The ultimate trend whirligig: In partnership with SurveyMonkey our DLD team developed a survey, just two weeks before the start of the DLD12 conference in Munich, asking delegates about what comes next.
Exclusively for Wired.co.uk David Rowan displays the results.
Just to give you a taste, questions tackled for instance Facebook’s post-IPO prospects, thoughts about disruption and start-ups to watch.
Photo: Hubert Burda Media/DLD conference
Arianna Huffington received the Aenne Burda Award at DLD12. The award represents the head of Greek goddess Athena.
Rushing in for a brief one-hour visit, Liberty Global CEO and President Mike Fries took the stage of the Maxsaal to discuss the outlook for cable TV and new opportunities in the German market.
Liberty is the second largest cable TV operator in the world and the largest outside the U.S. with over 29 million subscribers and more than $10 billion of revenue.
No wonder Mr. Fries is a busy man.
The charismatic cable executive, however, took plenty of time to discuss the outlook for companies like Liberty, both in general and more specifically in Germany.
“I’m excited about the cable industry going forward,” Fries told moderator Hans-Peter Siebenhaar of the Handelsblatt.
“The cable industry is healthier than people believe. My kids still love their flat screen,” he added.
There are however challenges that need addressing.
“What we don’t allow you to do, for instance, is to move content around. There are areas where we can do better,” Fries said, before introducing the answer right away; a new multi media platform called Horizon.
“Horizon is a new media entertainment platform. It feels like an iPad, and integrates the Internet experience into an intuitive solution for our clients. I can say that it’s gonna wow you.”
Before the short session came to an end, Fries also had time to address questions about the near future of one of the Liberty’s key European markets; Germany.
“Germany’s media industry may be behind,” Fries said. “But that’s a good thing because that allows us space for innovation, to drive new products and services into a market that has high demand.”
HypoVereinsbank’s Anne Gferer alongside S&L Medien Gruppe’s Maria-Theresia von Seidlein and DLD’s Steffi Czerny called upon the female participants of the #DLD12 to help nurture start-ups and to apply, on the initiative of the HVB Women’s Council, for the HypoVereinsbank’s mentoring programme.
The idea is that experienced businesswomen support selected female start-up entrepreneurs on the road to founding their own company.
Eligible candidates are invited to apply for one of six mentoring places by submitting their idea and business plan or concept. The winners will be selected by a distinguished jury. The deciding factors will be the quality of the business plan or concept and the start-up idea itself. Amongst the mentors is DLD CO-Founder Steffi Czerny.
Take part in the new mentoring programme for start-up entrepreneurs, initiated by women for women. Get the support of experienced experts and businesswomen on your way to starting up your own company.
Apply here now! The closing date for applications is the 8th of March, 2012. Read more about the competition in our DLD news article.
In a fitting finale for the DLD12’s long list of talks in the Maxsaal, John Taylor of Duran Duran offered a highly entertaining and interesting conversation with the New York Times’ Nick Bilton and Josette Melchor of GAFFTA.
The talk was lighthearted, oozing with atmosphere, and circled around both the past, present and future of the iconic band.
Speaking about innovative ways of reaching out to audiences - like Duran Duran’s legendary music videos and their YouTube afterlife - Taylor again and again emphasized the importance of being creative when it comes to a loyal audience.
“We always look out for new ways to deliver our music,” Taylor said
He did, however, admit to have an affinity for old-school vinyl.
“I’ve gone back to original vinyl,” Taylor said. “My vinyl collection is my wine cellar.”
Nonetheless, the rise of technology cannot be stopped, he continued, pointing to iTunes as an example of how this prompts positive outcomes for artists and fans alike.
“I do like the way iTunes has changed the listening options,” he said. ” And I love the iPod shuffle function.”
An avid Twitterer, Taylor is all about engaging with fans in new and innovative ways.
This led his associate to use the occasion to announce the premier of Duran Duran’s latest project: HereRightNow.org.
Here Right Now is a data visualization project, based on input from fans and inspired by Duran Duran’s latest album “All You Need is Now”.
Through the website, fans are prompted to upload impression of their needs and views by using simple generic keywords. The result is a mosaic of interconnectedness from creative Duran Duran fans from around the globe.
“There is a lot of power in our fans having connectivity,” Taylor said about the project.
“We felt an energy we hadn’t felt since the early ages. This is a way of rediscovering this relationship.”
This special round moderated by Heinrich Wefing, editor of the political section of the Hamburg-based weekly newspaper Die Zeit, discussing the future of cities and mobility under the descriptive title “mobile metropolis”.
At this round the ideas of the automobile, city and mobility future were discussed by Mark Wigley, professor of architecture of Columbia University in New York, and head of the research project experiments in motion; Franciscus van Meel, head of Electronic Stability Program at Audi; Jürgen Mayer H., a Berlin-based architect, winner of the first ever Audi Urban Future Award in 2010; Christian Gärtner, Founder and CEO of the Frankfurt Design Platform Stylepark, and curator of the Audi Urban Future initiative.
Wefing right at the beginning quoted Charles Leadbeater, a London philosopher and author, who said at the first Audio Urban Future Summit in Frankfurt in September that in a couple of years our kids won’t understand the simple English sentence “I drive my car to work.” According to Wefing this sentence will turn out to be wrong in so many ways.
It will be the computer or the cloud who will drive; it won’t be our cars anymore (“new models of ownership like renting, sharing, leasing”); and we won’t drive to work anymore as there won’t be a separation between workspace and home.
Wefing: “Will the car simply become a smartphone on wheels”?
Van Meel: “The need for mobility will also be there in the future, for the next 20 years but the way we will move in the city will change (…) Right now it’s that the cities are influencing the way we use transportation (…) The number of people lving in the mega-cities will increase and so there will be new models of mobility as the traffic will increase (…) This can only be done by connected vehicles to create a traffic flow (…) So, the cars will still be there, but the concept of mobility will change, as there will be automated or piloted driving (…) It will be nice to give over to the car. You will be in the driver’s seat but the car will be autonomous, so that you can work while driving.”
Wefing: “How will the architecture change?”
Mayer: “In the past years we changed the way we live, also our family structures changed, which also has an effect on ownership and car use. You share your car and for instance you won’t need the parking space in the the streets anymore - so the car will be giving back to the public. Buildings can open up (…) Also social media is combined with the car - the car is becoming a social interface as it is programmed for your needs, which then again changes the perception of the cities.”
Wefing: “Do we need to rethink our concept of infrastructure?”
Wigley: “Yes. The structure that makes structures possible, the structure behind structure. Infrastructure today is about microtechnology. In fact, we have really no idea of what cities and cars are anymore. I think we do know more about life on Mars than we do know about life on Earth; the city is the biggest experiment in human history - we don’t know if cities can accommodate 9 billion people. So, the city is a vehicle, it’s a network system. We go back to the notion of mobility and rethink it as it’s about the space of the car and the city. For the past hundred years cities have obeyed the car, for the next years it will be the other way around. The word automobile, the mobility of the self has been transformed by digital culture (…) For many people they are only as important as their car (..) So the issue is that we are using the language of the 1950s - we don’t have the language to describe our future.”
Gärtner: “My role is to build an interface between these different concepts, technicians, architects, thinkers - to make a language possible and an understanding between them. Audi knows how innovations drives change, but the company has to get social - socialize with people they haven’t been working before. My role is to bring people to respect each other.”
Wefing: “Do the politicians in Europe understand e-mobility?”
Van Meel: “In Germany they founded the platform electromobility in 2010, which is interactive - and Audi plays an important role. But we can’t go to the politicians and ask them to solve a problem that we can’t solve here on the spot. Most important is to find a common language. Also in Brussels they work on electro-mobility and mobility in general.”
“Do we have to think about mass-transportation in mega-cities with 40 or 50 million inhabitants?”
Wigley: “There is no such thing as individual mobility. You can only be an individual in a group. I also think it’s a digital revolution, it’s an evolution (…) The question is how you become a DJ of mobility.”
Gärtner: “It will be different in New York and Munich.”
Mayer: “The mobility of the inside will be connected with the greater outside mobility.”
Van Meel: “Talking about mass transportation reminds me of Charly Chaplin’s movie ‘Modern Times’, so I think people will also in the future fight for their mobility. There will be different types of mobility - like premium mobility, inter-mobility and so on - the question is just how they will be connected that it all works out (…) Premium means seamless, fast mobility, so I get from A to B without a hassle.”
Van Meel. “We think about inter-mobility, which means that you have hubs where you leave your car, so the core of the city will be taken over by other means of transportation. So one can imagine a two-seater which you can use in the inner city circle, light weighted and with the possibility of piloted driving.”
As the founder of the Rakuten conglomerate Hiroshi Mikitani is perhaps the most successful Japanese businessman of all time. Still, the soft-spoken industry icon is aware of the importance of always looking ahead.
Hiroshi Mikitani’s brief talk on the successes of his Rakuten e-commerce conglomerate, moderated by FOCUS Magazine’s Holger Schmidt, quickly demonstrated just how important it is to keep an open mind, even though you are already running one of the biggest successes of your country.
With annual revenues of more than $4 billon and more than 10,000 employees worldwide, Rakuten impressively started without any funding from venture capitalists, Mikitani revealed, before moving on to describing what lies behind the success of his e-commerce business.
“We are always looking to empower small to medium sized merchants,” Mikitani said. “We teach them, we give them email tools, and much more. It’s a priority, which has allowed us to become different from competitors.”
Different indeed. Rakuten’s model has since been projected to a number of branches, including online banking, sports teams and online media.
“We are different from others in that we integrate all of our branches into one,” Rakutan said, humbly adding that “in all of our services, we are either number one or number two.”
Another aim for Mikitani is to bring the standards that Japanese business is famous for to worldwide commerce.
That means exquisite standards of customer service, and a different take on the online shopping experience altogether.
“Internet shopping is not just about price or efficiency. It should be a fun experiment,” he said.
Other ventures include the acquisitions of an e-book publisher and a driven desire to bring Rakuten to the world’s biggest stages.
“We wold like to go into as many countries as possible. But we want to localize our services, not just provide a standardized line of services.”
“However, in order to become successful in other countries, we need to have a global mindset,” he added. “Japanese companies have been very homogenous. Because of the lack of ability to speak English, Japanese companies have remained largely focused on Japan.”
With soaring numbers ticking in, including rises in smartphone business of a mind-blowing 700% (even Holger Schmidt had to ask twice), Rakuten has faced that challenge, too.
Despite harsh critiques from other industry leaders, Rakuten was was the first Japanese company to change corporate language from Japanese to English.
A bold move, but a necessary one if you want to nurture a culture and build a philosophy that allows you to achieve enormous successes.
Mikitani has done just that, turning him into a true visionary and one of the most successful businessmen of his generation.
For today’s first session, young media makers Dan Zappin, Jesse Draper and Yoel Flohr sat down for an eyeopening conversation with Mark Read of WPP, one of the world’s largest media holding companies, which represents a staggering 326 out of the Forbes 500.
Tying the conversation together was a motivated and enthusiastic moderator in Constantin Bjerke of Crane.tv.
The discussion evolved around how to create quality content in a digital age, and more importantly, how to build an audience that is loyal and capable of generating revenue for especially untraditional new media platforms like YouTube.
For Zappin and Draper this question is perhaps the most pertinent of all.
Draper runs “Valley Girl”, a highly popular, web-based talk show, which has succeeded in making the latest news coming out of Silicon Valley accessible and entertaining to a broad audience. Today, she reaches two million viewers per video, working with 30 distribution partners.
Zappin, too, will know a thing or two about big audiences and alternative platforms.
As a co-founder of Maker Studios, Zappin has witnessed how it possible to successfully build a strong platform for content production and distribution through working with the strongest producers on YouTube - the users themselves.
Zappin and Maker Studios today runs 150 YouTube channels that together generate 500 million views per month.
Yoel Flohr of the Shine Group, in turn, represents the more “traditional branch” of tomorrow’s television production. Shine is behind massive successes like for instance “Master Chef”. The program is one of the largest successes in TV history, and what is more, an example of how to TV production can evolve into a successful brand with massive scaling opportunities.
“We are storytellers, trying to build meaningful relationships with the audience,” said Flohr.
In the case of Master Chef, this relationship goes way beyond the screen, and includes cook books, offline events, iPad apps, pop-up restaurants and much more.
The concept, Draper revealed, is being looked into by her as well. She is currently looking to expand her business too, most formerly by turning to books and partnerships with TV networks.
Additionally, she added, there are possibilities for generating revenue in and largely unexplored interactive engagement models.
The bottom line, however, is clear the young media wizards agreed.
If you want to succeed, you have to have one essential thing, and that is still something as simple as a good story and the talent to bring it to an audience. ¨
In the words of Read: “Stuff on the web still has to deliver.”
For those interested in the larger questions of the Universe itself, Lisa Randall’s Sunday wrap-up session in the Maxsaal this afternoon was the place to be.
Randall is a professor of particle physics and cosmology at Harvard University, where she is concerned with theoretical physics. Her research includes elementary particles and fundamental forces, work which she has described with great success in new book “Knocking on Heaven’s Door”.
During today’s talk, Randall first described the work undertaken by her and her colleagues around the world, discovering what underlying principles help guiding our knowledge about the universe.
The work with CERN’s Large Hadron Collider is the type of work that can allow us to see some of these principles, among other things thanks to the right use of scale.
By understanding that certain things can only be understood fully and intuitively if we use the right scale or resolution, we have achieved remarkable scientific insight, Randall said, using the Eiffel Tower as an apt metaphor for the principle of physical exploration and theoretical advances - too close and we don’t see the context, too far away and we miss the details.
Secondly, Randall is also concerned with another big question, which affects most of us almost every day; “Why do we care so much?”
There are distinct approaches to the questions about the universe, and people will turn to one or the other, Randall said. “Art, religion and science are all ways at getting at these big questions,” she added.
To Randall, science will obviously lead the way, but that does not mean that there is no role for the other two, she said. There is a subtle beauty in how different approaches all serve to drive our urge for understanding forward.
Scientific thinking, however, is the engine that will bring us closer to the Universe.
Scientific thinking is creativity and discovery, role of scale, uncertainty and risk, but also truth and beauty, Randall said, before finishing up.
“We’ve come a long way, but there is still a lot to do and a lot to learn.”
DLD
(Digital-Life-Design) is a global conference network on innovation, digital media, science and culture which connects business, creative and social leaders, opinion-formers and investors for crossover conversation and inspiration. Chairmen of DLD are publisher Hubert Burda and serial digital investor Yossi Vardi. DLD has been founded by Stephanie Czerny and Marcel Reichart in 2005.
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