I've decided that it's time to get out more and hit the speaking circuit more then I already do. I'm in Utrecht next week at Marketing Live | Hoe maakt u als marketeer het verschil? and I really enjoy the opportunity to get out, meet new people and engage in the conversation about the future. And I usually get very good feedback on my presentations as well.
Mort Goldstrom, from the Newspaper Association of America had this to say about my presentation:
These days, many of us are so focused on the day to day that we lose sight of the incredible need to focus on future possibilities. David Polinchock makes you see the world through a different set of lenses and imagine new ways to think and grow. The endless opportunities for business growth spew from this man’s incredible creative mind in unimaginable ways. He is a talent you simply have to experience.
And Marcia Tabler, RAMA Consultant, has these kind words:
David’s presentations engage the crowd whether they are playing an audience participation game on screen or hearing about new technologies that will help their business. He’s always on the cutting edge and he doesn’t just deliver a speech - lives his message.
Generally, I speak about:
Emerging trends, especially as they relate to technology
Innovation
The role of experience
The future of advertising
Emerging From a Recession with Emerging Media
The Invisible Web and Ubiquitous Computing
I've also frequently brought some examples of cool technologies with me, including AudienceGames, interactive cell phone games and augmented reality.
I've also done a number of experience walking tours around Manhattan and other locations. With advance planning, I can custom design a walking tour for you and your location, just let me know what you need.
In the past, I have spoken on the future of marketing in South America, the World Summit of Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Oman and across the country at industry events including SXSW, Cannes Lions, the Experiential Marketing Summit in Sydney, PICNIC in Amsterdam, GlobalShop, Ad Age Digital, The Retail Advertising Conference, ARM Expo, PROMO Live, PMA, the Virginia Healthcare Marketing Association and many POPAI events. Clients who have engaged me have included Razorfish, Microsoft, msnbc.com, MTV Networks, the Newspaper Association of America, Nokia, GSK, Pepsi, Nike, Ogilvy and the Custom Content Conference.
I have also taught classes for FIT, NYU, Columbia and Montclair State University, among others.
If you're interested in having me speak at your event, drop me an e-mail and we can check dates, explore content and discuss fees. I would like to help you see the world through a different set of lenses and imagine new ways to think and grow.
The long rumored motion controller for the XBox 360 was announced yesterday and so far everyone seems pretty psyched with it. Much like our AudienceGames In-Cinema Experience, they are using motion capture to make you the game controller. Of course, Project Natal is a lot more advanced then what we've been doing in cinema, where we have look at a whole audience of people, and they also added facial & voice recognition, which should add some really cool experience options to what they're doing.
We're just at the beginning of see a entirely new way to engage the computer, in this case for gaming. After all, the QWERTY keyboard that we use today was really created back in the late 1800's and it really is time for a new interface. And in terms of games, both at home and in arcades, this kind of technology will continue what Wii started by bringing in people who might not have been game players before, as well as create new forms of game experiences that we haven't even thought of yet.
Remember, if you want to learn about multitouch, you can join us tomorrow night at Multitouch Maven at the Clo Wine Bar at the Time Warner Center at 7.
Looking around this morning, here's some of the coverage Project Natal received:
My first taste of Natal was Ricochet, the hyper-active block-breaking game, demoed by the face of Natal and former Fight Night developer, Kudo Tsunoda. Kudo gave us a brief intro and showed us the ropes before letting the press serve up some damage. I didn't quite get as active as the hyperactive Microsoft employee, or even the surprisingly nimble Kudo, but my first taste of Natal served as proof-this device works. It recognized how far I was from the TV, and limb and head movements were almost instantaneously recognized on TV. Plus, the game once again rocked Ratatat on the soundtrack-they're a very gaming-influenced instrumental band that are definitely work checking out.
So is Project Natal Microsoft's answer to the Wii-mote?
"And beyond, yeah," said Forrester principal analyst Paul Jackson. "Obviously, we've all got, in the game industry...a huge debt to pay to Nintendo for shaking things up a bit with the Wii, and for moving beyond the 37 button controller. This is taking things to the next extreme. Because even with the Wii, you still have (several) buttons, start and select. It's still a physical controller."
Added Jackson, Project Natal looks likely to "remove that final barrier between you sitting in your room and...what's on your screen."
They also got a good quote from Steven Spielberg:
"I've been asking the crucial question: how can interactive entertainment become as approachable as other forms of entertainment?" Spielberg said. "The vast majority of people are just too intimidated to pick up a video game controller...Despite the size of (the video game) industry, still 60 percent of households do not own a video game console...The only way to bring interactive entertainment to everybody is to make it invisible." (BTW, here's what I said in '95 -- The first lesson for using any technology in marketing, he says, is to make the technology invisible and work on the content, not forgetting that people like to have fun. Not only do I sometimes look like him, I'm just as smart, damn it!)
What we saw today was unprecedented: True 1-to-1 motion tracking. Wave your arm and your onscreen avatar follows you precisely. Bend, yoga-like, to form cute animal shadow-shapes and a silhouetted image on a virtual canvas curls and contorts picture-perfectly. Shift toe-to-toe, tennis-like, anticipating objects hurled your way and whatever algorithms are intelligently sorting behind the scenes recognize your intentions, filtering out flailing limbs or ignoring unnecessary maneuvers.
Robert Winters has a good overview of how it works at Project Natal, how it could work and it's worth a quick review if you'd like to see some speculation about the technology and the various components involved.
What makes this so damned cool is that it lets you do more than just play games with it. You can also move through menus by swiping your hands back and forth. The camera allows for fun features like facial and voice recognition. When you have it running, your Xbox will recognize your face and sign you in automatically.
You can start to imagine the possibilities already. Everything from Minority Report style menu control to Dance Dance Revolution games that require you to actually dance rather than just hit buttons to videoconferencing in your living room, the thing just feels like the future. And it already makes the Wii seem like a gimpy and outdated piece of tech. There's no way it can touch what this will do.
