Sit tight and fasten your seat belts. We’re launching our brand new event ‘Creative Social Sessions and it’s promising to be one hell of a ride. For the first session, we’ll be giving you an extra strong dose of input, inspiration and food for thought (think extra mature cheddar) as we explore the space “Where Digital Meets Real”. And because we believe this topic has so much more to offer and deserves your full morning energy and attention, we have decided to make it a half-day session – and line your stomach with some breakfast before too. Not bad eh?
Where Digital Meets Real… the meeting point of old and new, of tangible and virtual, of everyday and superficial. Where do we find it in our lives, how does it manifest itself? What new and exciting opportunities does the symbiosis of the two offer us?
We want to find out what significance the Real has for developments in modern technology – and, vice versa, how digital innovation is – or even needs to be – influenced, challenged and inspired by the Real.
For all the necessary fire and brain power, we’ve invited a panel of high-calibre experts from the industry who will help us get to the bottom of it all. They will each bring their own unique perspective on the subject matter and speak about the creative opportunities we can gain from the co-existence of Real and Digital.
Polish your glasses and put this in your eyeholes. Our incredible line-up of speakers:
Alfie Dennen (@Alfie), Director of Art Public, is an expert in mobile blogging and using technology creatively in new and exciting ways. He has a history of using recent events and cultural currents to fuel digital projects and develop innovative ways of processing them, such as his response to the London 2005 bombings We’re Not Afraid – a site that enabled users all around the world to tell terrorist groups that they would not let themselves be ruled by fear
After nine years at digital powerhouse LBi in Amsterdam, Mervyn Ten Dam (@MervynACHTUNG) set out to create his own agency inspired and fuelled by the Swedish ardour for digital innovation in the past decade. He has been Creative Director at ACHTUNG! for seven years now, in which they’ve managed to bag over 50 awards and have been named best interactive agency more than a handful of times.
Sam Ball’s (@samuelball) path echoes Mervyn’s one, as he too set out to be the maker of his own destiny in founding superstar agency Lean Mean Fighting Machine with his creative partner David Bedwood. Not only did they manage to come up with a pretty darn cool agency name, but have managed to make a real impact on the industry ever since.
Perry Price (@thisisdare) originally came to Dare as a developer after having taught himself Flash in an attempt to get away from his economics degree – mission achieved, clearly! Since then, he’s risen in the ranks to become Dare’s Director of Innovation and leads their innovation hub called Dare Labs. There he potters about searching for new creative digital solutions that could be exciting for audience and clients. He says:
“Any of the technical innovations of the past years – such as being able to call almost anyone on the entire planet, never having to get lost again, and being able to compete in the 100m Olympic relay final without actually having any legs – would have astounded society no more than a decade or so ago. On the other hand there’s probably no such thing as a real friend any more and for many people our working lives have become one continuous inbox.
Steve Vranakis got snatched up from his former position at VCCP by Google, who made him Creative Director of their Creative Lab for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He now tries to make cool stuff that matters, like sending kids’ science projects to space. Holler!
With a background in Fine Art, Dave Bausola (@zeroinfluencer), Founder & CEO of Philter Phactory, is now mainly into creative technology, the odd comedy stint on Where are the Joneses (an open-source collaborative comedy) and determining how we can create technology that will do more than just answer questions for humans. He’s an inventor, strategist, problem-solver, storyteller, self-proclaimed meddler and casually runs his own distributed software company.
The penultimate speaker in our impressive line-up said f*** you to growing up, and instead founded Hide & Seek – a company focused on the playful side of life. They are dedicated to finding new forms of play, produce incredible games-focused events and operate under the skilled patronage of Alex Fleetwood (@ammonite). Aside from the unique venture of Hide & Seek, Alex has also produced an award-winning opera for Channel 4.
Tony Högqvist is one of the group of self-named fools and geeks who founded Stockholm-based creative agency Perfect Fools. As ECD of this innovation factory, he’s been able to do crazy shit like a building a remote-controlled café. Everything in the seemingly normal café Kauko could be changed and altered by visitors on a specific online site.
According to Tony, it was his grandmother who got him into advertising, so make sure to send her a heartfelt thank-you card.
So there you have it: eight of probably the most fascinating and interesting characters in creative, digital and innovation out there right now. To see what happens when they all come together in one room and do their thing, make sure to secure your ticket now – only 26 left up for grabs!
We want encourage agencies to bring their clients along to this event too. With a host of inevitably inspiring talks and thought-starters for future projects, it will be a great opportunity to be there together and get the ball rolling on any ideas straight away. You never know what might happen. This could facilitate the birth of the next big thing in digital!
Get your tickets here.
Hurry hurry hurry!
We’ll see you there homies.
Peace out.
