Over the years, SXSW has grown in popularity and magnitude to the point where it’s sometimes a challenge to navigate the event–literally and figuratively. SXSW 2012 was no exception and the Interactive portion has earned the reputation of being a great launchpad for new products.
One highlight was a startup named Highlight that provides location-based discovery of people around you based on common interests. While Highlight’s reviews were mixed (some wondered if there really needed to be an app to virtually “tap people on the shoulder” and start a conversation), there was no denying that it was one of the few startups that had people buzzing. There were so many startups vying for attention, however, that many felt that the success Twitter enjoyed at SXSW would be difficult, if not impossible, to ever recreate.
Startups aside, there was a variety of great panels that ran the gamut in terms of technology and digital trends. I was honored to host a panel with my DDB colleagues titled “Credit vs. Collaboration: Addressing the Organizational Divide.” The format–“Core Conversation”–is relatively new and I served as a guide curating the discussion and interjecting my thoughts and opinions. It was a nice break from the standard presentation or panel style.
We not only had representation from various agencies and agency disciplines (creative directors, designers, technologists) but also had a handful of client-side marketing leads in the conversation. It was interesting to observe how digital communication is fundamentally changing the game for so many radically different organizations yet many patterns persist.
For organizations that are still evolving their digital prowess, one such example is the “specialist vs. generalist” syndrome under which most “digital” people exist. The digital specialists bear the burden of translating, teaching and creating other bridges to their respective disciplines whereas the generalists must awaken to the reality that this “specialized” knowledge will soon be “mainstream requirements” for the jobs of the future.
Conversely for digital-centric organizations, the need for collaboration is more of an inter-organizational challenge between them and external partners (as opposed to individuals collaborating internally). For these specialist organizations, the common challenge was how to effectively manage their deliverables against a broader workflow that’s still struggling to understand (and value) exactly what’s involved in doing what they do.
There was general agreement that creators and artists need to be given credit for their work. It was brought up that some organizations choose to embrace a team-centric philosophy through which individual recognition and accolades are deprecated whereas others are still struggling with getting everyone on board with a team-based directive. The challenge is especially sensitive for the ad/communications agency as there’s a legacy of “idea ownership” that needs to be addressed.
The undercurrent evident at SXSW was that everyone needs to improve their collaboration and idea management, however the tools and software are still fairly “1.0” when it comes to doing so. Maybe next year’s SXSW could serve as a launchpad for a startup that can effectively tackle the job.
(Azher Ahmed is SVP, director of digital operations, DDB Chicago.)
“Conclave” Tops BAFTA Film Awards With 12 Nominations, One More Than “Emilia Pรฉrez”
Papal thriller โConclave,โ which stars Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal overseeing the election of a new pope, leads the race โ just โ for the British Academy Film Awards, with nominations in 12 categories, one more than the genre-busting trans musical โEmilia Pรฉrez.โ
But with the wildfires in Los Angeles over the past week fresh in the minds of everyone in the movie industry, Wednesdayโs announcement of the latest BAFTA nominations was understandably subdued.
โWe are very much thinking of our colleagues, friends, community over there,โ said BAFTA chair Sara Putt. โItโs devastating whatโs going on.โ
She wouldnโt be drawn on whether the fires may impact the BAFTA ceremony, which is due to take place on Feb. 16.
โThe ceremony is a month away, it would be inappropriate and far too early to say anything about that,โ Putt said.
The five films nominated for the prestigious best film award were โConclave,โ โEmilia Pรฉrez,โ the 215-minute postwar epic โ The Brutalist,โ the Palme dโOr-winning comedy/drama โ Anora โ and the Bob Dylan biopic โ A Complete Unknown.โ
โThe Brutalistโ ended up with nine nominations, including leading actor for Adrien Brody, who faces stiff competition from Fiennes and Timothee Chalamet, who plays the young Dylan in โA Complete Unknown.โ
The other actors nominated are Hugh Grant for his creepy role in the horror film โ Heretic,โ Colman Domingo in real-life prison drama โ Sing Sing โ and Sebastian Stan for his portrayal of a real estate mogul โ a certain Donald Trump โ in โ The Apprentice.โ
โAnora,โ the sci-fi epic โDune: Part Twoโ and โWickedโ each received seven nominations. โA Complete Unknownโ... Read More