Techies are the new Rock Stars

Photo: Bono doesn't regret the whole iTunes debacle

I’m just back from Dublin, Ireland where I attended #websummit. This is the biggest European tech event, attracting around 20,000 attendees and some of the biggest names in Silicon Valley. It’s been an interesting week, and if you couldn’t get there, here are the things I learnt:

• There’s a lot of noise in the digital space, it’s becoming hard to see the wood for the trees and to keep up with new emerging Apps. The advice from the VCs is to go for something new, don’t repeat what’s been done before. Be the next Uber, not the next travel site. O, and make sure you feel passionately about your idea!

• A lot of successful entrepreneurs have had previous ‘hack’ careers. There is always hope!

• How many Apps can we really live without? There’s plenty of room for new, big game changers on the home screen! Lots of today’s Apps will have a short shelf life, but there will be some currently un-thought of Apps we can’t live without.

• Everyone from GE and Coke, to Tech Companies in Silicon Valley, are making content. Again, we won’t be able to see the wood for the trees soon, so quality and relevance to the individual is the key to success.

• Data Scientists need to think like journalists. They need to be able to tell the story not just the data points. Big Data alone won’t deliver the goods until better stories can be told.

• The biggest, Big Data company in the world is Google. Obvious when someone points it out, but I hadn’t registered that before, and it’s worth noting that when we use it we use everyday language to search, not SQL queries! Another lesson for Big Data folks in large organisations!

• FOBO (Fear Of Being Offline) is the new FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

• While everyone agrees that the pace of change is getting faster and faster, people generally don’t believe we are in a bubble since very few tech companies go to IPO. The risk (and reward) is largely with private investors.

• Privacy will swing back from being controlled by large organisations like Facebook and Google to individuals, but new solutions for national security and crime will also emerge. Snowden’s actions will lead to a new paradigm.

• Peter Thiel, one of the founders of PayPal and serial entrepreneur/investor (see also Facebook), articulated the worst thing about being a multi-billionaire: “…..it changes relationships.”

• Tech start-ups are the new Rock Stars, creating a counter-culture that is disrupting the way we all work and play.

• Finally, despite the negative press, Bono still thinks that releasing the latest U2 album to every iTunes account was a good idea. More people have listened to it (about 30 million apparently) than bought the Joshua Tree, which was released in 1987. Having heard the new album, I refer to lesson 4: quality and relevance is key. Next time, Bono, how about sharing the Joshua Tree?