Photo above: from “An education in fashion” talk, featuring Matt Drinkwater, Head of Fashion innovation Agency at London College of Fashion, UK with Ella Alexander from Harper’s Bazaar.
https://websummit.net
As we move forward to a living services era, from the famous “Internet of Things” to the “Internet of Services”, where these functions are not going to be static but robotic- we are challenged to reinvent and redesign brands and commodities- products and materials in the most emotionally challenging way. In the rise of every big technological step, there are privileges but also collateral casualties, humanity clashes engineering, despite their common line of blood….Memory is the mother of craft ( Mnemosyne, the personification of memory in Greek mythology, was the mother of the 9 Muses, the goddesses of the creative arts and sciences).
Matt Drinkwater, Head of Fashion innovation Agency at London College of Fashion, UK, explained on the stage of MODUM conference in Web Summit 2016, how the fashion colleges should prepare the graduates for the next generation of fashion industry. After all fashion is always about motion so notions such Digital anthropology, Augmented reality, Network outsourcing and so on, are heavily implemented on process of designing fashion wear. The designer needs to know how and when to adopt smart materials (materials that react to different conditions for instance), 3D printing, messaging apps, social media metrics and coding -at some stage of manufacturing, together with marketing tools for digital commerce platforms.
Speaking of 3D Printing the last 30 years of its existence and its impact on Individual productivity, (:remember, the entrepreneurial future belongs to small companies), Carl Bass, president and chief executive officer of Autodesk and Maxim Lobovsky, CEO of Formlabs also quoted the important role of the technique for prototypes in jewellery design and casting procedure, among other fields- in a discussion under the title "3D printing our way to advanced manufacturing", hosted by Jon Bruner- O’ Reilly Media.
Anne Pascual, Design Director within IDEO, a global, multidisciplinary design company with offices also in Germany (Munich)- described at her lecture “Designing at scale” how a designer today optimizes self growing and how a big vision enables scalable solutions in big corporations, like airline companies by ex. incorporating personal attributes of character and flair on the whole service interaction of flights attendants, creating a new communication protocol and therefore a whole new experience for the traveler (see photo bellow).
Similar to this, Maureen Fan, CEO and Co-founder at Baobab Studios, alongside with Derek Koenig, Senior Vice President & Head of Creative at Discovery Communications and Dave Ranyard, CEO of Dream Reality Interactive, underlined the importance of powerful characters, in their discussion with Phil Chen of Presence Capital (see photo bellow), around the “ Director’s cut: Plotline and presence in VR”. Sound, composition, content: how you can beat the powerful, yet analog human brain and indulge the audience to come back to the VR experience?
We do not count on VR only for entertainment though. VR photography and filming will be the actual methods in the astute digitization list, that will enable to conserve, restore and reconstitute lost antiquities (:the Palmyra catastrophe) or endangered, sensitive artifacts of great historical significance. In the discussion “Making memories for the virtual world), held by David Harrison of Al-Jazeera International, Rossitza Atanassova; Digital Curator at the British library (see photo bellow), Roger Michel; Executive director of the Institute of Digital Archaeology and Ed Humphrey; Digital Director at British Film Institute – urged other organizations round the world- governmental or not - to digitize their collections, for reasons of security and maximum accessibility.
The “data maximum security” clause, circulated heavily between stages, throughout the whole event- triggering the second best joke of Web Summit 2016 regarding the American elections and H. Clinton’s so called hacked e-mail….also talk of the town – and capital laugh, the Canadian immigration site collapsing on the 9th of November… announced by the first half of the talented duo: Travis Wright - with Stewart Rogers of VentureBeat, just before giving it away to their guest Alan Schaaf; founder of Imgur, and their common discussion on Content Makers stage(: “ The rise of geek culture and what it means for brands”).
“Privacy is paramount”, stated firmly Jim Hunter, chief scientist and technology evangelist at Greenwave Systems in his discussion with Madeline Bennett (Computer Shopper, UK). The topic evolved on the debate “ Are smart homes overhyped and risky?”. With all major furniture- and -interiors fairs around the world, plus national health systems in countries with collapsing economies, concentrating heavily on the care of senior citizens and citizens with disability, through the support of home apps- the education and minimization of errors in such technologies, remain THE No1 issue for further debate. Finally, as J. Hunter put it:“We need to make sure that these technologies WORK under a great UX/UI design, because if they don’t, governments will inevitably have to control and amend things- and with more intervention of a problematic central, state administration, things will get worse for the citizen in need of domestic aid of that type”.
Bono’s remote message, moved consciences and raised awareness, as always- an extract: "...While I couldn’t be there, my colleagues at ONE are, to launch a campaign to get the public and private sectors working together to make sure 350 million women and girls in the world’s least-developed countries can get connected to the internet by 2020. Their latest report shows that the digital divide is becoming a digital chasm when it comes to women and girls — who are a third less likely to be connected to the internet than men and boys....."In this digitally driven world, the smarts and brilliance of the Web Summit community are constantly innovating the way we live, work and act. We need people to work together to make sure that passion and creativity should be of benefit to everyone regardless of where they were born and with which chromosomes...."
53.056 people from 166 countries attended the Web Summit 2016, confirming its lead as the top online technology conference in the planet. International speakers in 21 conferences stages and 1.490 startups, showcased their products during those three days, in order to make their own impact in the industry.
An extremely small taste of these new platforms, dedicated to online activities of all kinds:
Fashion, retail, online shopping
www.farfetch.com
www.maxiphy.com
https://boutiquexperiences.com
Law, cross-platform legal services
www.cms-lawnow.com
www.cmslegal.com
Innovative hardware
www.marbulutionz.com
Creativity
https://get-art.work
IoT/Data processing/ Car industry
http://cherryot.com
VR/ AI/ Gaming, Sports
http://www.supa.ai
Web Summit 2017 will take place again in Lisbon, from the 6th to 9th of November next year. It seems that the Portuguese capital is building a new campaign, chiseling a new pathway, becoming a center for online, digital technologies. After all, “This is (Not) the New Silicon Valley- This is Portugal”*. An institution here to stay, as it is Web Summit alone.
Enjoy!
A4D-D4A?-))
