Media 08 (part 3)

Niall Kennedy stepped up to the plate. Widget king – he runs the Widget Summit in San Fran. One thing he said completely stuck: “Because we’re all in this room, we share an interest, so we’re somewhat in a relationship.” It hit me that when people find their passion, and are able to share interests collectively, they ultimately become happier to be alive since, as Chris McCandless wrote, "Happiness to be real must be shared."

Kaiser Kuo, former rock star and forever cool dude, talked about China’s wild, wild web. That any day now, China will overtake with THE most internet users.

Instant messaging in China is massive; it is more important than email – totally trumps it. Chinese use IM as a primary internal and external business communications tool.

QQ- the company one must understand if to understand Chinese internet market. Captures zeitgeist of China’s digital age. 36 million concurrent users. That's a big number.

I enjoyed this pearl: "The 'venture' is VC is crap – they’re not adventurous. So if you want to raise the capital, you’ve got to show something that’s already been proven to be a safe bet." He mentioned that the low-hanging fruit has largely already been picked: YouTube, Facebook, etc have already been invented.

One of the best things about Media 08 was covert life advice from the speakers during the coffee breaks. I don't know when adults went from being my parents' friends at dinner parties, to colleagues, but the transition happened pretty quickly. The best thing about being in your early twenties is that you're still so open to the world, and I appreciated hearing from Benjamin Joffe about how any goal is possible when you plan the end first and then work backwards in establishing your next steps.

Assia Grazioli-Venier also pointed out that while starting a company sounds cool, it’s best done after a couple of years of work experience. You’re not going to know what kind of employer you want to be until you’ve been an employee. University is good for time management skills and learning to juggle, but you have to get out there in the real world to try on different career paths, and see what fits. You have to find out who you are and what you're passionate about before you can run a successful company.

She also pointed out this cool made-for-online TV show.