Sunday, January 20, 2008
DLD - a new impression of Martha Stewart
The now-unmissable DLD Conference has opened in Munich, with author Paulo Coehlo wowing the audience and explaining how his quasi-innocent promotion of pirate digital copies of his best-selling novels have helped increase sales - perhaps because people get a taste of his writing and want more ... the same as has happened to many bands thanks to MP3 sharing.
Unfortunately it wasn't the modest Portuguese author of The Alchemist and other stories who was the most hotly-debated speaker of the day but US style icon Martha Stewart. Sadly for Martha, it was because of the way she crashed and burned during her rambling presentation. Worse still is that she probably won't realize - because she has, how can I put this politely? An exaggerated sense of her own self-importance.
In only four years, DLD has grown into a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design: a chance to rub shoulders with an amazing array of inspirational people who have helped change the world in one way or another. The rest of the audience is made up of advertising agency people and venture capitalists. If you are looking for a place to get inspired, DLD is it. If you're looking to talk to VCs, just being at DLD is probably enough to score a follow-up meeting.
However, it looks as if Martha Stewart either was either badly advised, or too important to actually listen to her advisors. Because she began her 45-minute monologue (it was supposed to be an interview, but more of that later) by revealing the contents of her travelling "tech" suitcase.
So far I have yet to work out the reason why, in a room full of laptop- and iPhone-toting attendees, an all American style queen should choose to share such info. I, for one, would have been 100 times more interested to know the contents of her handbag, or to see the names of the last 10 incoming calls on her mobile: an iPhone, of course - but a non-functioning one because her secretary had forgotten to unlock roaming in Germany. Did we all hear that? Martha's no-doubt well-compensated secretary getting a public bollocking.
So out comes a less-than-stylish suitcase which Martha describes as being "overhead locker size" (which I actually doubt, but, Hey! Being! Martha! Stewart! (did you get that? MARTHA bloody STEWART I said!!!!)) probably travels first class everywhere (good for her) and the prospect of her vitriol on a short-flight, let alone a trans-Atlantic, would probably make most flight attendants cower and acquiesce.
And inside the suitcase are ... everyday business items that most people at the conference probably carry. A laptop. (Gasp from the audience). Except that it's tucked into an under-sized Ziploc bag. Very stylish. A honking great top-of-the-range CANON (or maybe Nikon) digital camera ... yeah, you guessed it - in its $0.25c carrying case, another plastic bag. Her iPhone in a shocking pink leather holster, and a BlackBerry, as one phone is never enough. Two phone chargers. A massive camera battery charger the size of a sub-notebook, and ... an Amazon Kindle - but one of the FIRST models (did you note? Early adopter alert!!!) before they even signed licensing deals with the NY Times and various other newspapers. In its exclusive Martha Stewart plastic bag, of course.
After the tiresome dig into her suitcase, Martha then tells the audience (which includes luminaries such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales) that she personally uses the internet for many different things, she chats with all of her friends on Facebook (but is really, sincerely SORRY that she has not got time to reply to everyone), she checks her spelling on dictionary.com, and she even buys stuff online.
I really didn't want to knock Martha. But oh boy did she get up my nose with her facile pitch. She probably also annoyed "moderator" Tyler Brule, the editor of Monocle magazine, who was reduced to the role of bystander during the Martha monologue. Finally, after we'd all learned that Martha was very important, he got to ask a few questions - and managed to make those open jaws sag even further by asking Martha, a convicted felon and therefore ineligible for office, which position in the new administration she'd like in the US Presidential elections. This was either completely misjudged, or a deliberate poke at Ms Stewart. I can't even remember her answer but it was a fob-off.
Maybe DLD should be described as "a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design ... and Martha Stewart". Whatever she was smoking, I want a drag. Even Paulo Coehlo's Alchemist would have had trouble in changing Stewart into a credible speaker at DLD today.
Unfortunately it wasn't the modest Portuguese author of The Alchemist and other stories who was the most hotly-debated speaker of the day but US style icon Martha Stewart. Sadly for Martha, it was because of the way she crashed and burned during her rambling presentation. Worse still is that she probably won't realize - because she has, how can I put this politely? An exaggerated sense of her own self-importance.
In only four years, DLD has grown into a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design: a chance to rub shoulders with an amazing array of inspirational people who have helped change the world in one way or another. The rest of the audience is made up of advertising agency people and venture capitalists. If you are looking for a place to get inspired, DLD is it. If you're looking to talk to VCs, just being at DLD is probably enough to score a follow-up meeting.
However, it looks as if Martha Stewart either was either badly advised, or too important to actually listen to her advisors. Because she began her 45-minute monologue (it was supposed to be an interview, but more of that later) by revealing the contents of her travelling "tech" suitcase.
So far I have yet to work out the reason why, in a room full of laptop- and iPhone-toting attendees, an all American style queen should choose to share such info. I, for one, would have been 100 times more interested to know the contents of her handbag, or to see the names of the last 10 incoming calls on her mobile: an iPhone, of course - but a non-functioning one because her secretary had forgotten to unlock roaming in Germany. Did we all hear that? Martha's no-doubt well-compensated secretary getting a public bollocking.
So out comes a less-than-stylish suitcase which Martha describes as being "overhead locker size" (which I actually doubt, but, Hey! Being! Martha! Stewart! (did you get that? MARTHA bloody STEWART I said!!!!)) probably travels first class everywhere (good for her) and the prospect of her vitriol on a short-flight, let alone a trans-Atlantic, would probably make most flight attendants cower and acquiesce.
And inside the suitcase are ... everyday business items that most people at the conference probably carry. A laptop. (Gasp from the audience). Except that it's tucked into an under-sized Ziploc bag. Very stylish. A honking great top-of-the-range CANON (or maybe Nikon) digital camera ... yeah, you guessed it - in its $0.25c carrying case, another plastic bag. Her iPhone in a shocking pink leather holster, and a BlackBerry, as one phone is never enough. Two phone chargers. A massive camera battery charger the size of a sub-notebook, and ... an Amazon Kindle - but one of the FIRST models (did you note? Early adopter alert!!!) before they even signed licensing deals with the NY Times and various other newspapers. In its exclusive Martha Stewart plastic bag, of course.
After the tiresome dig into her suitcase, Martha then tells the audience (which includes luminaries such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales) that she personally uses the internet for many different things, she chats with all of her friends on Facebook (but is really, sincerely SORRY that she has not got time to reply to everyone), she checks her spelling on dictionary.com, and she even buys stuff online.
I really didn't want to knock Martha. But oh boy did she get up my nose with her facile pitch. She probably also annoyed "moderator" Tyler Brule, the editor of Monocle magazine, who was reduced to the role of bystander during the Martha monologue. Finally, after we'd all learned that Martha was very important, he got to ask a few questions - and managed to make those open jaws sag even further by asking Martha, a convicted felon and therefore ineligible for office, which position in the new administration she'd like in the US Presidential elections. This was either completely misjudged, or a deliberate poke at Ms Stewart. I can't even remember her answer but it was a fob-off.
Maybe DLD should be described as "a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design ... and Martha Stewart". Whatever she was smoking, I want a drag. Even Paulo Coehlo's Alchemist would have had trouble in changing Stewart into a credible speaker at DLD today.
# posted by Nesjo : 21:14
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