Looking for calm in the pace of tech
Recently, I was asked to present in NYC on digital transformation, tech and innovation, and what it means for creative talent. To prepare, I decided to look at some of my social posts and highlight one or two that resonated. Would the top posts be about frenetic leaps in technological advancement? Our venture fund? Artificial intelligence or augmented reality?
I was surprised by what I found: The posts that had the highest engagement showcased intimate snapshots of nature or art, and gleaned lessons from everyday life. These posts were about finding calm and making space for creativity.
Here’s my theory: People yearn for a moment of calm in the influx of new technology, the pace of change, the rush of life. They want to make sense of the world around them and to find something meaningful in the human experience. It’s small details and unexpected moments that strike a chord and teach us something profound.
Isn’t tech supposed to make our lives easier? Maybe, but the journey can be stressful. As consumers, there are new applications, devices, multiple screens and the shared-economy vying for our attention. The flood of social media content turns us into “skimmers” glancing at headlines, liking, sharing, but rarely engaging in a thoughtful conversation. At work, the digital landscape offers tremendous possibilities, but siloed applications ask CMOs, CIOs and CTOs to work with a fragmented system of open and proprietary platforms, to integrate a mix of legacy systems, IoT and cloud solutions—and then make sense of the data they generate. In the business community, we have an increasing number of exciting organizations and tech companies, but it’s harder to decide where to spend your time.
In this dynamic and fragmented environment, simplicity is a welcome relief. Standout brands are clear and focused: people are drawn to brands that understand their pain points, and speak where and when their audience is receptive to the brand being part of the conversation. Alongside new tech, businesses need digital solutions that focus on scale and integration: we need more business models that streamline the mix of legacy and new-tech systems, deploy and communicate securely across applications, consolidate data and insights, and allow go-to-market teams to take a strategy-first approach. And in the business community, organizations like TechPoint add great value: keeping the pulse on all-things-tech, helping us navigate and network more effectively, and providing platforms to efficiently reach top talent.
Today—more than ever—we need simplicity, rather than noise.
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