TEDxTransmedia Next Week

TEDxTransmedia 2012, September 28 in Rome, Italy. Last tickets available here.

So this is already within 7 days (Friday, next week). Here’s my take on why I think you should come if you haven’t bought a ticket yet.

Marieke Hermans, Innovation Manager at the Dutch Public Broadcasting, on stage at TEDxTransmedia 2011.

Firstly, the curator Nicoletta Iacobacci is the former Head of Multiplatform and now Director or Strategy at EBU (European Broadcasting Union) and you’ll get a chance to talk to her. READ: lobby her for unfair advantages for #transmedia creators and your project on the general media marketplace AND ask her for introductions (which I hear she’s great at).

Secondly, this year’s theme is WEkids: Dreamers, Geeks, Mindshifters. The main topic kids and educational content is the next big market opportunity not only in the US and South America but also Europe, Africa, Asia. YES, that’s everywhere! Come and find like-minded people who want to exploit that opportunity and create content that crosses to all the platforms kids today love (See this video!). Connect with the people you have as friends on Facebook but haven’t had a chance to meet face to face. So just maybe you’ll find here the person who’s the right fit for you team. For example I’m stoked at the opportunity to extend Angolan and Sao-Tomean short-stories with fantastic characters into apps iPads and iPhones.

Thirdly, the fantastic weather in Rome next week. You know you need that quick vacation and a rush of inspiration before you dive into real work this fall!
This is also a chance to visit the Biennale before it closes for 2012 when you fly out trough Milan or Venice.

You can follow an (almost) full rosters speakers on my Twitter list here and on my Facebook list here.

The list of speakers is nothing less than stellar.

• Robert Tercek Twitter. @Superplex Facebook
• Rhianna Pratchett Twitter. @rhipratchett
• Peter Espersen Twitter. @VirtualPeter
• Alison Norrington Twitter. @alisonnorrin
• Andrew Shea Twitter.
• Dr. Derrick de Kerckhove
• Rosalía Lloret Twitter.
• Josh Shore
• Maurice Wheeler
• Saku Tuominen Twitter.
• Ana Serrano
• Poonacha Machaiah Twitter.
• Øyvind Olsholt

With so many transmedia events popping up, I threw the question up there on Quora and asked a number of this year’s and previous year’s speakers why is it worth going to. Answer it! Previous year’s (2010, 2011) speakers have included Joi Ito, Christy Dena and Jeff Gomez as well as many other linchpins of the global transmedia network. I’m incredibly excited about it and hope to be there next week. If you’re coming as well, drop me a tweet or email to say hi.

Here’s the official trailer.