It was the RDV Web last April 14, RDV Web is the annual gathering of web professionals organized by Infopresse.
My colleague Thoma Daneau and I attended the various conferences given during the event, here is the summary:
Virtual identity and public life: the story of a journalist who disappeared from the digital world.
Evan Ratliff, journalist for Wired , The New Yorker and The Atavist , told us how he tried to disappear from the map for 1 month while continuing to use social networks. A prize of $5,000 was awarded to the person who managed to find him and take a picture of him.
The moral of the story? It is extremely difficult to erase all traces on the internet but it is dangerously easy to impersonate someone else thanks to the web.
Technology trends to watch in 2011
Sylvain Carle presented the realities of the web in 2011. Sylvain Carle is vice-president of technology and co-founder of Needium .
He first presented his definition of the web:
NEA
- No one owns it
- E veryone can use it
- A nyone can improve it
This allows anyone to do whatever they want. Leaving opportunities for new companies to make their way as several companies have proven.
On the other hand, there is the obstacle of the various platforms which act as toll points if we take platforms such as iPhone applications, a Facebook application or others.
Then, Sylvain Carle presented his own laws to define new technologies (which are inspired by Clark's three laws of computing .
- When a promising young hacker, full of enthusiasm, perseverance and naivety, uses technology to tackle a problem declared impossible to solve, he has a very good chance of succeeding.
- The only way to find out who are the promising young geeks is through the social filter of their peers, on the internet and DLVV.
- Any sufficiently advanced hacker can detect the cabalistic signals of the alpha geeks simply because he perceives these signals via their social amplification.
New jobs on the web
Martin Ouellette, President Commun , exposed the web professions that should disappear and those that should define the future of the web.
Indeed, since today's websites are in an infinite cycle of constant evolution, Martin explained to us how certain new professions such as "anthropomath" (specialist in performance measurement) or "personalization architect" should be put forward to meet the new needs they bring.
Geotargeting marketing: what opportunities for brands?
Subsequently, Mohammed Khalain presented the opportunities for brands regarding geotargeting marketing. Mohammed Khalain is Director of Products and Operations at Mediative .
He presented the 4Ps in the mobile revolution:
Product
- Mobility and the digital revolution
- Technology must be in agile mode and have rapid development cycles
- Must take into account the maturity of the web
Promotion
- Diversified digital portfolio
- The new creative is the data, the more we know about the customer, the more ways we will have to talk to him
Price
- Free, unfortunately
- Betting on the long tail
- Consider the power of buying groups
Square
- new revolution
The place is the P which is the most modified if we take into account that the consumer can be approached at any time with the mobile.
He made a very important point about the personification of communications. Indeed, with the interactions that take place on several channels, it is increasingly necessary to show your real person. The contact between the real and the virtual is made more and more easily.
Mohammed even went on to say that soon we would no longer talk about real and virtual instead of real vs virtual.
One of the problems that emerged is the difficulty of obtaining statistics with mobile use.
“Online memes”: strategic success or fluke?
We had the chance to attend a very entertaining discussion on the success of "online memes" between host Thane Calder ( Cloudraker ) and panelists Evant Ratliff, Kyle MacDonald ( Red Paperclip ) and Ian J. Spector ( Chuck Norris Facts ).
We learned that to make a good meme, a key element that it must include is the presence of cats and/or kittens. On a more serious note, a good tip given by the panelists to make a good meme is that people can identify with it, they have to be able to say to themselves “I could have done that”.
As Ian J. Spector would say, "don't be a dick" remains the main line to follow in creating a good meme.
The power of influence networks
Finally, we had the chance to listen to Steve Irvine from Facebook Canada who spoke to us about the power of influence networks. Of course, he mentioned Facebook.
His presentation could have convinced many businesses to join Facebook given the evidence showing the importance of the network in the daily lives of Canadians.
The highlight of the talk for me was when he talked about how the web was becoming people-centric.
- The web is organizing around people
- Businesses are organizing around people. Whether it's public relations, product development or customer service
- Organizations around people deliver results
Working in social media, I can only agree on the importance of interacting with individuals to create awareness of your brand.
He explained how fans are important to a Page, but influencing fans is even more important. Influencing a fan also means influencing their network of friends, so being able to influence even more people. Important factor that we often forget, but imagine being able to influence your 300 fans to influence each of their 400 friends.
Finally, I invite you to read Jean-Sébastien Chouinard's article about his presentation he gave at RDV Web on group purchases in Montreal.
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