Guardian Activate Summit '10

Details

Created on Tuesday, 6 July 2010

Reflecting on the Activate Summit at the guardian last week I took away 2 big things as well as meeting a bunch of interesting people.  The first was that it is essential to talk to young people when you reach the grand old age of 37 like me!  I think this is probably true in all aspects of life, but it is particularly true in relation to technology. After doing a short keynote speech I was on a panel during which 4 young people compared their experiences with 4 oldies. There were many reassuring areas of similarity – all of us agreed that entrepreneurialism rests on a ‘just b***** get on with it’ mentality coupled with a passion for your product.

What was different perhaps was watching the young bright sparks use their mobile devices, want to share stuff immediately and have very little enthusiasm for anything to do with tv... The second was a statement by Eric Schmidt that all businesses must ‘think internet first’.  He said that any business who did not ignore their incumbent model and start with the internet when designing new products and services would not survive.  He has a vested interest in saying something so bold but I like this.  It's a simple way to ram home cultural change. I will be using it in government...