that time of year again. nine weeks to go to the next biggest and bestest interactive media gathering the Uk has known. we had an advisory meeting a couple of months ago and are programming accordingly. I’ve pasted the notes below.. any thoughts gratefully accepted as always.

What is b.TWEEN’s USP?

b.TWEEN is the only UK event that successfully fuses research activity, business knowledge transfer and networking.

b.TWEEN is not about high-end creativity for creativity sake. The showcases serve to inspire delegates (and reach out into the wider community). This inspiration is then embedded in a commercial context where delegates can explore how to exploit their creativity

b.TWEEN attracts the makers of some of UK’s most innovative connected projects so they can exchange knowledge with their peers.

b.TWEEN provides real opportunities so delegates can exploit their wares and understand how to capitalise on their transferable skills.

b.TWEEN attracts a uniquely broad range of participants with a corresponding wide field of expertise

b.TWEEN is based in the North. This makes it compact enough to offer real value-add to attendants

Small and micro companies need clients and to explore ways of making their business more stable. They also need talent to feed into their growing companies. Students need to interface with successful SMEs working in digital media in a creative environment. Big players need to find innovative versatile small companies who can teach them how to engage in conversations with communities.

b.TWEEN offers an effective interface thats support this entire supply chain in an inspiring dynamic environment.

Who is our core target audience?

decision makers from small or more usually micro companies who create interactive content and tools.
Our peripheral audience?

o Big commercial players: who need ideas, to access talent and to learn how to enable conversations with a new generation of sophisticated buyers

o Students: to get a clearer idea of the state of the industry they aspire to join, to understand the challenges of running a company and to meet potential employers

o Researchers: industry consultants and public sector researchers

o TV/ Film/ Mobile/ Games/ Educators etc…anyone who needs to find out how the market is changing and how to harness creative technologies to improve their businesses.
What do our core audience need?

o Buyers: to meet commissioners, potential clients and to discover new distribution routes to access buyers directly
o New ideas: to keep them ahead of the breaking wave
o Collaborators: with complimentary skills
o Stability: business models that are less project based and more formed around stable relationships with partners
o Talent: to enable effective growth (especially multi skilled, higher level, creative project managers/ collaboranauts)

What is the best way to answer their needs?

o Provide a lens to focus the market place
o Ensure that big players attend, and that the event structure facilitates effective networking
o Provide showcases and show-and-tells of the most innovative projects on the edges of the mainstream. It is often from whimsical experimentation that the next tech blockbuster emerges.
o Continue to develop the creative collaboration workshops. There is no better way to spot potential collaborators than to get stuck into a brief together.
o More warts and all case studies! They are an effective way of learning from peers.
o Introduce them to business investment opportunities such as the venture capital community.

Unanswered questions?

o If b.TWEEN becomes known as THE place to meet the most innovative small companies, will the big players come?
o Should we let the buyers in for free to maximise opportunities for small companies?
o How do we attract the senior folk from the big companies, not the talent scouts?

Shifting Market

New forms of content and tools are coming from the ground, creative impetus is coming from below. There is a major move towards participation/ co branding / co delivery and co design with users. Remixable films and games are hitting the market. They provide an infrastructure and tools and allow the viewer/ gamer to create their own narrative. Marketing campaigns are being developed that depend on users creating their own content. All this points to a very different and rapidly changing media scape.

The gateways are crumbling. If producers of content and tools can connect enough people, they can hit consumers directly. The underlying technology is affordable and success lies in forming links between communities. Content and tools are becoming commodities. In this new media scape broadcasters are becoming relatively insignificant.

The current games development model is seriously flawed. A massive amount of investment is needed to develop a console game. Millions of copies have to be sold to recoup that investment. A couple of geeks, on the other hand, can spend a couple of months developing a project and can just put it out there to see what happens. If it crashes very little investment is lost, if it succeeds maximum profit is made.

More big companies are rationalising and looking to outsource. Proctor and Gamble have stated that they intend to outsource 50% of their marketing production, as are IBM. Former directors of research have become directors of innovation and are trying to figure out what that means.

What is the most effective way of supporting this interface? What are the most time and cost effective routes to nurture innovation?

The BBC Innovation Labs have explored one successful route. The BBC outlined its needs and offered clear briefs. They then worked closely with talented designers to ensure that pitched ideas answered those needs and fitted with their corporate culture. This model should be explored with other major clients.

What can this sector offer that the other parts cannot reach?

Small businesses are flexible and can adapt to new trends quickly. They are capable of quick and dirty production, putting stuff out there and seeing what happens. This is an appropriate way to commercialise innovation in this fast shifting marketplace.

Alliances of micro-enterprises are likely to become increasingly important. If alliances can clearly show they can compete with, or perform better than, traditional companies by exploiting these differences, they are onto a winner. By their very nature, they would be able to out-innovate and out perform more stable and less flexible organisations.
Where is the money?

All avenues of our conversation led to new opportunities for creative technologists in the worlds of marketing and branding. As technology has changed, audiences and therefore marketing has had to change with them. Marketing has become the key to unlock money for innovation and content creation. Branding is the place to be.

Consumers use new media in a hybrid way. They use it to gather information, to communicate and for entertainment. Big players can only gain brand loyalty by accessing this new world and catering to their habits. Effective campaigns build brands into their world. ‘Consumers’ are beginning to participate or even construct marketing campaigns. Big companies desperately need to learn how to build relationships and conversations with their audiences. New media creatives have the necessary knowledge and experience to enable these conversations and thus are becoming an imperative part of the mix.