Andres Colmenares is the co-founder of Imperfect Future, the company behind the first Internet Age Media Weekend, an event about the future of niche communication in Barcelona.
Where did the idea for IAM Weekender come from?
The idea comes from a question, a problem and a WTF! moment.
We have been exploring the “future of media” topic as part of our trend research work with wabi-sabi lab (our other company). At some point we started crossing it with other topics we had on the table as emerging creative cities and the idea of understanding internet as a culture. We noticed some interesting patterns and started developing the concept of “Internet Age Media”
We started with a question: what if we gather for 3 days in Barcelona the people behind our favorite blogs, online publications, brands and creative projects?
Then we identify a problem. After several years working together with some brands and small agencies we noticed a huge gap between the emerging creative communities growing under the radar of media and the companies and institutions working in the creative industries around the globe. We decided to create this project to help them discover each other, inspire others and connect.
And finally the WTF! moment: we realised we are in the middle of the decade. We didn’t have much time or resources but we decided to push this forward, because WTF!
What will make IAM Weekender special?
The people who will meet there. The two venues are great (a design museum and a design school), the whole weekend experience we designed with dinners, workshops, party, etc. is also interesting but at the end what truly makes IAM Weekend special is the people. Not only the speakers but also the attendees coming from different cultures and backgrounds.
What are the biggest challenges you have faced during your journey with IAM Weekend, and how have you overcome them?
Dealing with the limited resources. Time and money. Event planning is really tricky and we are learning a lot in the process of making IAM happen.
Another big challenge is the curation aspect of the IAM Weekend. Since we published the website, we got several speaking requests from really interesting people, agencies, companies. Some fitted, others don’t. But most of them were really good. So we sticked to our core values and concept to take decisions.
What’s been your biggest learning throughout this project so far?
Less is better.
Who are you most looking forward to hearing speak at IAM Weekender and why?
We told our speakers this is not the usual speaking gig. We invited them to share their stories, challenges and future visions. We don’t want to have the big world-changing idea TED-talk but more insightful journeys and try to understand through each speaker what has happened in the last 5 years and what we all want to happen in the next 5 years. So I am looking forward to the whole conversation, rather than one particular talk.
In our line-up you can see there is no difference between the young talents, emerging projects or established brands. We feel this is part of the whole Internet Age Media concept.
Which other projects that you’ve been involved with, are you most proud of?
Between 2009-2013, together with Birdog (a small Barcelona-based agency) we built a platform for Absolut Vodka in Spain, Colombia and Venezuela called Absolut Network. Every day we featured profiles of emerging artists and creatives, sharing their work across several blogs and creating opportunities for them.
We were a small team with limited resources but the brand manager at the time trusted us so we had a lot of space and freedom to try new things. It was fun.
Another project we are proud of is a 1-week workshop we did last year for *bliep, a dutch mobile provider managed by youngsters for youngsters. Working with talented teenagers and young-minded people is a privilege.
What’s the most interesting thing you’ve seen recently?
This imperfect robotic future video: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=904896586221057&pnref=story
What’s next (after IAM Weekend)?
Everything. The Weekend is just the beginning. Editing and translating the video series about IAM, developing some partnerships and publications, a talk in Russia, some consultancy projects… actually we are already working in IAM2016
IAM Weekend takes place 20-22nd March 2015 in Barcelona.
Buy tickets for IAM Weekend HERE, use this link to receive a special 200€ discount.