It was a great first day at Campus Party, with the opening keynote speech from Paulo Coelho going down a treat and packed stages all throughout the enormous venue at the former Tempelhof Airport.
There was so much going on it was impossible to see all of it – but we still managed to get a good taste of what was on offer, and here’s a roundup of what we saw.
The talk ‘How Happy is Germany’ showed off the O2 Urban Mood project – an interactive visualization of how happy German cities are based on what people are posting on Twitter and flickr, as well as traditional news websites, football scores and Google weather. The collaborative effort between ad agency Ogilvy Frankfurt and digital production company B-Reel uses the APIs of these social media sites in order to create a colourful and interactive look at what is going on mood-wise in ten of Germany’s biggest cities.
Russian entrepreneur Olga Steidl of talkbits spoke about her experiences working in a big corporate telecommunications company versus her experiences as the CEO of a startup. She had some very interesting insights, believing that a startup employee doesn’t need to be the best but should be an all rounder, while a corporate employee should be able to be the very best at doing one thing. She did not sway either way, and rather presented a case that both company cultures should be respectful of one another.
Jan Miczaika of Wooga sought to dispel myths about gamers with his talk about how to succeed in the social gaming sphere. He had six important lessons for the packed out stage including how to get the basics right and incorporating the ideas of everyone in the team regardless of status. He also stressed the importance of user engagement and getting the metrics right, and told the assembled crowd that the future of social gaming is mobile.
Alexandre Ottini and Deive Pazos of Brazilian entertainment website Jovem Nerd talked about how they have learned to use social media in the ten years that they have been running the website. They used the analogy that while traditional media is like a bowling ball that hits one mark, social media is more like a ping pong ball that bounces all over the place and then comes back to you before you send it back. By engaging their readers this way, they have been able to build up a loyal community of fans.
The five day festival continues on Thursday with the Women in Tech day, featuring a selection of inspiring women speaking throughout the day. There will also be a keynote speech from pioneering Israeli entrepreneur Yossi Vardi, and the world’s first cyborg, Neil Harbisson, will demonstrate his electronic eye.