The Innovation Diaries

I spent yesterday afternoon at Under The Influence in Borough Market, run by Iris, who I think are the real hot agency of the moment. They had hired 5 pubs and packed them with interesting people and interesting speakers talking about all sorts of subjects to do with the future. Loads of beer, good chat and general banter was the order of the day. A million miles away from the world of stuffy marketing conferences and a million miles better.

I was asked to be on a question and answer panel at the end of the day. If you can, imagine several hundred people who had all been drinking since 2pm crowded into a bar, with yet more beer. In the context they were a very polite audience. Most of the discussion was around green issues and digital issues. And most of the conversation was veering us towards the big question ‘how will the world be different in the future?’.

We got into discussions such as ‘what’s the future of television in a world which will be increasingly on line?’. As we talked, it really struck me how dangerous it is to assume that the world will segment issues in the same way as we see them today. TV versus on line are really distinct categories to us, aren’t they? But does it really matter? Maybe a better question is ‘how will people use screens when they are sat on a sofa?’. And ‘how will that be different to when they are sat at a desk?’ And what about on a train, like I am now?. Maybe we would be wise to start thinking right now about sofa technology.