Brain Food: Thinking Digital Conference 2011
TDC11
Like a Glastonbury of the Digital Media and Technology world, Thinking Digital Conference 2011 surpassed all previous events with a fantastic array of speakers, ideas, music and learning. Innovative, stimulating and relaxed in equal measure, TDC11 delivered on all counts.
As TDC11 ‘thinkers’ we were treated to an extensive and eclectic mix of thought leaders in the worlds of social media, tech commerce, music, medicine, robotics, political engagement, app & game development, music and infographics, dictionary and literary liberation – you name it! There were so many compelling speakers, and we’ll let you know when the Thinking Digital Team get the videos streams on-line. For now, here are some of the highlights…
Walter De Brouwer – CEO OLPC Europe
A fascinating take on the future of healthcare where our ‘nomadic health records’, come with us and are populated with our own ’self-quantified’ health data. But to achieve it we have to give up some privacy so that we can enlist the best mix of health specialists to advise us on our healthcare. For now our health records are protected only by the “sheer chaos” of multiple players, systems and records that make up our histories. Anyone looking into the future of health care and informatics would really benefit from listening to Walter’s talk.
Dr Vincent W Li – Co-Founder of the Angiogenesis Foundation
Angiogenesis is new blood vessel growth, put simply, too little angiogenesis and we don’t heal, too much and you have the beginnings of cancerous tumours. Vincent’s compelling talk showed us the amazing health benefits of optimising angiogenesis by simply eating the right foods. It’s the stuff we know, green tea, brocolli, blueberries etc, but never so convincingly presented. Vincent is creating a movement for change called Eat to Defeat Cancer. Check out the excellent and simple eating and cooking tips and you’ll wonder why you aren’t already following his advice.
Conrad Wolfram – Wolfram Alpha
Imagine that, instead of trading PDFs multiple times with your colleagues, you could create documents which had dynamic and searchable data embedded within. Documents which would in effect ‘come to life’ so that data becomes useful and accessible. Wolfram Alpha’s unique approach is the foundation of ‘CDFs’ (Computational Document Format). There is hope of liberation from report and PDF overload!
Nancy Duarte – Duarte Design
This is the lady who advised Al Gore’s slide presentation at the core of An Inconvenient Truth. The first lady of presenting in our book and her ‘Resonate‘ strategy for devising and delivering compelling presentations is a must for anyone who wants not just inform, but compel their audiences into action.
Erin McKean – Wordnik
Wordnik is the OED with cosmic rays and bells on. This is the dictionary to revolutionise our relationship with words. About as current as real-time can be, Wordnik sweeps the web as well as the weighty tomes of the dictionary powers-that-be. So any word you seek can be found in several contexts. We like it.
Caspar Berry – Risk Analyst
This man has the coolest CV ever, top of the list being ‘poker advisor for the makers of the Casino Royale Bond film’! Aside from that, Caspar is hot on uncertainty and our naive efforts to control the future. Mind blowing for us all when much of our work time is spent trying to do just that!
Alan Cohen – CISCO
VP of Global Public Sector & Industry Solutions for CISCO, Alan is on a mission to overcome our much bemoaned ‘Paralysis by Analysis ‘ and Information Overload’. His thesis: “70% of knowledge work is just the re-shuffling of already existing data”. And, he says, the anti-dote is ‘7′! Keep it simple and build information systems with human capacity in mind, we can process up to 7 items of data in our brains on a good day, fewer on a bad one. His vision is “putting people back into the centre of the information flow”. Wise words indeed.
PS – Want to see pictures? Check out a great FlickR feed from Simon Finch