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Alexander Manu in Calgary, New Years Evolution, event in review

Another great event on Calgary's digital marketing scene happened last night. Alexander Manu presented New Years Evolution at the Theatre Junction Grand and Velvet Lounge. The event was organized by Digital Alberta in collaboration with CMA Calgary Chapter.

This time I will not give you notes for two reason: it was dark in the theatre and Alexander was way to fast to take notes after. All I'll do is share some of my personal reflections based pon what I could recall afterwards.

In short: Alexander was going fast but long (started shortly after 7pm and wend until quarter to 10pm). Aside from being uncomfortably long it was quite engaging and full of twists in all directions. At times it was difficult to figure out where he goes next. To me it was more of a theatrical play enhanced with insights into social, mobile, marketing, technology, future, innovation, creativity, and "i see you".

Given the audience mix of marketers and tech people, the presentation was well addressed with a slight emphasis on marketing, as mentioned by Alexander himself. There were over 200 people in attendance. About two thirds stayed until the end. Thanks to all parties involved in organization of the event, the deck and video presentation will be available soon on Digital Alberta and calgaryCMA websites.

A few points that stuck with me until today:

  • Russians-Americans space competition: Americans did not have another choice but to outperform Russians. However Russians were the ones to define the strategy, merely by getting to space first. The concept is very applicable to innovations in business.
  • Trendwatching.com If you don't read it yet, get on it. Alexander recommended.
  • Desire, goals, motivation, media, activity... I only got the beginning of this sequence, it actually continues. The key about these first steps (desire, goals, motivation) is that these are what everything starts from. I can't wait for the slides to be available to see where it all goes. Alexander promised to share an entire chapter on this from his book.
  • Behaviour is constant, business is variable. Yet another deep thing that stuck with me. Alexander's point was that most businesses have it the other way around (behaviour is variable, business is constant). Meaning that you cannot change behaviours but you CAN adapt business. Interesting. I want to read more on it.
  • Great concept of equating media, ubuntu and "I see you" from the Avatar. Early in presentation Alexander defined media as... "a tool that allows me to see me, you are my media, I'm yours". Ubuntu was later define by "I in You and You in Me". Finally, Alexander brought up the Avatar's "I see you". Brilliant.
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 at 9:45 pm and is filed under Digital Innovation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Alexander Manu in Calgary, New Years Evolution, event in review”

  1. Alexander Manu Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 7:41 pm

    Thanks for lasting until the end and for the review. I will send you chapter dealing with the desire/goals/motivations as well as constant/variable shortly . In the meantime, feel free to download the relevant maps on the subject (used in the slides last week) from http://web.me.com/suramanu/Site/Maps.html
    Very best for now. A.

  2. Zagoumenov Says:
    January 25th, 2010 at 7:48 pm

    Alexander, thank you for both the maps and the presentation. As I mentioned, I would definitely love to go through the materials once again. And although for many, including myself, the talk was a little "over the head", it was extremely INSPIRING. "The more I know, the less I know" (ancient author, forgot the name). Thank you for this!

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