Marcel Reichart Blog

National Design Awards

Heute wurden die National Design Awards im Cooper-Hewitt-Museum for Design in New York vergeben. Richard Meyer eröffnete und knapp zehn Kategorien wurden vergeben. Einige DLD friends waren involviert und da. Marissa Mayer von Google nahm einen Preis entgegen für Corporate Achievement. Scott Stowell, den ich kennenlernte, gewann den Preis für Communication Design (siehe Nation Cover). Landscape architecture fand ich auch relevant, der an das Büro OLIN ging (haben Columbus Circle designt). Und Interior ging an David Rockwell, dessen range von Restaurants bis Theaterinszenierungen reicht.

Ich traf John Maeda, nun Präsident der Rhode Island School of Design, und fragte ihn, wo er die Entwicklung sieht. Er sagte mir, Design würde "more human" nachdem der Pendel über eine Zeit stark in Richtung Technologie ging. Craft spiele eine wichtige Rolle. Dazu passte der Architektur-Preis an Tom Kundig mit seiner Mischung aus Handwerk und Coolness. Beth Comstock, CMO von General Electric, ist im Board des Museums. Adam Bly von SEED war da. Design gewinnt an Bedeutung in seiner sozialen Wirkung, als Kunst und Bedeutung für Unternehmen.

Zukunft für News

Unser DLD-Friend Jeff Jarvis hat wie im Bild zu sehen seine interessante Konferenz "New Business Models for News" an der CUNY School of Journalism eröffnet, die heute in NYC stattfindet. Hier die Teilnehmerliste. Die CUNY School ist eine public school und hat ihren Sitz gleich neben der NY Times. Jeff lehrt hier.

Jeffs Einstieg war ein big picture, wie er das neue News und journalism landscape sieht: newroom vs. network, story als process, curating, network model, what would Google do? (Titel seines neue Buchs). Hier auch seine Präsentationscharts.

Nach ihm spricht Edward Roussel vom Daily Telegraph und Dave Morgan, Tacoda-Gründer, dem nun The Tennis Company gehört. Roussel gibt den Rat, technology auszusourcen, if it's sucks und er rät in der network economy sehr genau die eigene Position zu definieren. 60% der Kosten bei Zeitungen seien industrial und Vertrieb, 25% sei Editorial. Die Kostenbasis bei digitalen Medien liege bei weniger als der Hälfte. Er ist nicht pessimistisch. Die britschen Top5-Zeitungen online hätten erstmals über 100 Mio. UU erreicht. Aber auch die BBC ist heute die Nr. 4 Newsite in den US. Seine Summary: Premium editorial, outsource to the best, profit not revenue.

Dave Morgan hinterfragt kritsch die gestrige Einschätzung des CEO einer US-Zeitungsgruppe, die aktuelle Krise sei zyklisch. Er rät, die Wertschöpfungen bei Printprodukten zu "disaggregieren".

Hier das weitere Programm und Speaker, darunter DLD friends Samir Arora (Glam), Adam Bly (Scienceblogs), aber auch Jon Fine (BusinessWeek), Mark Josephon (Outsidein.org). Ich traf eben auch Jim Spannfeller (Forbes.com). Am Nachmittag finden Workshops statt. Und Jeff hat einen Live-Stream hier. Samir hat sprach darüber, dass er in Glam eher ein cable operator im Netz sehe, der nicht mit Publishern konkurriert. Die Marke Glam sei als Eigenmarke nicht so wichtig. Diese Woche startete er sein ein Männer-Network Brash und erreicht nun über 90 Mio. UU weltweit. 

Stream 2008

Marathon, October 2008. STREAM. It took us just a little more than half an hour from Athens Airport to Club Med in Marathon where Sir Martin Sorrell and Yossi Vardi invited an international, digital, creative crowd of doers for an great unconference. I missed it last year, but was most happy to come this time, and Burda again was an event partner. STREAM really has an easy beach club swing, not taking things to seriously, but gathering great people and let them choose what to talk about and share. And this was very interesting. Cheers to Mark Read and his team. There is a lot playing and music. Actually the RockBand console was a real hit, next to the vintage Pacman console and Wii installations.

Said this, I met so many DLD friends and had very good talks, starting on the plain already. Who I met: Marko Athisaari of Blyk and Dopplr and his wife, Frank Boehnke of Wellington Partners, Daniel Dubno, Diana El-Azar and Cristiana Falcone of the WEF, Roberto Fernandez Creative Director JWT Brasil a new friend, and Jason Calacanis of Mahalo Inc. who gave a resume on screening 250 startups for his Techchrunch50 conference - watch his conference session here:

Among the guests furthermore Peter Hirshberg who started the Conversational Marketing Group, Pablos Holman, Elizier Lubitch and Lauren Lung of Kodak, Jamie Kantrowitz of MySpace, Dave Morgan who know own and builds tennis.com, Andrej Nabergoj of Noovo, Jeff Pulver who made great portrait he shared on facebook, Randy Rothenberg of IAB, Jennifer Schenker who I talked about the European TechTour, Gary Shainberg of BT, Michael Stephanblome of Adjug, thinker Linda Stone, conductor Itay Talgam, Simon Waldman of the Guardian and more…

   

I felt the topics of discussions had a wide range, but also I found many topics clearly addressing the big questions of our industries: social media, digital, TV, advertising networks, disruptive models, millenials, innovations techniques, mobile. It was hard to choose. And as always I spend a lot of time (too much?) in lobby conversations with friends which I take a lot insight from. I wished there was more time.

Great line up Le Web

Geraldine & Loic Le Meur have created a great conference line-up for LeWeb08 which is out now!

DLD Cocktail – Soho House, NYC

Link:

Kara Swisher on our DLD Lunch

Kara Swisher, key opinion maker in the Sillicon Valley (she is a top-writer at The WallStreetJournal and Co-Founder of the D-Conference) posted on her blog on our latest DLD Lunch in Palo Alto. And the made a wonderful short video on this. I stunned by the quality and how much feel the atmosphere of the luncheon from this and what people are on to. Great and a big thank you to Kara. Looking forward seeing you at DLD2009 at latest.

Moscow calling DLD

Zwei Jahre ist es her, dass ich in Moskau war. Diese Woche wieder für zwei Tage. Wir besuchten Burda Russia und organisierten einen DLD Lunch mit der Moskauer Internet Scene. Moskau selbst spätsommerlich. Am Dienstag abend die eröffnete die Sammlung Garage, hot spot der europäischen art community wie ich hörte. Überhaupt starke Locations, Style, man spürt den Aufschwung der Stadt. Nun abrupt jedoch auch hier ist das Gespräch die Krise, vom Krieg aber auch dem Finanzcrash. Alles hängt zusammen. Unser DLD Lunch machten Christiane zu Salm und ich in der Kalina Bar und dank der Hilfe unserer russischen Kollegen (einen Tag zuvor der Palo Alto Lunch mit Steffi und Yossi Vardi).

Unter den Gästen waren Edward Shenderovich von SUP Fabrik, der nach Silicon Valley Venture Erfahrung nun LiveJournal und weitere Sites aus Moskau heraus ausbaut, MIchail Raibman der bei TNS Gallup Media den russischen Medien- und Werbemarkt erforscht aber auch Oleg Ryazhenov, der nach dem erfolgreichen Aufbau von TimeOut in Moskau nun ein neues City-Portal startet sowie Sergey Klychenkov und Nikolay Botashov, die nun MSN Russia entwickeln.

Wir sprachen über den russischen Online-Markt, Status, Potential, die Player. Interessant, dass es wenige Startups gibt und größere Gruppen den Markt entwickeln, Google und MSN investieren, Google über eine Akquisition und MSN baut das Portalgeschäft auf. Die Broadband Penetration nimmt rasant zu, über WIFI werden die großen Häuserkomplexe in den Metropolen verkabelt. 33 Mio. Internetnutzer, 150 Mio. Mobile-Sets. Eine halb Millionen Iphones höre ich sind schon im Markt und gerade haben zwei Networks mit Apple Deals gesignt. E-Commerce spielt kaum eine Rolle, wie wir erfahren, es fehlt an Vertrauen in non-Cash Zahlungsmittel, daher sind auch Ebay et al. nicht so groß wie anderswo.

Groß sind Social Networks, Search, LiveJournal und Video-Content, lokal content. Russland ist ein TV-Markt, was Werbung angeht, weit über 60% des Gesamtvolumens. Das kleine Lunchformat ermöglichte eine interessante intensive Diskussion am Tisch. Und wir freuen uns, dass wir für DLD nun neue spannende russische friends kennengelernt haben. Am abend gings zurück, obligatorischer Stau und dann mit Aeroflot nach München.

Internet Cowboys

Dank Yossi Vardi bin ich mit Steffi dieses Jahr bei der Internet Cowboy UnConference (ICUC), die auf der Antilope Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming stattfindet. Die Landschaft hier ist atemberaubend schön, aber vor allem das Treffen selbst ein einmalige Erfahrung. Spannende Menschen, neue Ideen, wohin das Internet geht und beyond. Natürlich sammeln wir kräftig für DLD 09. Stay Tuned.

ZDF: cash cow or public value?

Cash Cow or Public Value? This title German public TV network ZDF has put to its annual forum on television  which is held in 41st year today. This responds to the intense debate on the quality of television and the digital strategy of the publicly financed networks. Christiane zu Salm will give a keynote this morning and I'll stay during the day. See the program and speakers here. Also there is a live stream on the ZDF owned mediathek.

MIND: Paula's and Adam's 21century salon

Paula Antonelli and Adam Bly host this true 21century salon MIND next week in NYC, just look through the presenters and topics (e.g. science of scent), exciting.

Swiss Dark Fair

If you are in NYC these days, have a look at the Swiss Institute for Contemporary Arts with its exhibition Dark Fair.... I liked the visual, doesn't it look good? Via Marina of Karma International.

Foggy Dubai

I just arrived in foggy Dubai town after a short nightflight. Actually I meet DLD friends on the plane who were about to dive into their Easter holidays. Now the air is getting clearer. My first impression is the airport which is very modern, huge and a tremendous shopping mall. There is a sign "Welcome to tomorrow - Dubai" and I learnd that the capacity will be enlarged to 75 mio. passengers soon. People from all over are here, also many Indians. Getting into town, I pass skyscrapers and hotels (see here the Jumeirah and the iconic Burj-al Arab). In the hotel I log on, broadband works well. Twitter.com and flickr.com are blocked, facebook works btw.

For Dubai

Next weekend, I will head to Dubai in the week of Art Dubai and wonder what else shouldn't I miss going there? For sure, the architecture will be amazing, here a pic of the site of Burj-Tower. Actually, Rem Koolhaas is about to speak at Art Dubai on cultural cities.

Lead Awards

Last night large parts of the German creative and media scene gathered at Hamburg Deichtorhallen for the Lead Awards. The 19 prizes given range from best photography, websites, print campaigns and magazine editorial and design and besides Spiegel won sponsors like Google, Boss and ENBW. I met many peers from media and design. Here my picks from the award winners:

Stefan Sagmeister, design maverick living in New York and a DLDster, for his „Things I learned in life series“. He is just now opening an exhibition in Deitch Projects gallery in New York. Heads up!

In the photography section, also Taryn Simon, also DLD speaker, was nominated.

 

Berlin contemporary culture magazin 032c biannually published by Jürgen Koch won a gold medal.

 

SZ-Magazin for its cover story on an aging society. Dominik Wichmann’s mag was nominated in several categories.

 

The Lead Awards also cover online media: Facebook took the latter, eco-lifestyle platform Utopia was named best community and collective contemporary history site EinesTages won the web-magazine prize. My favorite here the best blog Slanted which dedicates to typos. I found that the visual and context quality of all web formats has increased significantly. Not only image quality, also the rich context of image, link, text and video.

 

BMW won an award with its Einser campaign, a play in typos by creative agency MAB. Words you would associate with driving a beamer have been condensed in letters and so express the dynamic density of the car.

 

And Luis Vitton won a title for its Gorbatschow campaign. I like this motive, now I saw Keith Richard is also a testimonial. Luis Vitton gives a subtle statement of globality, celebrity and style here.

Peter's Nobel Faces

When I was for lunch in Einstein Cafe unter den Linden in Berlin yesterday, by chance I met Peter Badge, a befriended photographer and DLDster. Peter has worked over the last years with the Nobel Committee on a fascinating project. He had the assignement to portrait all living nobel laureates in the world. This made him travel substantially, but even more meet these geniuses which constitute a community of excellence of their own. I got to know Peter through Till of Cicero Magazin which presented some of Peter's portraits (which Nobel Laureate is on the photo, any guess?)

Peter published a photobook on these encounters and was so kind to invite me to the Opening of his exhibition "Nobel Faces" at the MadaTech Campus in Haifa on March 18.

FIPP VDZ Digital

An early flight this morning to Berlin and I just arrived at the FIPP VDZ Digital Magazine Media Conference in Berlin. In the second year, international publishers meet here to exchange on how to succeed in the internet. Dr. Burda made opening remarks adressing a number of questions for the industry: how to leverage the brands online and build communities, how to enter the video space, how to develop new digital products and how to collaborate online.

Just now, Patrick McGovern, Founder and CEO of IDG Group, is holding his key note. Whow. Just saying that he is for 50 years in the publishing business, he presents IDG's impressive digital strategy. Already, the company has higher revenues online than in its traditional print operations, and profit margins have increased. I was said the presentation will be on the conference website (good design btw) later and I can only recommend to read this. It shows how IDG associates its brands with social networks and video platforms. He stresses the potential of mobile citing Eric Schmidt of Google seeing in mobile the recreation of the internet. McGovern is also behind a large brain research center located in Boston.

The conference has a drawn attendees from many countries, there is strong Japanes delegation. I will be on a panel this afternoon "Creating and utilising communities on the web".   

DLD at Plaza

We had the privilege to host a DLD cocktail at the soon to be opened Plaza Hotel in New York last week. Pictures will follow soon. The famous hotel is so much part of Big Apple's history, placed iconically at Central Park South and Fifth Avenue. Nowadays, the Apple Store is just opposite and we went there by night. It shimmeres a little like a graal and you step down to immerse into the Apple world.

Our reception went alongside the US Israeli Executive Summit held there for two days which we could also attend. Our Co-Chair Yossi Vardi held a panel on digital media and Guy Rolnik with The Marker was a media partner.

We were so happy that our cocktail drew so many old and new DLD friends, amongst them architect Richard Meyer, Martha Stewart, Andrew Robertson fo BBDO, Klaus Biesenbach and Paula Antonelli of Moma, Matthew Bishop of the Economist, Adam Bly of Seed Media and many more. A hot topic was Paula's newly opened exhibit "Design and the elastic mind", a must see (here NYtimes coverage with photos) showing the wide range of design today.

Meet at Clift

When we stayed at Clift Hotel in San Francisco last week, we had a spontanous little DLD get together. Loic Le Meur came by who moved there to build his new video venture Seesmic. He just raised 6 Mio. Dollar and opened his first video studio. Niklas Zenström stopped over on his way to TED conference (very good coverage at Bruno Giussani's blog). David Rothschild meet with his team to engineer his plastic-boat to cruise his plastiki-tour later in the year which he will start in SanFran. And Andreas Weigend just came of an interesting Google workshop. It was great seeing them and catch up on news.

And with Glam Media we have even more DLD friends in the area. And don't miss the smiling images at the stylish bar of Clift Hotel. There are framed images of people, good looking, at the walls and the move incrementally, watch you and smile. Plasma Screens go style.

Glam Media

Heute wurde Finanzierungsrunde an Glam Media bekanntgegegen, an der sich Burda beteiligt hat. Samir  Arora, CEO und Founder von Glam hatte bei DLD präsentiert und wir haben in den letzten Wochen die Beteiligung ausgearbeitet. Glam ist mit über 44 Mio. unique usern das reichweitenstärkste Frauen-Network im Internet und steht auf Top 16 alles Sites in den USA. Glam bündelt über 450 Online-Publisher in den frauenafinen Themen, optimiert deren Inhalte und Traffic und vermarket diese an Markenunternehmen. Mehr über Glam und die Finanzierungsrunde, an der auch Accel Partner und DFJ beteiligt sind, im WallStreetJournal, FAZ, auf Turi2 und Venturebeat, aber auch Hugo E. Martin.

Berlinale

Am Wochenende war ich auf der Berlinale, dabei auch beim VIPER-Award von Instyle und der Mercedes-Night. Berlin vibrierte förmlich, young and sexy, Hollywood-Stars, der deutsche Film, die junge London Society, Grill Royal, Picnic-Club, creative people, fashion, brands. Ich traf DLD-Freunde wie David Rothschild, Judith Rakers, Carlos Bhola, Luis Berrios, Christian Angermeyer. David vergab einen Klimaschutz-Preis auf Cinema for Peace. Wir waren mittags unterwegs in Mitte, Luis zeigte uns eine Collagen-Arbeit, in der die Bilder einer Tageszeitungsausgabe verarbeitete. Durch Philipp Schwarz traf ich Tilmann Appel und bestaunte seine Furniture Design-Sammlung, wir sprachen über Dieter Rams, dessen ikonisches Design u.a. für Braun auch den Apple für den Ipod inspiriert haben soll. Und wir besuchten Alexander Duve in seiner neuen Galerie und sahen Halina Kliems Video-Arbeit "fuck, it looked so appealing on the package" - zwei Minuten gescrollter Text eines inneren Dialogs in Grundfarben. Fand ich echt.