I attended the first day of the Innovation and Growth Forum today and it was interesting to contrast the style of both the event and the presenters with the Always On event I went to in NY recently. The events are slightly different with the AO event being pitched squarely at the media business and I+G covering a much wider range of industries. But both are a mix of entrepreneurs, VC’s and industry luminaries getting together to raise money/share ideas/sell products/network with each other.
The overall styles were pretty different, there was no “Bloggers Bullpen” in the Hilton Park Lane which I was quite disappointed about and the polo shirts, sports jackets and chinos were swapped for dark suits and ties. The formats were different too, the US event was fast and punchy, 6 minute slots to sell your story/idea/company. The UK event was much more level headed, more English, with civilised panel discussions and 35 minute vendor showcases running in parallel with the main event.
I was trying to work out the if this difference was was a result of the structure of the event or a US/UK cultural thing when the keynote speaker, Dr Mike Lynch (pictured) from Autonomy hit the nail on the head. He recounted a story about a “Dragons Den” type session he had attended earlier in the year. Two groups of tech students, one from MIT and one from Cambridge had to pitch their technology business ideas to a panel. The US team pitched with a great marketing story but very little substance to their product offering, the UK team gave a very convincing pitch around their product but in a very dry, detailed way.
At the end of the pitches, the moderator asked the panel who they would back with their money. Mike observed that the best way to do that would be to put the two teams together to create a team that was product focused and had the ability to sell that to the market. You have to have a great product and great marketing to stand any chance of competing. He was very concerned that UK tech start-ups lack the marketing skills to build great companies despite having excellent technology. This merger of tech and marketing is interesting as the one area that is leading the field in this area is media which I think explains why the AO event was so much more exciting.
Other industries involved in tech start-ups would do well to look to the media business to see how this marriage could work for them. Like all marriages, it’s not perfect and it’s still quite early days even for media. But the massive boom in on-line advertising and the Web 2.0 revolution have conspired to make it the most likely place to find inspiration.
