Always keen to think of ways to make the planet a tad cleaner and get together over lunch, Samara created igloo’s awesome paper recycling project. Yep, if you are going to change the world, start with your own backyard. Disgusted with amount of paper our printer was churning out we thought why not re-use, before we recycle. So packed with reusable awesomeness, we held Samara’s awesome paper folding party, to fold the A4 scrap paper to A5, bind between two pieces of discarded strawboard, bind and stamp with our brand. There you have it, boxes of sketch pads. Can we say the word awesome any more?

AG Ideas has come and gone for 2010. 41 Inspirational Designers. 12 countries. 3 Days.

Were you inspired? I certainly was. I had the chance to “take a day off” to attend DAY ONE of the conference. It was a great treat – not sitting in front of the computer and be surrounded with young design blood and inspirational speakers. The atmosphere was great, the Magnation stand was filled with cool magazines and the lunch at the NGV was superb!

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Awesome go and see it

’nuff said.

So Apple’s WWDC has finally been announced and will run from June 7 to 11 at the Moscone Center West, San Francisco. Apple is calling this year “The Center of the App Universe”, which presumably means there will be a big focus on the app driven platforms; iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch. The WWDC has always been Steve Jobs’ big chance to tell the world what he’s been up to in his awed keynote, but has Gizmodo’s leak taken the thunder out of the party?

Gizmodo has leaked the new iPhone and revealed all the clever new features;

• 2 cameras for video chat,
• improved back camera
• flash
• micro-sim
• improved display
• second mic presumably for noise cancellation
• new metallic buttons
• new design
• bigger batter
• etc. etc. etc.

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and get vitamin D… remember those ads?

It seems us folk in the digital world don’t get out in the sun as much as we should, on the whole we are an industry of pale and interesting people, but a bit of vitamin D is good for the soul.

Cue: the igloo Roof-nic.

Just us relaxing on the plastic grass on the roof terrace, enjoying some great food, conversation and soaking in some much needed rays (flicking the odd plastic ant off the cupcakes too). Drop by while the sun is still shining and lift your mood with the eskimos.

Last Wednesday night (St Pat’s) Social Media Club Melbourne (SMCMelb) ran their second event “Building Brand Buzz” And with not a single green t-shirts or sloppy green hat to be seen, the 80+ strong crowd were given an insight to the how three Melbourne entrepreneurs have used social media to build significant communities around their business. On hand to share their stories were;

Scott Kilmartin from Haul, Steve Sammartino from Rentoid and Sahil Merchant from Magnation

An interesting debate emerged from the panel around the concept of who should, can or is, the person behind the social media voice of a brand. The panel were quite divided in their opinions. One side trusting all involved with the company to be contributors whilst the other believing that the voice of the brand needs consistency and can therefore not be managed by anyone other than the main man at the top. It was an interesting debate that raised a number of significant issues around social media and its relationship with a brand.

What do you think? Do you let people tweet etc on you or your brands behalf?

Well done to SMCMelb for putting on a great, free (yep you heard me, free) event. The location worked, the food was good and “Dirty ‘Ole Town’ wasn’t being blasted to the crowd.

If you are interested in getting down to the next SMCMelb event, and you should, make sure you follow SMCMelb for updates. (#smcmelb to follow the tweet stream)

Now, time to put the iphone down and head out to join the green, drunk rabble.

Word up “Opportunity doesn’t knock, it vibrates”. Is that the significant difference between traditional media v’s new media, conventional v’s innovative, same v’s different? If only it was that simple.

The truth is traditional media and new media are co-dependent. Like any marriage in its early blossoming stages, its all about compromise. Debate is part of the process and it’s not always smooth sailing and champagne breakfasts but when it does work it’s marital bliss.

With harmonious conversion and digital knowledge on the brain I recently attended the AIMIA & IAB 7th Future of Digital Advertising conference (more…)

So by now, chances are you’ve heard about the iPad….

This history making ‘mobile’ device will have its fair share of critics but no doubt it will make its way into millions of homes around the world. What does this mean for me?

Well I’m not interested in the battery life or the measly 0.7kg weight, but what I am interested in is the fact that it has Wifi and 3G. This means it’s going to end up being a new format of browser, used en masse, and all the web developers better get thinking.

With a screen resolution of 768 x 1024, the preconceived notion of a landscape browser is thrown out the window and new consideration for multiple dimensions comes into play.

Do we design for 1024×768 or 768×1024? Or both? Do we just let the iPad rescale to it’s little 1Ghz heart’s content? Does it even matter??

Take a digital tablet, go on it will make you feel better – at least that is our digital promise. Funnily as technology expands devices seem to shrink. With the Mac tablet about 3 months away from hitting Australian shelves, digital innovation is not slowing down but instead consumers are craving more. For those not in-the-know, the tablet is basically a larger version of the iphone – for those that want to surf the web, read books and newspapers or watch movies.

Last Tuesday I attended the annual prescription – I mean prediction forum organised by AMIA, The Future of Digital: Forecasts & Predictions for 2010. It was an important event to hear from some of the industries heavy weights as to whats next and how both digital marketers and online businesses can plan for new digital prescriptions.

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How do you get a job that allows you to travel the world and give advice to leading companies about how THEY should be conducting THEIR business?

Meet Mike Walsh, an Australian futurist, author and CEO of innovation research agency Tomorrow, Walsh does exactly that and makes a substantial living doing so.

Walsh has just launched his book Futuretainment. Both a funky coffee table book and a clever critique on how consumer behaviour will redefine old business models and dictate new rules of engagement.

The book is an accumulation of Walsh’s diverse global experience in thought leadership and a response to the one question that haunts every marketers waking thoughts, what’s next?
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