Digital Futures conference in review

So I made it to the Digital Futures conference at the Museum of Science and Industry yesterday.

It was a mixed bag. Constant sound problems (yes, at a technology conference) were annoying, but the buffet lunch just about made up for them.

Content-wise, the usual problem occured: company directors decided to use their entire time (and then some) to talk about their product or service.

This kind of thing quickly becomes tedious, and even more so after 30 minutes of non-stop sales spiel. There were several guilty parties yesterday.

There was a decent panel session hosted by Mike Ryan from Manchester’s Idaho web agency, however. They invited three ‘digital natives’ (aka students) to talk about their technology habits.

Except that the three panelists weren’t particularly native. They each used Myspace and Hotmail… and very little else. It quickly became apparent that they were far from early adopters.

Particularly concerning was that they spent little or no money online. One used Amazon voucher he’d been given, while another had spent 99p on an episode of Desperate Housewives for his mother.

Pesonally, I wasn’t too concerned - the panelists just seemed a normal bunch of students, desperate to avoid paying for anything if possible.

I’m just a few years older and I’d estimate my yearly online spending at �2-3k. Mike, who is probably in his 40s, worked his own out at �8-9k.

5 Comments so far

this one slipped under my radar, but i guess i didn’t miss much - was grant morrison there? he is one i would have been interested in listening to, but thats just the fanboy in me….

Not that I saw. Though I’ve got no idea who he is. It was an interesting enough conference… with a few of the usual conference flaws.

Following your earlier tip-off, I too attended the conference, and agree with your account of it. What struck me was the huge gap between the speakers and the participants. Whilst we sat there (forced into passive-receptive mode) waiting for tips on joining the ‘new’ digital economy, speakers who made their income exclusively from executive salaries urged us to Think Big about what turned out to be no more than TV programmes and digitised cinema.

It was a little disappointing that so many people spent the time showing how cool their businesses were instead of discussing some of the issues in depth.

I think the highlight for me was Anthony Lilley from Magic Lantern Productions. I agree that we shouldn’t get too caught up in this ‘digital revolution’. That session seemed to be aimed at calming the nerves of TV folk who hadn’t seem to have never heard of this thing called ‘the web’.

Never mind all that.
I want to hear more about the buffet.

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