For this year's Innovation Stories event at Digitas LBi, I decided to speak not about future technology or stories of innovation but instead about what I feel to be a key area which the advertising industry tends to stay away from: science.
If you think about the science industry currently being at the cusp of change (like the tech industry was 20 years ago), it can be reframed from being a stuffy, boring, unattainable, slow industry to one which is, well, sexy. I believe there are 2 key things which it needs to really push forward - openness and communication.
But the science industry is not just a charity case in need of help - there are significant funds channeled into the industry to help engage the public and create business innovation out of research...money which ad agencies could spend pretty wisely and really help the industry achieve its full potential...
Science should be our next new business target.
Intro
Today talking about science needs creativity…colon in the same way that tech has benefitted from creativity
Don’t mean the ‘art’ definition of creativity – more about making new things that solve problems in novel ways
10 years ago – tech had some problems
Power of Internet has really helped tech – democratised it, made it fun, things created outside the ‘usual realms’
but science hasn’t quite caught up IMO
2 things that tech didn’t do well before that now is a given…that I think science is in desperate need of…
Openness – anyone can do tech. Doesn’t mean its so easy that you don’t need to work hard, but the barriers to entry are low and, when in the industry, there’s a huge culture of collaboration – working alone and solving problems without help is seen as a bit daft…
Communication – people know what’s going on. People are inspired. We are not ‘learning’ about tech, we are interested and therefore we consume content. We can sell ideas and products to people who aren’t experts as we’ve found ways to explain what we’re doing without dumbing it down.
Want to show you some examples of this so we can open the possibilities for science. I feel like a lot of the problem is that no one is speaking up amd proposing solutions from outside the science industry for fear of being told they are no expert..so here’s a safe place for me to go for it..!
Learning is cool, online, done in groups
accessible to people even in careers. You can become a techie late in life but it doesn’t feel like you do the same with science.
quickly becoming a scientist. Is that even possible?
Hackathons – and also the idea that not everyone needs to be a techie to bring value – there’s problems in science with not even engaging scientists of different disciplines…
Citizen science…but I haven’t really seen examples where it’s not just people doing the data collection, not actually coming up with ideas…
Hackathons – and also the idea that not everyone needs to be a techie to bring value – there’s problems in science with not even engaging scientists of different disciplines…
Citizen science…but I haven’t really seen examples where it’s not just people doing the data collection, not actually coming up with ideas…
GitHub – where your code is open and built with other people
Suggestions welcomed - science you black list people from peer reviewing your paper…how is that fair?!
Also a way of being your CV – to get tenure in science you need to publish papers…
How we fund tech is open – anyone can do it and they don’t have to be big corporates.
Science says only government has an interest – not true. People fund because they believe
Watching people code – on stage / YouTube – when would you see this with science – yes @RealScientists, but you can’t take part and it’s fragmented. No scientists ‘live tweeting’ their experiments…but then is it possible? See it with space for sure – NASA Social…but this is one area.
Used to be Bill Gates and Larry Ellison – now Zuck, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Sheryl, Marissa Meyer
Where are our ‘current’ scientists? People say einstien and galileo and Darwin, few people know the Nobel Prize winners of today…why is that?
Used to be Bill Gates and Larry Ellison – now Zuck, Sergey Brin, Larry Page, Sheryl, Marissa Meyer
Where are our ‘current’ scientists? People say einstien and galileo and Darwin, few people know the Nobel Prize winners of today…why is that?
This WWDC, Apple announcements, CES, SXSW vs poster competitions at science conferences
This WWDC, Apple announcements, CES, SXSW vs poster competitions at science conferences
Startup pitches – Pitch to Rich etc, not just small companies, even big ones
Nice places to look, not a chore, but also feels accessible
Twitter is democratic – anyone can ask – it’s not ‘only for technologists’
Nice places to look, not a chore, but also feels accessible
Twitter is democratic – anyone can ask – it’s not ‘only for technologists’
Nice places to look, not a chore, but also feels accessible
Twitter is democratic – anyone can ask – it’s not ‘only for technologists’
Feel like only with more openness and communication can science catch up – and it’s the creative ways of doing this that bring them to life. Can’t just copy tech – it’s finding things that work for the sector
