There Is No Box
In The Matrix, we learned that there is no spoon only the idea of a spoon. Stuck in an old paradigm shatter it. Let's stop talking about "thinking outside the box." There is no box! Let's rewrite the code of consumer relations and branded entertainment. What happens next is up to us.
Schedule
Thursday, April 27MIT Museum. |
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2 pm 2.20 pm. |
Opening Remarks |
2.20 pm 3 pm. |
Session 1: Media in Transition |
3 pm. |
An exploratory walk through the MIT Museum. |
Bartos Auditorium, The Media Lab. |
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5 pm 7 pm. |
Session 2 (CMS Colloquium): Notions of Loyalty within Brand and Fan Cultures Ian Condry (MIT) will discuss the "dark energy" of the fans who translate and distribute the latest broadcasts of Japanese animated TV shows. Fansub groups view their activities as an expression of their loyalty and devotion to anime culture, but critics see nothing but piracy and betrayal. Why do some brands become cults and why does it matter? Robert Kozinets (York College, Canada) will discuss the consumer passion behind the success of such brands as Star Wars, ESPN, Disney, Wal-Mart, Volkswagen, Toys R Us, the Apple Newton and iPod, Nike, Starbucks, Quisp Cereal and, perhaps most improbably of all, the Burning Man brand. Moderator: Henry Jenkins (MIT). |
R&D Pub, The Stata Center |
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7.30 pm 9 pm. |
Opening Night Reception |
Friday April 28Tang Center (Building E51), Room 315 |
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9 am 9.30 am. |
Breakfast |
9.30 am 10.30 am. |
Session 3: Changing The Way You Think of Us Newsweek recently asked us to consider who put the "we" in Web. Tim O'Reilly has argued that the next wave of successful companies will be those who understand how to "harness the power of collective intelligence." We (whoever we are) now live at a moment when everyday consumers can archive, annotate, appropriate, and recirculate media with ease. How should this change the way your company does business? Shenja van der Graaf (London School of Economics) discusses how web 2.0 is impacting content creation, delivery, marketing, and consumer relations, identifying some of the pioneering companies playing in this space and the best practices which keep them ahead of the game. Q & A Moderator: Joel Greenberg (GSD&M). |
10.30 am 11.30 am. |
Session 4: Of Brands and Sailing Ships Market places are fragmenting. Consumer taste and preference is relentlessly dynamic. Marketing models are now increasingly various, contested, and, sometimes, panic driven. Building brands that can withstand these stress factors is not easy. In this presentation, Grant McCracken offers us a "sailing ship" model of the brand. Q & A Moderator: Todd Cunningham (MTV Networks). |
11.30 am Noon. |
Coffee & Conversation Break |
Noon 1 pm. |
Session 5: Niche Try!: Minority Taste, Minority Politics Long Tail economics depends on targeting ever more precise niches of consumers. But how well do media companies know the people who are consuming their products? And how can they align their interests with those of their consumers? Humanistic researchers have developed rich theoretical frameworks for understanding and representing how tastes, styles, and cultural identities emerge from our lived experiences and change in response to larger technological, social, cultural, and economic shifts. Hugo Liu (MIT) explores ways that we can operationalize those understandings, building new tools and models which can help companies and consumers better understand how taste operates. A strange fusion of niche marketing and internet activism, affinity portals are cashing in on online communities. These affinity portals certainly offer a variety of resources that empower their patrons as consumers, but what role do they play in empowering their patrons as citizens? Can these commercial sites advance the political interests of historically marginalized communities? John Campbell (Annenberg School of Communication, University of Pennsylvania) asks whether good politics equals good business. Could empowering citizens be the key to insure long-term consumer loyalty? |
1 pm 2 pm. |
Lunch Break |
2 pm 3.30 pm. |
Session 6: I'm Getting Desi: The Globalization of Media American television flows East and Asian media flows West. But what does it all mean? How can we predict what content works and what doesn't as we move into a global media marketplace? Dawson's Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, even The West Wing sells in markets around the world, but are people in those markets watching "American television"? How do local stations localize these shows for their markets and why? What role do audiences play in reshaping the meaning of these series? An Australian researcher, Joshua Green (Queensland University of Technology) tells us what it means to watch American series from an Australian perspective. Bollywood is entering the western market in a big way. South Asian films now make almost as much money in North America and the United Kingdom as they make in India. Aswin Punathambekar (University of Wisconsin, Madison) tells us how and why Bollywood Inc. is now a major player world-wide. Based on an extensive study, which combines historic, economic, and ethnographic perspectives, Punthambekar tells us how Bollywood got this far and how it can take the next steps and reach an even broader audience. Q & A Moderator: Laurie Baird (Turner Broadcasting). |
3.30 pm 4 pm. |
Coffee & Conversation Break |
4 pm 5.30 pm. |
Session 7: Doing Business in Multiplayer Game Worlds Okay, you've heard the stories some of the massively multiplayer game represent some of the largest economies in the world. Some people are earning their living by selling virtual real estate. Others are spending more time on their second life than they spent on their first. So how can your company collect some of those gold coins? If advertising involves turning products into "the stuff that dreams are made of," what can games teach us about consumer fantasies and desires? Who should you be trying to pitch the gamers or their avatars? How can you sell stuff in Alphaville if you don't even live there? Join us for a frank discussion about the challenges and opportunities of marketing and branding within MMOPRGS with David Edery (MIT), Paul Hemp (Harvard Business Review), Ilya Vedrashko (MIT) and Chris Weaver (MIT).
Moderator: Henry Jenkins (MIT). |
5.30 pm 7:00 pm. |
Session 8: Closing Brainstorming A free flowing brainstorming, led by Beth Coleman. What insights did you get from all of this? How can you put these ideas into action? What's next for C3? What questions are driving your business nuts? And what can we do about it? |
(Optional) |
Evening Entertainment |
Saturday April 29Stella Room, Rogers Building (Building 7) Room 337 |
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9.30 am 10.30 am. |
Networking Breakfast Informal breakfast and networking session. |
Maps
Here are links to the MIT maps of the different locations to help you navigate your way around the campus.
- MIT Museum: http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=N52&Buildings=go
- R&D Pub (4th floor, Stata Center): http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=32&Buildings=go
- Bartos Auditorium at the Media Lab: http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=E15&Buildings=go
- Tang Center (Building E 51) room 315: http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=E51&Buildings=go
- Stella Room at the Rogers Building (Building 7, Room 337): http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg?selection=7&Buildings=go
- Main 'Visit MIT' page link (lots of general useful information): http://web.mit.edu/visit/
Key Phone Numbers
Here are some key telephone numbers you should have:
- Evan/Gene at the CMS headquarters (Building 14N, Room 207): 617 253 3599
- Parmesh cellphone: 617 899 6495
- David cellphone: 919 619 1159
- Geoff cellphone: 301 996 8464
- Ilya cellphone: 617 459 0748
- Ivan cellphone: 301 602 6755