Conferences provide THE stage to showcase talent and new ideas!

Conferences provide THE stage to showcase talent and new ideas...

... and the NYC Media lab 2016 was no exception. This one day conference set its sights high in the areas of, talent, innovation and entrepreneurial development. I particularly enjoyed the flow of events and demos that we, as attendees were able to interact with and experience. With fantastic speakers like Euan Robertson (Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of NYCEDC), and Jim Bankoff (Chairman & CEO of Vox Media); we are catapulted into a scene of epic brainstorming, refreshing ideas and most importantly insight into what people are doing and how they are achieving it. This is major information for those of us who are interested and eager to learn how to make our own footprints. 

According to the NYC Media lab twitter account there were over 1600 RSVP's, over 100 demos, workshops and presentations to be expected. Sure enough there was a full audience in attendance.

Jim Bankoff particularly said that we must "leverage technology to share stories." This statement rings true for those who are in the communications field, but for those who are not, whats the significance? It all comes down to making a human connection. Relationships. Having a story and a story-line reconnects people with brands by means of that human connection. In fact Bankoff continues with the assertion that "technology is more than just a platform, it's a culture." Technology goes beyond the creations that we produce, it is more likened to a culture, a learned way of being. Such assertions, when we think about it, show that this is true. We should we stop looking at technology as just what is created versus how we change and adapt to it and its use. Jim Bankoff, apart from being the keynote speaker at the NYC Media Lab 2016 runs Vox Media which is at the epicenter of innovation as it involves the landscape of communications and branding. How best to go about making that human connection? Vox does it by creating brands people love, 'in big categories that people are passionate about."

Now about that stage I was talking about regarding showcasing talent... there I am (above) making my way to the demos after listening to a fantastic array of speakers and presenters. Below you will see some images of the amazing work that was put into the interactive displays.

Above are those images of the space that was occupied for demos; it was almost difficult to get close to some of the demos because of the crowds that they attracted.

With the high turnout witnessed at this conference and the emphasis placed on demos and interactive learning displays it becomes clear the value that is inherent to these types of events. How else would we be able to gather industry professionals, innovators, college students and their professors into the same space. I did leave out government representatives, but there are so many valuable key players in attendance its easy to forget a few albeit without diminishing their importance. 

New York City remains the epicenter of innovation, and with the world watching and looking to this major world market for the next big thing, here we are actively involved in the production, showcasing and fund searching process. We should never attempt to downplay the stage provided by conferences for the ideas that are placed in a position to be recognized, immortalized and funded for development and production.

Major brands like Verizon, for example showcased the Open Innovation Challenge projects alongside the over 100 more media projects in the demo arena. Verizon lives up to the claim that "Verizon facilitates innovation for developing platforms for communications among interested parties."

The best part for me, conferences appear to also be the location of the coining of new words and phrases like 'mixed reality.' Imagine that, we have gone past virtual reality to include actual reality and virtual in a combination to feature a hybrid version that is much more comfortable to access through our very own mobile devices. There surely are some more new interesting changes coming folks, but this all leads me back to my assertion that conferences provide THE stage to showcase talent and new ideas.