SXSW conference: Sat sessions

Talk: Back of the Napkin
1. Black Pen people - enthusiasts who illustrate every idea
2. Yellow Pen people – those who sit back, observe and identify the key points
3. Red Pen people – erase everything and redraw – the most analytical people.

Business Strategies have been sketched on a napkin. Hey, even Southwest Airlines chalked out their initial route chart on a napkin.
"Rough drawings are an invitation for dialogue."

Panel: Location Based Entertainment
Location –based entertainment has been one of the up and coming trends and in 2008 is becoming an essential part of emerging media. Statistics show that North America is the leader in GPS-enabled devices. Western EU and Asia are slowly catching on. The main technologies in use for LBS are GPS systems, wifi and CellID.

Examples of LBS seen/conducted:
• Manage workout on your phone – running, training, fitness schedule tracker.
• ULocate: location based mobile widget application.
• Undergound 2: Location-based game that enables creation of groups of clans that conquered territories. (In conjunction with Nokia)
• Lexferrum – developed for Nokia for the launch of Ngage in Portugal. Using Bluetooth – in a controlled environ at a hotel in S. Portugal.
• Adidas Eyeball – Adidas created an interactive playground by installing what looks like can eyeball that was voice and motion activated.

Presenter Carolyn from AVW-TELAV, an A/V solutions company, also organizes the “Come Out and Play Festival” (http://www.comeoutandplay.org/), one of the largest outdoor gaming fests in the country which will be taking place in NYC June 6-8.

Carolyn states that gaming has to fit within each brand’s strategy. The key questions to ask during planning are “Where is going to be and what is it going to be”, “Technology to be used”, “Who to target? That is, are you going for the tech savvy audience, or do want the layman to interact as well?” and “How is it going to be executed?” Being highly interactive, it is important that the user get feedback from the game.
Bottomline: The experience has to be compelling enough to attract and engage users.

Carrier Barrier – the main problem is getting past the carriers. To get around this issue, some initiatives hand out compatible cell phones, which is ridiculous as it is extra investment in the hardware. Europe and Asia have more of a retail market, thus making it easier to bypass the networks. But new technologies like WiMAX and 4G network will enable easier execution.

Another agency that develops games inspired by and mimicking real scenarios is Area/Code NYC

During the question-answer session, the scalability for mass gaming was brought up – for the future, finding solutions for nationwide permanent structures would be the route to take in order to have the maximum impact. Creating very simple interactions is the key. The gurus’ last words: Killer app for location-based services – navigation.