ISE 2019

ISE 2019

I woke up at 4AM for a day trip into Amsterdam yesterday to do three panel discussions at ISE 2019. Two talks were held in the main building and the last was held at the Hotel Okura for ISE’s new XR Summit. Although tiring,  I had an amazing time and got to share the stage with some incredible people.

I luckily met up with Matthew Drinkwater (Whom I would be sharing the stage with later) from the Fashion Innovation Agency on the flight from London to Amsterdam. It was so nice to see him and catch up as we haven’t seen each other since the last tech panel discussion we spoke on back in 2017 (I think it was the VR & AR Summit at the the London Design Centre). Travelling with friends is always fun as you get to catch up and find out some insight into the the lives of those you are sharing time with. Matthew mention that he lived in Japan for eleven years which I found cool. I was in Japan in May for the first time and was really blown away by how out of this world it is compared to other parts of the world I have visited. the Fashion innovation Agency have been doing some groundbreaking stuff, please check them out by clicking here

We parted at the venue as I had a speedy breakfast booked in with the awesome Harrison Fox from Epidemic Sound. Some of you know that I have been lecturing music at the University of Westminster for the last thirteen years, Harrison is one of my ex students and moved to Amsterdam back in 2016 (I think). It was so great to catch up with him over a truffle omelette (Yes I said truffle) at a cool place called Vinnie’s (Click here for the restaurant site). He has been working for a Swedish music search/production agency and is about to venture into the Music tech space. I’m not allowed to say what he is developing but I was so impressed with his vision and the articulation of his idea. I am always blown away by the talent that I meet every day and how much they inspire me. Truly great to see him.

Anyway, back to ISE. The first two talks were being curated by Tiger Heart’s good friends AV Magazine and were being featured on the main stage at ISE. The first panel was focussed on new tech and I was sharing the stage with Evan from Seeper, The Futurist Amelia Kallman and Matthew Drinkwater from FIA. This discussion was great! We really wanted to stimulate a fun debate as I find a lot of these trade events to be quite stuffy and very business focussed which, a majority of the time can really bore the hell out of the audience. So it was lively, inspiring and of course informative in a fun way. A huge crowd which was a bonus as I did a keynote last year to about twenty people so this was refreshing. This panel was chaired by the wonderful Clive Couldwell who is the Group Editor of AV Magazine and just a fantastic Master of Ceremony.

Next up, The Diversity panel discussion. Again on the main stage and curated by AV Magazine but this time I was sharing the stage with Amanda Eberle Boyer from Avixa and Denise Nemchev from TvONE. I was quite nervous about this panel as the subject matter to me was a lot more serious than the last panel and meant that I had to very careful about how I expressed myself onstage. I started my journey in the AV space through the music Industry about 25 years ago. I have always felt through my experience that the arts, events and AV worlds have always been very diverse with people coming from different backgrounds, ages, sexes and everything in between. I’ve always thought that diversity in business is about ensuring that businesses have a mosaic of mindsets from different backgrounds. And that this investment into diversity will bring prosperity to the business. However, there are diversity issues in many industries and there are views from some businesses that diversity has an adverse effect on productivity. That’s what we were there to discuss and there were some great views. My favourite was a discussion about ageism towards the older generation which I feel is something that many people do not discuss. The conclusions we highlighted were that all businesses should make the conversation about diversity in the workplace a safe discussion, to lead by example and to support all those that work with you as its the team that makes you business prosperous.

Just wanted to give a big shout out to Zoe Mutter, Clive Couldwell and the great team at AV Magazine for the opportunity to speak on their stage. Tiger Heart truly values your support not just for us but for the community.

Last panel of the day was in a different building and was the closing panel at ISE’s new XR Summit. XR Summit was curated, and produced by my friend Amelia Kallman who did a great job. The different venue was a unique twist to the ISE vibe for me as the atmosphere at this new venue was very different to the main space. It felt a lot more chilled. I was joining the stage this time with Lauren Dyer from The Mill and Graeme Cox from Emteq. This panel was MCed by Joe Binnion from Big Innovation and was focussed again on new tech. there was some great discussions here mainly about headsets and data which was cool. I tried to steer my view on the opportunity to be creative with these new art forms as I believe a lot fo these tech conferences are focussed on who is the biggest and who makes the most money. There is a wider conversation opportunity here to discuss new forms of artistic expression which I find more inspiring.

Each panel discussion blitzed by like lighting and the day sped very quickly from 4AM to 10PM where I was scheduled to fly back to London.

Amsterdam you were fun! See you soon.