One presentation that really stood out for me (but they were all incredibly inspiring) was Brian
Seth Hurst's who spoke about building businesses from ideas. 
Brian Seth Hurst is the CEO of the Opportunity Management Company, a strategic consultancy and corss-media production company that is driving the next generation of entertainment. He was profiled in the April 2007 issue of Emmy Magazine as one of the 10 media executives in the business leading the industry's digital drive.
So he abandons the powerpoint and begins his presentation by instructing us all to 'Sit up straight and pay attention.... No seriously. Sit up straight.'
The audience shuffles around a bit, (I make a mental note of my poor posture), and I'm pretty sure he has our full attention.
He goes on to tell us:
Stay in the present.
Time is incredibly valuable.
Expect to fail. Failure is a wonderful teacher.
Act on ideas.
Money should be used like manure... spread around helping young things to grow. (amen)
Life is a sales job and you are a brand.
Every morning when you get up, if you are passionate about your brand and idea, you will not have to chase. Don't let people take away the seed of life that's in you about your idea. The world is at your disposal.
You're going to meet the same people on the way back down as you did on the way up.
Integrity. (Keep it.)
You're never too smart to hear something from someone who you are convinced isn't as smart as you.
Some of your ideas won't work.
If your heart isn't in it - you're not in it.
****
Participation Drama
Brian also spoke about 'participation drama' - more specifically about a certain television series that recently won an international award for it's interactive television service.
Decribed as 'fiction without limits', the drama is titled 'the truth about marika' and follows the disappearance of 'Marika'. This is then brought further into the public arena by a young girl speaking out claiming that the television channel 'stole' the story from her blog. This triggered a whole series of events... constructed events?
Check it out:
Pretty cool. I would liken it to smaller campaigns like the 'Dubble-Agent' campaign in the UK around fairtrade chocolate and the Smirnoff 'Nikolai' campaign in NZ recently. It's essentially smart/clever marketing. The audience/customers become part of the 'story' and it becomes difficult to know what is 'advertising'...
Will talk more about other speakers soon...
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