Last week, I had the privilege of representing Edelman at a fascinating three-day, off-the record meeting attended by about 75-100 marketing, media, entertainment and tech company CEOs. The event was organized by The World Economic Forum and the Paley Center, in conjunction with Google, Yahoo and Sun - who hosted us on their campuses one day each.
The meeting marked one of the final public appearances for Terry Semel as Yahoo's CEO. He resigned today, just days after I met him. Google CEO Eric Schmidt spoke on the record, as did Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz. Chad Hurley from YouTube and incoming Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang participated too. A straw-man agenda is posted here.
While unfortunately I can't blog about the specifics of what was said during the closed-door event, I can certainly provide broader perspectives now that I am back. This is exactly what I plan to do over the next several days. (It was difficult to blog thoughtfully during the event since it was literally going morning, noon and night.)
I was one of only a handful of marketing executives in the room and the most junior overall. The execs flew in from around the world. At times I was a bit star-struck by who I got to know. I will join this select club - one day (at least that's the current plan!).
What became clear almost from the get-go, however, is that there is a big disconnect - a valley if you will. On the one side of the valley is, um, the Valley (go with me) - e.g. the tech industry. On the other side lies the media-industrial complex. This is the giant yarn-ball that includes marketers/agencies, media and entertainment companies.
How do I know? I work in the marketing industry but know many leaders in the tech and media business since I blog about the convergence of these industries.
Silicon Valley (e.g. the tech/Internet businesses that dot its landscape) created many of the popular Web 2.0 communities we live in. They revolutionized our lives. The Internet today is the life bloodstream for some one billion Internet users worldwide. There's no putting the genie back. Our lives are changed forever as the Flat Earth communes online.
However, for it to continue to thrive economically, Silicon Valley must break bread with the media-industrial complex. The challenge is there is a vast chasm in the culture and ethos between the two sides. Scoble alludes to this in discussing Yahoo's challenge in finding the right CEO who can address all of these very different constituents.
Tech and Internet companies develop their products in the open. As I mentioned last week, beta (e.g. unfinished products) is viewed as a good thing. A beta brings valuable feedback that makes version 1.0 even stronger. Further, many Valley companies happily share and open kimono to all - competitors too. Take Yahoo's Hack Day for example, which is now underway in London.
This is very different in the media-industrial complex, where secrecy rules. He/she who dies with the most information is king/queen. This is why leaks are constant, more so than in tech. Washington DC operates in a similar way, though it's even more complicated there.
However, technology is changing all of us. We are all becoming more and more Valley every day, whether we like or not. We live online in the Valley's creations. Business recognizes that to thrive, it must embrace technology because that's what we do as consumers.
Very slowly, media, marketing and entertainment companies are changing their cultures to become more like their counterparts in Silicon Valley. Take business casual attire, for example. It started in the tech industry and now most of us have it at least part time.
The changes go deeper, however. Media companies like the BBC, WeatherBug, The Economist, The New York Times and Reuters have lab sites (these liks go to the lab pages). These are sandboxes where consumers can play with and give feedback on betas.
Marketers are joining the club too. American Express just launched a beta program where you can test new concepts. Everyone is beginning to recognize that the principles of Wikinomics that were pioneered in the Valley - openness, peering, sharing and acting globally - are good business overall. It's like the end of communism in the 1980s. The changes were gradual at first, then dramatic.
Last week's event certainly was a step in the right direction to closing Silicon Valley's Valley. Progress was made. But we still have more to go. However, it's clear that the Valley and the media-industrial complex are committed to closing the gulf and that is very exciting.
