Sept 17: Ten Top me Convention Sessions

The Forrest Four-Cast: September 16, 2017

The me Convention in Frankfurt concludes on Sunday, September 17. Ten sessions that I want to attend on the final day of the event include:

1. A$AP Rocky Keynote. A cultural beacon who continues to move past the status quo and lead the pack, A$AP Rocky continues to evolve, innovate and disrupt the industry. Attend his closing keynote to get his perspectives on creating the new.
2. Closing the Loop: Fashion and the Circular Economy. Creating clothing through a circular economy has been a goal for many years — but how close are we? How are new manufacturing technologies and processes changing the game and getting us closer to a closed loop system? What can consumers do to drive change?
3. Digital Uprising: The Power of Tech in the Political Arena. Symone Sanders draws from her experience on the national stage to provide perceptive analysis on political and social issues. Her lively presentations challenge the conventional wisdom that strong communities are only defined by what we have in common. Instead, she outlines the way our differences contribute to effective social movements.
4. From the Smart City to the Mindful City. Building for the future means understanding the mega-trends, and in particular the needs of an ageing individualistic society. The real smart city is a mindful city — driven by connectivity to people, not simply technology. Join Oona Horx-Strathern to explore some of these mega-trends and re-imagine the future of our cities.
5. Hacking the Brain: Utilizing Emotions for Deeper Human Insight. Welcome to the age of brain hacking! Kei Shimada will share real life examples of how brands are utilizing neuroscience to gain deeper consumer insight and how it is used by clients in their communication with consumers. See what you need to know about how future tech will impact your brand.
6. The Science of Today is the Art of Tomorrow. In this talk, you’ll learn about new immersive storytelling tools that allow you to travel to previously unexplored worlds and spaces. Sasha Samochina will explain her path to creating films for science and her current work at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She will showcase new tools in virtual reality technologies as well as describe the resources available for you to make your own VR and 360 content. The future is bold, bright and virtual.
7. The Spaces Between Us: Community and the Reinvention of Brand as Platform. What role do our increasingly pluralized identities play as we strive to create meaning from virtual communities while tapping into their inherent value — and where does the platform intersect? In this discussion, we break down complex processes to answer such questions — as well as pose new ones.
8. Synthetic Biology Goes Commercial? New companies are now springing up that are using synthetic biology to manufacture yeast for brewing perfume ingredients or heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. These startups are using software, such as BioStudio, that partly automates the process of designing DNA strands, as well as photolithography techniques borrowed from the semiconductor industry to manufacture that DNA. Attend this panel to find out what is next.
9. The Way To New Energy. Fusion is the energy that powers the sun and the stars. Imagine we manage to harness this energy down here on Earth? With the ITER project, 35 nations have joined their forces to form the world’s largest international scientific collaboration. Attend Greg de Temmerman’s session to learn more about nuclear fusion, and the technologies at the core of the transition to a post-carbon economy.
10. Why Design Thinking Won’t Save Us. Alissia Iljaitsch (pictured above) shares recent case studies from her work in the VR, AR, AI, and connected car space and present how companies can create cultural movements around learning and sharing that result in innovation outputs unique to each organizational culture.

me Convention is presented by Mercedes-Benz and SXSW. Find out more by visiting the event website.

Hugh Forrest serves as Chief Programming Officer at SXSW, the world’s most unique gathering of creative professionals. He also tries to write at least four paragraphs per day on Medium. These posts often cover tech-related trends; other times they focus on books, pop culture, sports and other current events.

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