Dispatches from the First Day of Fast Company’s 2024 Innovation Festival
It’s the 10th year of Fast Company’s Innovation Festival in NYC, where quantum scientists, the largest grocery catalogue in the world, and top creators all take the stage together. I was excited to join for the first time, and here are a few of the lessons and insights gained from the first day.
From Z To A: What You Need to Know About Gen Alpha
A quick look at Gen Alpha, or what Matt Traub COO of DKC calls “The Gateway Generation.” They’re an incredibly entrepreneurial generation, where 1/3rd of them earn their income from online selling or reselling, whether it be clothes, Robux, or other digital trinkets.
Brian Bordainick, Cofounder of Starface, explained that over the last decade marketers have given their dollars to Meta for lookalike audiences, or to find individuals – an ever-more-challenging prospect when things like iOS privacy and the (possible) death of cookies makes that targeting less effective. He argued that storytelling, more than data, could better connect with Gen Alpha consumers.
“How do we meet them where they are? How do you institute pride in getting rid of stigma and anxiety?” Fiona Simmonds, Cofounder of Pinkie, asked the audience. She shared that they post about these things ad nauseam to help de-stigmatize them.
Joe Ferencz, CEO of Gamefam noted that authenticity is key. “I don’t want to be marketed to. I don’t want that glitz and glamour.” Things have to be “very raw, very underproduced. The least amount of production values we felt we could put into it.” And it’s paid off, eventually bringing in Disney and Samsung to buy into their DIY world.
Lastly, here is a list of words that this panel included for anyone making a Gen Alpha bingo board: Swag, Clout, Aura, iPad Time, authenticity (about 10 times), skibidi & suss.
Preparing for a Quantum Leap
You’re reading this blog post on a classical computer, but quantum computers (in theory) represent the future. While that’s seemed like a science fiction dream in the past, it’s becoming a reality in 2024. Dario Gil, SVP of Research at IBM, shared that their community has run 3 trillion quantum (that’s 3,000,000,000,000) circuits across their 80 quantum computers.
If you, like me, entered the panel only knowing Anything with ‘quantum’ seems cooler (unless it’s that one Bond movie) then Margaret Arakawa, Chief Marketing Officer at IonQ, brought it back for people who might not be quantum engineers. She compared quantum computers to microwaves – something that nearly every household might eventually have and benefit from, even if people don’t necessarily understand how they work. (…if you want to learn how they work like I realized I should, here’s the Simple English Wiki.) And that Apple’s post-quantum cryptography might sound like magic, but it only means that things are going to be really, really secure.
Harry McCracken, Fast Company’s Global Technology Editor ended by asking the panelists when today’s topics would would be more relevant to everyone in the audience. While Martin A. Schmidt, President of RPI, decline to offer a number of years, he mentioned that their University is offering an 8 week short-course to prepare technical managers for what’s coming next. All the panelists agreed that as futuristic as it sounds, it’s an inevitability that quantum computers will come to the mainstream consumer – understanding of quarks and bits not needed.
Echoes of the Unseen: Where Art, Technology, Ecology, and Place Come Together
This panel started with – one of my favorite intros – all of us looking at a piece of art: Flare, by John Gerrard.
The image on the screen isn’t a real picture, or video IRL – it’s a “simulated generative form which hovers between a gas flare and national flag.”
The conversation dove through the interlinking of art and technology, covering topics like Gaussian splatting, pocket dimensions, They spoke of how necessary it is for technologists and artists to talk with each other to bring humanity into the future.
Joel Ferree, Program Director, Art + Technology Lab at LACMA, pointed out that the willingness of our institutions to engage with new tools like these “will define how your museum will be seen.”
It was brought up that one of the panelists, DooEun Choi, Art Director / Head of Artlab for Hyundai Motor Co., was even on the panel – after all, what role do companies have in the creation of art. As Ms. Choi said, “When you need to understand humans, you need to understand the history of art, and that will indirectly inspire the future of companies.”
Greg Lindsay, of FastCo Works ended the conversation by asking if these AR/VR integrations opened up a new avenue in art. Both John and Joel spoke of the value of scale. Traditionally, one-size-fits-all – you either placed your art in a small gallery, or in an installation, or in a museum. But by being open to different modes, there are opportunities. As an institution, “It’s our turn…to be quiet and listen and learn” from the artists that have been doing this for decades.
Future of Food: Designing Healthier Food for People & The Planet
What brings everyone together? Food, meals, and conversations over the dinner table. (Okay, I usually say “happy hour” but that wasn’t this panel.) This covered how technology could assist on areas of research around food waste, food deserts, and of course the buzziest topic, GLP-1s.
How does Jilly Stephens, CEO of City Harvest, look at these medications? Ms. Stephens provided an overall optimistic outlook on how they affect what we eat. “That behavior change is hard to sustain, so it’s really an important part of what we do today,” hoping that these advancements end up reaching all communities.
Dani Dudeck, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer at Instacart shared that 93% of people living in food deserts can be reached by Instacart. She walked through their work with the FDA on ensuring that SNAP payments could actually be modernized. She also touched on how “digital aisles” can be far more personalized than supermarket, providing a better shopping experience for families with someone that is diabetic or have specific dietary needs.
Takoua Debeche, Head of Innovation, North America, Danone, offered the corporate perspective: “We really believe that our nutrition capability can make a difference.”
How to Stop Forecasting Trends & Build the Future
Over in the workshops room, Matt Klein, Head of Global Foresight for Reddit / publisher of Zine covered how much you can learn from looking at trends. Or more precisely, how little trend reports can tell us. This slide sums up a good portion of his talk nicely:
Matt’s work at Reddit, and in his personal work, shows that trend reports often say the same things for many years. His argument (which seems accurate, even if slightly swayed toward his own platform), was that brands would do better to listen to individual audience members to get a sense of what their brand could be doing better. He did present some pretty eye-opening stats:
It’s something we’ve discussed at length with many organizations at this point: people are going to talk about you on Reddit, and it’s better to join those conversations than let them fester.b
Why You Need LinkedIn for Your Marketing Strategy
I ended the day with a insightful conversation on LinkedIn creators. Some insights from AJ Eckstein, Allyson Rush, and Christoph Becker. While many marketing budgets now include budgets for influencers on Meta platforms (mostly Instagram,) and TikTok, few are using LinkedIn. They touched on things like providing your creators with authentic stories and insights, as well as LinkedIn’s new Thought Leader Ads. They pointed out that many brands still aren’t on board this platform, presenting agencies and in-house teams with a major opportunity.
The last thing – and this certainly engaged with us – if you’re truly going to say your goal should be engagement, then it has to actually be conversations. If it’s number of conversions, you’ll be in a better place saying that at the beginning than hoping for it at the end. Including creators in that conversation will allow them to match their content creation toward that goal.
…Also, apparently Ryan Reynolds was on the other stage, but I chose to see the Reddit guy because I’m an professional. And that’s only day one! I’m looking forward to even more innovative insights throughout the rest of the Festival!
