Being (Un)Digital

Posted by: Jennifer L. Schenker on October 06

Some 200 advertising executives mixed with search and social networking companies and a variety of technology start-ups in Greece from Oct. 2–4 to grapple with questions such as the future of media and what’s next for ad networks and exchanges. While the topics were not surprising, the format was. Stream 08, hosted by WPP CEO Martin Sorrell at a Club Med on a beach outside Athens, was advertised as an “invitation-only, free-form, camp-like, super-democratized, extreme (non-virtual) social networking, anti-conference.” There was no formal agenda. Instead, participants were encouraged to “think open source, think Wikipedia.”

The idea behind the conference is to get a group of smart, eclectic people together in a relaxed atmosphere and encourage them to brainstorm. An orchestra conductor, a magician, and a juggler helped get the create juices flowing.

There was one rule: everyone who came had to contribute something. Many people facilitated discussions on a topic of their choosing. I led one on innovation in Europe, which was attended by technology companies and investors from Europe, the U.S., and Asia. I invited a group of struggling young Greek entrepreneurs. They complained that it is easier to get a ship funded in Greece than it is to get seed money for a young tech company.

One of the conclusions drawn by the group was that Greece needs its own Yossi Vardi, the father of Israeli tech, who tirelessly promotes young Israeli tech entrepreneurs at events around the world. (Stream 08 was no exception; Yossi was there.)

There were lots of other ways to participate, such as a Friday evening talent show. Marko Ahtisaari, a former Nokia executive who now works at Blyk, a company that offers free mobile service to teens and young adults who agree to view advertising, surprised many by proving to be an excellent tenor.

Another participant got lots of laughs during a stand-up routine that required him to pretend to pitch a tech company to a bunch of venture capitalists based on random slides he hadn't seen until he got up on stage. His parting line? "Don’t worry. If the company fails, we can always get the U.S. government to bail us out."

There were other interesting opportunities to participate in this "un-conference," including a Gadget-thon for those who like to play with tech toys and a "Cooking Madness" event that took place at midnight. Participants in the latter event whipped up odd concoctions while dressed in costumes (one cook was dressed as Elvis, in a white jumpsuit and sun glasses).

Ironically, wireless Internet connectivity was practically non-existent during a conference focused on the digital future, which prevented the group's many prolific bloggers from pontificating online and kept e-mail addicts from getting their regular fixes.

When he finally did get Internet access, conference participant Jeff Pulver, a pioneer in the VoIP industry, noted in his blog that this was the first time since 1998 that he was offline for three days. Sure, there was grumbling, but he came to the same conclusion as many. "It turns out the lack of Internet access had the effect of making all of the attending delegates more social," Jeff notes in his blog. "And while the thought of not having broadband Internet access is usually stressful to me, in the end I benefited from being disconnected."