*Rather like being there, especially for those of us who can't put up with onerous British visa restrictions.
http://www.lighthouse.org.uk/news/futureeverything-2013
"Last week I went to the FutureEverything summit in Manchester.
"The scope of the summit was vast, and I can’t do justice to the whole event, but there was one theme I found particularly interesting. And that was how digital technology is changing the landscape for artists, cultural institutions, audiences and funders of creative work. There are new threats and opportunities unfolding, as new entrants appear in all these groups. Brands are sponsoring new work, digital platforms are stepping in as new intermediaries between artists and audiences, and new artists and makers are emerging, enabled by accessible digital technologies and the communities that form around them.
"There’s a question hanging over the arts world. Digital technology has disrupted many other cultural sectors – music, publishing and movies – in many ways, opening up exciting new fields to explore, but frequently not to the benefit of the incumbent institutions. Can the current players adapt and thrive in a new environment, or will they be pushed aside by the next generation of artists, brands and distribution platforms?
"There’s a mix of fear and opportunity in the air, which makes for a lively summit.
"The new generation was well-represented by a panel featuring Jeremy Boxer from Vimeo, Stephanie Pereira from Kickstarter, and Kevin Holmes from the Creators Project. All of these platforms could be seen as both threats and opportunities by existing players.
"I found the presentations from Vimeo and Kickstarter very persuasive. Vimeo is more than a place to host videos. For creators, they want to provide a viable commercial distribution platform. Vimeo on Demand, their pay-per-view service, lets film-makers connect with audiences directly, and keep 90% of the revenue from film sales.
"Kickstarter, while undoubtedly a poster-child for the new digitally-enabled creative economy, has suffered of late from stories that focus only on the outlier projects: those that shoot past their original fund-raising targets and leave their creators pondering how to fulfil an order book several orders of magnitude bigger than they had anticipated. And it can sometimes feel like a shop for pre-buying gadgets; a place for the digerati to fritter away their disposable income with an added edge of excitement that even the Apple Store can’t provide.
So it was refreshing to hear Stephanie dispel these illusions, and assert Kickstarter’s value as a tool for creators of all types..."
