FRONT - A Strategy, Design and Technology Studio

For openers, Tom Coates of Yahoo’s FireEagle project gave a breezy, not too nerdy talk on the approaches being used to create “websites” that aren’t really websites. Tom talked about services like Twitter, Flickr, even Google - where the front-end websites are just one expression of a huge amount of underlying data, with APIs and techniques like oAuth being used to allow third parties to access and use that data in lots of different ways. It was a great talk that really captured one of the key themes of the conference; the move away from sites where content/data is not interwoven into other systems and services.

Dan Catt of Flickr gave an entertaining and somewhat baffling talk on the spatial algorithms used by Flickr Maps. Dan described Flickr’s approach to indexing and positioning tens of millions of photos. I won’t/can’t go into too much detail on this one; but it involves maths, clever people and a whacking-great database.

Moving away from the nerdy to the human; I went to see Thor Muller and Lane Becker of GetSatisfaction.com give a talk called “Customer Service is the New Marketing”. Using some great case studies and a “concierge” model (just like in a hotel) they described how every interaction with a customer can be used as an opportunity to build a lasting relationship and create passionate advocates.

Adaptive Path’s Bryan Mason and Sarah Nelson gave a talk which was, for me anyway, one of the highlights of the whole week called “10 Tools for Managing a Creative Environment” where they desctibed how Adaptive Path’s research into orchestras, theatre companies, screen writers and other creative professions has influenced the way they manage their own practice. This was a huge opportunity to learn from the best in the business; and the talk didn’t disappoint. The level of thought and detail that Adaptive Path bring to bear on projects is admirable and frightening :)

So, that was all for Thursday. We adjourned to the most fashionable hotel in SF, the “W” for the Ireland Connects event. There was some schmoozing and shaking of hands, and the Irish companies looking for VC came with shiny faces and elevator pitches at the ready. I hope they all came out of the event with useful contacts :)