Having only 5 minutes I decided to forgo slides altogether and go for a quick slice of delight, insight and impact. Or at least, that was the plan. In thinking about a topic beforehand I noticed it was Hip Hop Appreciation week the week of the event which was too timely given my fondness for the genre and using it as a metaphor.

So I decided to examine the art of the remix from the position that it isn’t a recent phenomenon but one that had roots, pop-culturally, in hip hop. Hence, “we didn’t invent the remix”. The “we” being the web 2.0 crowd attending. I then briefly sought to (tongue-firmly in cheek) eek out some lessons about branding that one could learn from hip hop.

I presented as a spoken-word poem, with some backing beats played from a ghetto blaster, a 5 minute countdown clock around my neck (ala Flava Flav), and with record sleeves to hold up as my talking points.

Originally my topic was Drinking from the firehose and concentrated on website measurement, but I diverted thought streams a little and decided to talk more about governance, visualisation and telling the story of websites rather than just their statistics.

I came up with the metaphor of a website’s operational team being like the tactician on a yacht and discussed how this might inform how a team measures and reports on their online activities.

As a thread throughout my presentation I created a make-believe assignment – as if 10 year old Thomas had written about the 1987 America’s cup and his favourite member of the New Zealand squad, the tactician Brad Butterworth. The faux-child drawings were a useful talking point and piece of levity between sections of the presentation.

At this stage all I has is a new bio (see below) and a bit of self deprecation – as to what topic i eventually speak on, we’ll see,

Thomas wrote an article on the topic of online etiquette in 1993. For the past 16 years he has consistently failed to practice what he preached. He has, however, been a long time advocate of the medium’s conversational nature and applying it to anything from research through to marketing. But mostly as argumentum ad hominem. Talk: will last only 5 minutes. For those used to his lengthy rants hearing him have to shut up after only this long … will be worth the price of admission alone.

Plenty of awesome folk speaking, so open invitation to anyone in the area!

I’ll post this as a podcast on this site when done but if you’d like to have me present something similar then contact me.

At this stage I’m planning on presenting a modified version of the piece I gave at the TIANZ conference in 2008.

It was originally called, From story telling to play – the co-creative future of media but as usual by time it was locked in I had a more poetic and less descriptive title.

The conference programme description was,

Story telling is a timeless aspect of great media and indeed great marketing. The digital revolution has grown the ability of every person to tell and disseminate stories whether via text, photography or video. Brands are now learning to harness these creative consumers and work with them, not against them, to expand their own stories. In some cases this story telling is transitioning from co-creation to play – not only in the online arena but in physical environments. No longer restricted to nerds in basements or children in sandboxes – millions of people around the world are engaging like never before with media properties and brands through imaginative play.

In the end I focused on the cultural benefits of play and how technologies are re-enabling a form of play that is making the development of culture a more democratic and rewarding process than it has been for some time.

Wondering what to do now that the traditional press is ignored and bankrupt, now that mainstream media is no longer representing or creating your audience’s culture? This session takes you through a day in the life of a wired youth – examining the communications they receive, and the impactful influences on their lifestyle. Using an ethnographic lense to present a real case study, as well as to teach the practice of “netnography” – online observation and participation in online communities. A necessary and highly effective technique for creating compelling communications in today, and tomorrow’s, marketplaces.

I was asked to present it at the 12th Annual Strategic Communications and PR Forum at the last minute but I was a tad busy that week so it didn’t happen. However, I’d welcome to opportunity to present this more widely so contact me if you have any opportunities.

The web is a firehose of data. The difficulty is not finding things to measure online – but determining where to put the effort, what conclusions to draw from data, and how to react fast enough for your efforts to matter. This session explores these topics – examining how to measure both your website’s performance and your organisation’s online reputation, how to establish ROI and key performance indicators for ongoing benchmarking, and how to implement gradual improvement activities for your web presence.

Story telling is a timeless aspect of great media and indeed great marketing. The digital revolution has grown the ability of every person to tell and disseminate stories whether via text, photography or video. Brands are now learning to harness these creative consumers and work with them, not against them, to expand their own stories. In some cases this story telling is transitioning from co-creation to play – not only in the online arena but in physical environments. No longer restricted to nerds in basements or children in sandboxes – millions of people around the world are engaging like never before with media properties and brands through imaginative play.

• Case studies from Microsoft, McDonalds, BBC, Paramount
• Fan fiction and “the canon”
• Alternative Reality Games (ARGs)

I explored the shifts in consumption patterns of media by modern consumers and how media producers and publishers should tailor their future activities to address these. Rather than simply detailing how people use media today I explored the historical changes underpinning current behaviours. I undertook ethnographic research in a number of online communities to investigate how media was (re)used and then created a set of personas to showcase the different types of new media consumption. These I presented by having videos of actors speaking to the audience as if they were a particular persona. Finally I gave advice on how to target the individuals that fit these profiles.

If you’re interested in this presentation I can supply slides and speaker notes. And if you’re interested in having me present it again then get in touch.