Vienna by night (courtesy Waheed)
It was late this morning. One meeting after another. After midnight we were done, at last. Cai and I grabbed a cab to the respective hotels which are close by each other. Cai even did not insist on a beer. So he must have felt knackered.
The session was held in a room with wood sculpture. Talking about creativity!
Today is the second day of the conference ICT and Creativity in Vienna. We started earlier than yesterday, first with a plenary session, later with break-out sessions. I went to the session on creativity and incubators. A guy from the telecom company Alcatel told the audience about the decision the company had made to go into entertainment. This is a big risk for the company, he mentioned as this move had been made before, not only by Alcatel, but also other companies. He did not mention Philips, but their CD-I business went horribly wrong. He also divided the world in two generations. The 00 generation could never get their VCR to work. The B generation know how to push all the buttons. By bringing in the home the set-top box, the company is basically moving in a Trojan horse. Once it I in the house it can be used for games and as a normal television, but it can also be used for teleconsultation of the general practitioner or for e-learning. So in the end the user is becoming a program director him/herself.
Martin Casey, long tall man of Dublin, did the story of his life, telling about his Europrix prize winning production, his first company that he sold and the new company Arekibo he owns now and which comprises 100 employees.
So now the rapporteurs are getting together and are going to draft a final statement for the last plenary. There is a whole battery of Austrian politicians, who are all involved in the UN Summit on the Information Society. Also Mr Khan of the UNESCO is present. This session is going to take a long time, arguing back and forth. But I am sure a political statement will be there.
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