Risk & Media and Entertainment

On Tuesday night I attended a New Year's party of the Dutch Interactive Designers Association IPAN and the interactive marketing association 212 Amsterdam. The party was held in the centre of Amsterdam. The party (lot of smoke, lot of noise and hot) was frequented well by a lot of people, mainly people under 40.

I happened to meet a few of the seniors at the party: Jonathan Marks and Felix Bopp. Jonathan is a bohemian Englishman, who worked for Wereldomroep, the Dutch World radio till 2003. I met him last year at the Summit for the Future where he was the workshop leader for Media; since then I have been following his blogs.


Jonathan (left) and Felix (right)

Felix Bopp is the initiator of the think tank Club of Amsterdam and the annual conference http://www.clubofamsterdam.com/summit2006.htm. Felix, a Swiss by birth, but Burgundian by lifestyle, who got into dealings with the Dutch publisher turned data company VNU a decade ago and stayed in the Netherlands, wants the Summit of the Future to be seen as a summit in the league of the annual Economic Forum (of course in Switserland). Below you will find the press release about this year's edition of the summit.

Summit for the Future on Risk - Media & Entertainment
May 3-5, 2006

The Club of Amsterdam presents its global "Summit for the Future on Risk", which will take place in Amsterdam on May 3-5, 2006. This second Summit will bring together international Thought Leaders to discuss significant, global challenges and opportunities. This time the speakers will focus on the subject of risk and the role of risk in innovation and global growth.

Media & Entertainment - the future of Virtual Lifestyle
Much of today's media is dominated by sports - including football, athletics, cricket, volleyball, motocross, horse-racing, snooker and golf. Entire broadcasting, advertising, media and gaming industries rely on it. They feed off the passion it arouses within ordinary people. Players are traded as commodities as part of multi-million deals, while their intimate moments are the subject of popular envy and public press scrutiny. Perhaps, one day, all this and more will feed off the virtual gaming industry too. In the meantime, some musicians are composing songs for first release in computer games and video producers are using gaming technology to design real-world TV sets, interaction scenarios for mobile phones and prepare shotlists before shooting a movie. Are we at risk if these virtual and real-world lifestyles are interacting so closely? Where do social media like blogs fit in? Ultimately, the convergence of gaming and broadcast is not just a new medium but a whole new world.

The keynote speakers are:
Marc Canter, CEO and visionary, Broadband Mechanics: Lifestyle Leadership
Madanmohan Rao, Consultant and prolific writer from Bangalore, Research Director, Asian Media Information and Communication centre (AMIC), Singapore: Risk: Asia's Winning Card
Ashu Mathura, Managing Director, Overloaded: Video games for mobile phones
Yme Bosma, Business Manager, Media Republic / Eccky: Eccky - the world's first virtual child
Patrick Alders, VP Strategy, MTV Networks

Tags: Summit for the Future