Hugh Garry

Welcome to our world

As 2009 drew to a close I came across an article in magazine asking lots of smart people the question 'What has been the icon of the first decade of the 21st century?' If my memory serves me well I think the consensus was the iPod.

I never get asked those questions, probably because I'm not one of those very smart people. If I had my answer would have been 'the pixel'. All the big moments of that decade I recall as heavily pixelated footage.

Before then the pixel went pretty much unnoticed. The only people that really paid attention were those whose job it was to make sure they remained invisible.

Then came the internet, then camers in phones. With them the border control dropped. Anyone could create and share media, flaws and all. The best camera was the one you had with you. Pixelated footage began to creep from the internet to the TV. On the news or as a new form of late night entertainment on Channel 4. The big pixels were there for everyone to see. Pixels or not, Charlies finger would have remained bitten and the planes still hit the tower. We watched. And not a single person complained. 

Soon they became part of a visual language that told us something was authentic, not something faked by big media to look 'viral'. For a moment big media really did believe there was a viral look. The pixel became a part of something that was 'made', as opposed to high definition perfection that suggests something just appears by magic. Not a suggestion of process. No working out in the margins. 

So I was delighted when I stumbled across James Bridle's talk about 'The New Aesthetic. It's a really interesting look at how pixels are spilling into our world. I don't want to say anything more other than 'just watch it'. It's wonderful. 

There Will Be Blood 2

Last night I talked at a great event in Manchester called There Will Be Blood, run by the Cahoonah's @jonthebeef and @RebeccaWho. Manchester based Late Rooms' community manager, Kate, talked about the value of communities in the hotel industry (70% 18-24 year olds will now look at reviews before booking a room) whilst I talked nonsense about user generated content.

The excellent John Robb hosted the event which was a strictly no powerpoint affair. I love it that way, a load of people in a pub connecting around common interests. No fuss, just good banter. I'm much happier prattling on freely than I am speaking around slides. I do often go off road though, but that's no bad thing - at least I don't think it is. John was a brilliant host, typically challenging on the current situation at the BBC and the place UGC has in it's future. The audience gave me a bit of a kicking too, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

The only downside to not presenting on screen is that in some cases people do want to 'see' your examples rather than just 'hear about' them. So, for anyone who was there last night, here are some of the things I was talking about.

Shoot The Summer - UGC film shot on mobile phones

Dan Pink's Ted Talk - Interesting talk on Motivation

Charles Leadbetter - The changing media landscape

Vision On - My first experience of the pitfalls of UGC

Finally, here's me mucking around with a mobile at T In The Park trying to get an aerial shot...

Management tips? Buy a baton

It would appear that there isn't anything you can't learn from Conductors. Following my earlier post about Benjamin Zander I beg anyone in a management position to watch this talk by Itay Talgam.

When he gave this presentation at Picnic08 the conference saw its first ever standing ovation, whilst Al Gore has described it as the best management talk he'd ever seen. In this instance music makes a great metaphor with the conductor's role in managing an orchestra providing many lessons for anyone that manages a team.

There are some incredible clips of many great conductors, but one in particular of Leonard Bernstein talking to a group of young students really struck a chord. He clearly has a magnificent presence and makes a huge impact in both how he speaks and what he conveys to he orchestra through physical performance. He empowers the musicians by telling them "Your world is larger than you think'. As a true leader he helps them get an understanding of not where they are but where they can be. For me this is the greatest skill you could wish for as a manager and one my former boss Dan Heaf had in abundance.

On Tuesday I went over to the Media Center to give a 'Masterclass' to some TV people. I was talking about Shoot The Summer to anyone with an interest in UGC and mobile. After my talk a couple of guys currently making a youth orientated show using mobiles stopped behind to chat about how I got the best out of the audience. I couldn't express enough how important it was for me to spend some time with the people before I gave out the phones. In some cases I know that they wanted to capture something really good for me because they were so happy I had shown any interest in them, bothered to spend some time with them and even struck up a friendship. When I told one festival goer that I found him far more interesting than any DJ or artist I's spoken to that weekend he cried. He just couldn't believe that he could be of interest to anyone from the BBC. For one moment I'd made his world much larger than he ever thought it could be.

What was interesting about the guys making the TV show was that when I asked them what was the aim of the project they said "To get as many people as possible to send in their videos". When I asked them "why as many people as possible" they had no answer. It seems like the first rule of UGC is 'more = better'. For me the opposite was true in making Shoot The Summer. The 'less = better' rule allowed me the time and space to meet the people and make their world feel larger.

Managing UGC and the people that create it is something we need to master and understanding how to strike the right balance between control and freedom will be a huge challenge. I think that in trying to find the answer I'll spend more time with some conductors. What they don't know you could write on the back of a fag packet.