MIMA Summit 2014: Rise of the Machines

This year’s MIMA Summit featured an eclectic group of people speaking about topics ranging from trends in the digital world to tips and tricks about building your brand. Attendees tweeted and hashtagged right and left and a buzz continued throughout the day as people shared important takeaways from the conference.

We’ve boiled the content down to some of the main points made by the three keynote speakers. So without further ado, incase you missed it:

Jaron Lanier – You are Not a Gadget

The morning kicked off with “Renaissance Man” Jaron Lanier, a computer scientist, composer and writer who is known to have coined the term “virtual reality.”

Lanier was one of the most interesting speakers at the conference. He challenged the audience to see technology in new ways by quoting his mentor, Marvin Minsky, saying “Computers are new life forms,” and making the claim that “Technology poses no threat to mankind, the threat lies in how we decide to use it.” He made us ask ourselves, what is the ultimate goal of all we are doing in technology?

Dean Kamen – The Impact of Marketing

http://www.dekaresearch.com/index.shtml

Dean Kamen, an American entrepreneur and inventor, responsible for the segway, touched everyone’s hearts with his speech about the empowerment of children and saving people from water contamination.

He talked about his humanitarian efforts to generate power and purify water in impoverished countries with his inventions, the Stirling Engine and the Slingshot; two machines that work together to generate power and purify water for countries without these resources.

Kamen also spoke about a program he founded, called FIRST, which was started to get young students to take an interest in engineering, science and technology by holding robotics competitions around the world for them to compete in. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1QyM9WTF18

He noted that although he is not a marketer, marketing was significant in the success of both his foundation and inventions. For example, when Coca-Cola caught wind of the Slingshot water purifier, they decided to sponsor the invention, bringing it to several countries in Africa. Once other companies saw what Coca-Cola was doing with Slingshot, the orders began pouring in from other companies who wanted to put their logos on the machine. “The world needs marketers,” Kamen said, insisting that “It’s not supply and demand, but rather demand and supply.”

Amy Webb– What’s New, What’s Next: Leading In an Era of Disruptive Technology

@webbmedia, http://www.webbmediagroup.com/amy-webb

Amy Webb is an author, entrepreneur, digital strategist and CEO of Webbmedia Group, a digital strategy company that tracks up-and-coming technology trends.

Webb emerged onto the stage fully decked out in an assortment of smart wearables, including Google Glass and Pebble watch. After a joke about taking off her devices and performing a “nerdy striptease,” she challenged the audience to go out and try these devices, and ask: What story can I tell with this? What kind of significance can it have on people’s lives?

Webb’s major prediction in tech was that she thinks we will start seeing more “ephemeral” networks, like Snapchat, emerge in the next year. Her advice to marketers was, “Don’t use data to just define audience. ASK: How can we use data to listen and react to our audience better?”

Whether it was the philosophy of technology, or future technological advances, this year’s MIMA Summit was a “Rise of the Machines” to say the least, and we already can’t wait for what 2015 has in store.

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