There are lots of ways to tell a story these days: websites, comicbooks, videogames, movies are but a few… So if you’ve got a great story to tell, which should you choose? Increasingly, the answer is “as many as make sense”… Welcome to transmedia storytelling.

The Matrix is an example of Transmedia storytelling, as there is no one medium that conveys the entire world in which Neo (the central character) lives. As one professor wrote: “key bits of information are conveyed through three live action films, a series of animated shorts, two collections of comic book stories, and several video games.”.

Michael Moore is a fantastic example of someone who understands the benefits of transmedia storytelling - in the lead up to the 2004 US presidential election, Moore went to town on George W. Bush… he was attacked on Moore’s blog, in his book, Dude, Where’s My Country?, in his film, Fahrenheit 911 and during his Slacker Uprising national speaking tour. By choosing to tell his stories on multiple platforms, Moore reached diverse audiences in a manner that appealed to them, but a complete picture was only possible by experiencing each of the media in turn.

The term was introduced to me by edwardharran via twitter.

What a day! I’ve just arrived home from Sydney’s Think Big Forum at ANZ Stadium…

I was invited to ‘keynote speak’ at the Forum when I was in Beijing and I decided to change my flights to be included on the speaker list. The way it was put to me was simple, “It’s a business forum, but we’re being innovative about it…” it was to be “degustation-inspired”, with the food theme kept throughout. I was invited to be the ‘group dessert’. What a title. How could I say no?

The day opened with Kylie Kwong talking about her business trials and tribulations (key insight - she swears by the original “E-Myth” book) and was followed by a diverse ‘tasting menu’ of speakers who each had twenty minutes to share their knowledge of the topic.

The format meant that the sessions were fast-paced - 20 minutes each - enough time to get a sense of whether you liked the topic; liked the speaker and wanted more. And that’s where it got interesting - after each session, we were invited to attend a “Master Class” with the speaker we’d just seen. If you were prepared to forgo the next scheduled speakers, you could ‘go deeper’ into the topic. What a great conference model!

So in the afternoon it was time for ‘dessert’… Well, here’s how my 40 minutes broke down…

• Introduced myself and my work as a futurist / innovation expert
• Talked about futures studies / innovation and the role they play in business - ie. new products and processes… It all starts by asking the key innovator’s question: “Is there a better way?…”.
• Talked about the rise of BRIC nations (Brasil, Russia, India and China) and specifically about the rise of China… Then, since I’m fresh of the plane, taught some valuable Mandarin to the crowd “CHINA - LET’S GO!”. Seeing 170 people on their feet cheering in butchered Mandarin was one of the most surreal moments of the day and confirmation that this was a fun crowd.
• Described the trends I’m seeing in business, particularly some highlights of my favourite innovation programs:
• The Clean Plumber - constantly innovating, the business’ latest move is replacing a utility truck with a motorcycle for many plumbing jobs - it zips around the Sydney streets with ease; saves on fuel and keeps the business’ promise to be on time.
• Dell’s Ideastorm, which I believe is one of the best examples of open innovation, particularly given that Dell actually takes advice and turns it into improved products.
• Australia 2020 - inviting an entire country to participate in your innovation program is a brave move for a Prime Minister - if Rudd pulls it off (by implementing good ideas or at least explaining why he’s not using the ideas he doesn’t like), it could be the beginning of a new attitude of innovation from Canberra
• and Google… I mentioned the 80/20 rule (20% of time dedicated to innovation), but I also would have liked to discuss their use of Google Labs, which is fantastic.
• Gave ten tips on how to spot a great innovation culture - that was fun because the pens came out and the heads started nodding - I think I was talking to a room of innovators!
• Dropped in a top tip - innovation programs are a great ‘Gen Y’ retention tool because they give younger employees a voice and demonstrate that all staff opinions are valued - especially if ideas are acted upon!
• Examined the major shift from closed/R&D-based product development to open/inclusive innovation programs…

And BOOM! It was 40 minutes… Wait, what?! We’re just getting started… Oh man!

I guess that’s the problem with tasting menus - sometimes you just wish you could have a little more of each dish - and I did get twice as much time as most of the other speakers, after all…

I invited feedback from the audience either through email/linkedin or my blog, so it will be interesting to see if people have something to say here on this post.

After my presentation, all sorts of business leaders shared their stories with me - I met heaps of bankers, a bullet maker (REALLY! YIKES!), a guy whose business is hydraulics, a guy that runs a solar-panel installation business, a bunch of innovation people from Telstra and ANZ, a logistics guy (who told me truck stories), a recruiter, a few marketing types, a couple of event managers… It was a good mix, that’s for sure.

It was a great day (a good way to spend my birthday!) and a really warm crowd to welcome me back to Sydney. Can’t wait to see my family, friends and clients and get settled back into Sydney!

Congratulations and thank you to the NSW Business Chamber and to the BigThinkers who made the day such a great start to my Spring in Sydney…

News organisations and journalists have been reporting that the Olympics are sold out, but thousands of seats remain empty at many events.

Considering how many Beijing locals (and tourists, for that matter) would love to attend the Olympics, the ticketing allocation process is clearly inefficient if so many seats are empty at popular events like beach volleyball.

I recorded a short video to show you what the stadiums look like from a spectator’s perspective:

..oh yeah, and I included a call for London’s 2012 Olympic Organisers to allocate resources to making sure seats are almost never empty.

I’ve got some smart friends and readers. What do you guys have in mind? What technologies could be used to make sure thousands of seats don’t go empty at London’s games?

John Doerr’s presentation at TED highlighted several responses to climate change worth knowing about. He made it to the platform in part because he has been instrumental in his business investing $200 million in what he calls “greentech”.

Before I go on to my notes, here are a few resources introducing Doerr (most noted for his involvement in the financing of startups including Google & Amazon) and KPCB, the business in which he is a partner:
John Doerr on Wikipedia
John Doerr on KPCB
KPCB on their Greentech investments

The two standout case studies introduced in Doerr’s Greentech presentation were Walmart’s greenhouse targets and Brazil’s experience with ethanol and the power of policy.

Greening Walmart

Walmart’s CEO, Lee Scott, is said to belive that “Green is the next big thing” and made commitments to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% in existing stores and 30% in new stores within 7 years.

Walmart is the largest private employer in the US and the largest private user of electricity. If Walmart were a country, they’d be China’s sixth largest trading partner. Their business involves 60 000 suppliers and 125 million customers in the United States.

So far, examples of Walmart’s three major drains on energy are lighting; heating & air conditioning; and refrigeration. So Walmart has made simple decisions including: painting roofs white to deflect sunlight; install skylights to take advantage of natural light; install doors on refrigerators to insulate food - the fridges are illuminated by LED lights.

Now of course there’s a strong case to be made that considering the amount of disposable crap Walmart sells everyday (watch the Story of Stuff for more) they haven’t exactly turned into an eco-store, but it’s a good case study when such a huge business is making headway in this area. For a full critique of Walmart, check out the movie, Walmart: the high cost of low prices.

Brazil’s move toward ethanol

Jose Goldenberg is described by Doerr as the “father of the Ethanol revolution”. In Brazil it has been mandated that every gas station carry ethanol. It has also been mandated that cars be manufactured to accept flexfuel. Brazil now has 29 000 ethanol pumps (compared with 700 in the US) and in three years the new car fleet has grown from 4% flexfuel to 85% (the US is lagging at 5%). 40% of gasoline in Brazil has been replaced with Ethanol, resulting in an overall 10% CO2 reduction for Brazil.

There are big questions about the role ethanol is playing in the increasing costs of food. By turning food crops into cash crops, we are seeing food prices increase, which is having the biggest impact on the world’s poorest people. This from the Earth Policy Institute:

“A University of Illinois economics team calculates that with oil at $50 a barrel, it is profitable—with the ethanol subsidy of 51¢ a gallon (equal to $1.43 per bushel of corn)—to convert corn into ethanol as long as the price is below $4 a bushel. But with oil at $100 a barrel, distillers can pay more than $7 a bushel for corn and still break even. If oil climbs to $140, distillers can pay $10 a bushel for corn—double the early 2008 price of $5 per bushel.”

My cousin Mark sent me the link to Kiva.org and has decided that if he could work for any organisation in the world, it would be them, or google.org.

Here’s Kiva’s positive self-talk…

“Kiva lets you connect with and loan money to unique small businesses
in the developing world. By choosing a business on Kiva.org, you can
“sponsor a business” and help the world’s working poor make great
strides towards economic independence. Throughout the course of the
loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates from
the business you’ve sponsored. As loans are repaid, you get your loan
money back.”

Ready to back an entrepreneur?