Hyper Islands Petra Arrenäs and professor Jonathan Briggs. (there are more pictures from this Session further down).

Last friday, representatives from the major ad agencies and media companies in Sweden gathered once again at Ericssons old location at Telefonplan for our second Hyper Island Session. This time the guests were treated to some afternoon snacks and a very interesting lecture with Jonathan Briggs about the future of digital media.

Jonathan Briggs is a professor in eCommerce at Kingston University in London, one of the founders of Hyper Island, and also one of the most renowned trend analysts in the area of digital and interactive media. He has been investigating the last ten years and make predictions for the next ten.

This particular afternoon he came to Hyper Island to talk about how interactive media will change the digital media business in Sweden and the rest of the world.

Hyper Island CEO Mattias Hansson held the opening speech, welcoming all attendees and introduced Jonathan Briggs, saying that he is one of the most intelligent people he has ever met.

Next up was Jonathan Briggs himself, who began by saying that he in true Hyper Island spirit wanted the session to be interactive, and encouraged the audience to ask questions or disagree. Then he introduced the audience to the digital media status today.

He said that commerce is becoming commoditised, and pointed out that more and more of our internet visits are made from our mobile phones. But more than anything he talked about Google.

- Google know more about your customers than you do. Google know more about your market and competitors than you do, he said.

Briggs continued with a list of ten points about Google such as: Google will dominate advertising and decide how your website is ranked. Google will make every site dance to their tune, because every site must be designed to fit Google. Google also understands the importance of the mobile phones.

- Because of this Google not only can, but must be a partner, Jonathan Briggs said.

So how do we use Google?

- We have to take Google seriously. We have to start looking at what people search on Google for. There are lots of tools that can show us what people are interested in at our sites. People don’t go through the homepage, they go straight from Google to the page where they can find the right information.

After this Jonathan Briggs gave some advice for the future, saying that commerce must change.

- You must design for customers, he said. You must design for the social web such as facebook and Google Friend Connect. You must design for Google and you must design for the next generation of mobile phones. You also have to understand your customers, give away data and be remarkable.

Having said all this, Jonathan Briggs also pointed out the importance of putting the customers first.

- Businesses that put their brand first will soon go out of business because they won’t have any customers left, he said. You have to be where the customers are.

After the speech the audience asked some questions. The first one was ’Do you like Google?’

- I am very impressed with Google and the speed in which they do things. I think they are extremly clever. I guess I admire them but they also scare me, jonahan Briggs answered.

Is there a new potential Google on your radar?

- Yahoo, Jonathan Briggs answered without a doubt. Yahoo and maybe Facebook who came from nowhere and took a lot of attention away from Google. In stead of looking for information using Google people were biting eachother in the shape of vampires. But Google will meet this threat by making social networking a part of all their sites.

After the last questions the session was formally over but for the art interested guests Hyper Island arranged a guided tour of the Spring Exhibition at Konstfack, the University College of Art, crafts and design in the building next door.

Below are some pictures of guests, staff and students who attended the Session this afternoon.


Hyper Island students Oscar Gräsman, Johan Lövblad, Nemo Curcic, Johannes Andersson and professor Jonathan Briggs.


Berit Nyqvist and Jesper Hjälmeby from Care of Haus.


Jacob Lapidus from Patriksson Communications.


Mario Nilsson and Conny Noremark from Sol Network.


Peter Johansson from Par AB


Lars Rystadius and Anders Glisén from Brand Reality.


Mikael Ståhl, ANdreas Holmström and Tobias Grahn from Net Entertainment and Alex Kappel and Susanne Öjert from Newmarket Town.


Svante Randlert and Sari Taipale from Studentmedia.


Anne Crussell from Crussell & co and Ann Henriksson from Creation.


Gerd Bennich from Bennich Information and Maria Lübeck from Essen.


Emelie Gustafsson from Forsman & Bodenfors.


Hyper Island's Maria Eriksson and Nils von Heijne from Pronto Communications.


Hayper Island's Annika Grundfors and Fredrik Wastenson from Mookie.


Anna Ryberg, Emelie Pettersson, Anna-Karin Freizen and Kerstin Rörby from AP Fastigheter AB.


Ebba Månsson and Adam Lundberg from Ogilvy and Daniel Silander from Initiative Universal.


Michael Åkerman and Emilia Molin from Me and You.


Jonas Svensson from Starsky, Estelle Nordenfalk frm Yogayama and Johan Walter Naeslund from Walter Naeslund/Identity Works.


Marika Karlsson from AP Fastigheter and Anna Jensen and Charlotta Warnhammar from ANR BBDO.


Hyper Island Session is a continuously returning event offered by Hyper Island to help deepen the knowledge of the new digital realities that surround us all and strongly effect the way we live our lives - and to improve the way we work.

Regularly check back at www.hyperisland.se for upcoming events.
You can also sign up for the Hyper Island Newsletter here.

If you would like to attend future Hyper Island Sessions, please contact:
Maria Eriksson.