WillBurrus.com

My company, 247Interactive, (the main reason why this blog is so out of date) is a founding sponsor of the Ohio Interactive Awards! We are hosting our inaugural recognition ceremony saluting the top digital and interactive talent in the state beginning at 5:30p, Thursday , April 29, at the Arena Grand Theater.

Awards are being presented in six categories: Advertising, Sectors/Industry, Social Web, Student, Best Integrated Campaign, and Best Use of New Technology. Additionally, awards are being presented for Interactive Agency of the Year and Interactive Marketer of The Year. A panel of judges comprised of marketing industry leaders who work with and represent some of the world’s most recognizable brands and Fortune 500 companies have reviewed more than 35 entries from across the state. Entries were judged on three criteria: strategy, execution and results.

Tim Schigel, CEO of Cincinnati-based ShareThis, the world’s largest sharing network and a market of influence across the web, is the featured speaker of the evening. He will lead a discussion on the current and future trends of online sharing and the social web. 

Our host for the evening will be Johnny DiLoretto, from WSYX ABC 6/Fox 28 Good Day Columbus!

We have worked really hard on this and are expecting a great turnout, and an awesome event. If you haven't got your tickets yet, you can get them here, or at the door.

Interactive Marketing, Will Burrus tim schigel, johnny diloretto, ohio interactive awards, 247interactive

It's exciting to see people now freely referencing the 'New Economy! This is not a fad, this is a paradigm shift! If you want to survive, you must know WHO you are dealign with and how the dynamics of engagement have changed. Here are some predictions of consumer behaviro for 2010.

Interactive Marketing, Trendspotting 2010 trends, consumers

Anyone who knows me know that I absolutely breathe music. I have been in a bunch of bands, have boxes of original arrangements, produced some great artists, and worked for a cool label for a while. I have a room full of instruments at home, and I walk around half of the day with my acoustic electric in my hand. (It helps me think). I often joke around about how technology was a natural progression for me as a musician, because of the math...

Anyways, this video below brought me great joy. During my production years, I was always behind some boards or in front of a screen, and I fell in love with the purity of sound and control that technology gave me with the music I was arranging. But, I many times felt inferior, because I could not figure out how to replicate that cleanliness on stage, without dragging a keyboard rig and gear on stage. Who wants to watch someone hunched over a bunch of keyboards right? (This was before I saw the Crystal Method actually do a show).

I am happy to say, this guy, Liam Finn, figured it out in an incredibly cool way. He plays riffs and loops them and essentially arranges his song right there on stage. And it sounds great! I am sure it is an organic process, i.e. he probably screws up from time to time, but imagine what comes out in a good show! Man, I am jealous that I didnt think of this first.

This here, is true 'Creative Technology'. Enjoy! 

Digital Lifestyle, Future Technology, Trendspotting liam finn

...in case you haven't noticed. Witness how it works. Now, your voice actually DOES mean something!

Digital Lifestyle, Interactive Marketing, Will Burrus

Another very well done presentation on the paradigm shift that technology is creating in our society and culture. Just watch. There is really nothing else to say.

 

Digital Lifestyle, Future Technology, Trendspotting

Something I have been particularly intrigued with lately is this technology called Augmented Reality.

Essentially, a program can augment the feed from a web cam with virtual objects and allow you to interact with them via gesture. Its kind of hard to explain, but if you look at some examples, such as the Star Trek movie promo at http://joinstarfleetacademy.com/discover, you will see what I mean. After toying with this, of course my brain went into overdrive on how it could be effectively used by a brand. (BTW, I have some great ideas...and I am playing with the toolkit....feel free to call if you would like to chat :-))

Well, I have now seen a GREAT practical example of the use of this technology with USPS of all places. Now, if you are not sure what box size to use for shipping, fire up your browser, point your webcam at your desk, project a virtual box on it, and slide your content into the box!

Props to AKQA for a sweet digital campaign with purpose.

Check out the demo video here :  http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=93786512351

or try the actual tool here :  https://www.prioritymail.com/simulator.asp

Digital Lifestyle, Future Technology, Interactive Marketing, Trendspotting augmented reality

The web is it's OS
All screens look into the One.
No bits will live outside the web.
To share is to gain.
Let the One read it.

Sounds creepy, almost cultish huh? And yet, Kevin Kelly, exec editor at Wired, is dead on. Check this out:

 

Digital Lifestyle, Future Technology, Semantic Web, Trendspotting

Here is some footage of an IT Martini event that I did a panel discussion for on diversity. Kudos to John and Aladin for tackling this critical subject head on and shedding some much needed light!

 

 

Interactive Marketing, Will Burrus it martini, diversity

Or at least they should! Check out this great presentation by John Pettingill, interaction designer for Razorfish. Excellent insight into how the virtual world can be exploited through that device we all cant live without anymore - the cellphone. Brands-pay attention. Go where we are. Don't wait for us to come to you!

 

 

 

Digital Lifestyle, Interactive Marketing, Software, Trendspotting razorfish, mobile, sixth sense

Calling this a 'sixth sense' is perfect and extremely accurate. I have envisioned a world approaching very quickly where metadata would be readily available at any given point. The irony is, I though the transaction for this metadata would occur in the cellphone. We'll not if the MIT guys have anything to do with it. Check this video out of a talk by Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry about their 'wearable tech' technology. It appears that the semantic web will not be in the browser after all!

Digital Lifestyle, Future Technology, Semantic Web, Trendspotting mit. ted, pranav mistry, pattie maes, sixth sense