent. I think we have an opportunity to use a completely different User Interface that is much more in line with mobile devices. For more you can watch my talk from Google Dev Days, Zurich - Design for Conversation.

As marketing becomes largely Digital, should we not integrate it in the Product development process as discussed before?

Storytelling and Audio for and Emotional Connection

Audio is nearly non-existent in the talks, even though Podcasts are a growing trend, be it still young. It is though one of the best ways to create intense engagement and loyalty. I would think that is something most business would do well to foster.

Stories are a great way to communicate and build an emotional connection. I'd love to see talks about how we best do that on the web rather than Old Media whining about loosing their favoured position. There is a whole Music track, but it does seem stuck in the old piracy conversation.

Contrary to common knowledge the Music industry doesn't need to be saved. It adjusted to reality long ago, and is growing. The labels are smaller than before, but they understand how things work going forward. So the talk Centre Stage 9/11 16:05 is a miss. The question should instead be what sort of musical media experiences will tech enable?

And an oddball thing at the Google booth Web 5.0: The emotional web 7/11 10:30, I wonder what their angle is. Interesting none-the-less.

How will AI change the way we Design+Develop?

Most businesses have treated Digital as an Add-On called "Information Technology". That seems ludicrous. Technology is at the core of human progress since we mastered fire. The use of technology must surely be at the core of most businesses that aim to capture a strong position. It is one of the ways to establish a lasting differentiation. A moat as Warren Buffet would say.

If that is true, how will business start new product initiatives in the future? Food for thought.

Future for Tech in Europe

After reviewing program for the European Web Summit '17 I'm conflicted, where are the European tech companies? They might be dubious about Web Summit speaker policies or some such, but bottom line they are not participating in the conversation. They let a European web summit seems to reflect an American world view. Should American Media and Companies set the agenda in Europe?

I have lived in several smaller countries that are strong in Technology, but I see nobody from these countries. Europe also has a huge number of smaller companies in smaller countries. They seem to be keeping their head down and do business as usual. In the meantime policies and opinions are being formed.

There are many technology companies in Europe but they are mostly young, and don't seem to be represented. Do they not have a voice, or have they not learned to speak up?

I hope to understand this better at the conference

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