The conference program is almost ready but for a little while longer we’ll be heightening the suspense with weekly peeks into the speaker’s lounge. Today we have 3 more for you bringing the disclosure count to 9 – or just about 1/3 of the total lineup.
And remember: In 2 days (October 2nd at noon CET) the ticket price goes up by 500 DKK. No reason to pay more than necessary – register now!
At New Media Days 09 we’re excited to welcome on stage:
JULIAN ASSANGE (AUS) tends to keep out of the limelight and spend his time backstage maintaining the democratic free flow of information.
He will join us at New Media Days 09 as spokesperson (and unconfirmed co-founder) of Wikileaks: “A multi-jurisdictional organization to protect internal dissidents, whistleblowers, journalists and bloggers who face legal or other threats related to publishing.” An initiative Time Magazine has proclaimed “could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act” and the Ars Electronica Festival recently presented with an Award of Distinction.
Julian Assange’s bio at Wikileaks is an exciting read. I’ll highlight some passages:
– Born in Australia to a touring theatre family, Julian attended 37 schools and 6 universities.
– He studied mathematics, philosophy and neuroscience.
– As a teenager he became Australia’s most famous ethical computer hacker.
– He was instrumental in introducing the internet to Australia and co-founded Australia’s first free speech ISP.
– A prolific programmer and consultant for many open-source projects, his software software is used by most large organizations and is inside every Apple computer.
– He has broken stories in most major venues, travelled extensively and has been a subject of several books and documentaries.
MICHAEL WOLFF (USA) is over journalism, as one reporter of L.A. Times puts it. Nevertheless he is a journalist himself, a media columnist for Vanity Fair, television commentator on CNBC and author of several books.
But in 2007 he founded Newser.com: “A news aggregator with brains that selects the best news stories from hundreds of sources all over the web, read them for you, and summarize them in two succinct, sharply written paragraphs or less.” This put him solidly in the business of putting newspapers out of business.
Newser is a fast-growing service in the US and has unsurprisingly inflamed the news media struggling to make ends meet. It is challenging traditional business models and ruthlessly reordering the work of fellow journalists – but is it in fact the future of news media?
Wolff’s latest book The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch is a unique portrait of the News Corp CEO who gave 50 hours of exclusive interviews – and later raised objections about the publication.
I’m betting this session will generate questions from the audience.
LARS BASTHOLM (DK) received high praise for his talk on the future of digital marketing at New Media Days 2007. We’re very happy to once again welcome Lars on stage in 2009. This time in his new position as Chief Digital Creative Officer at Ogilvy North America.
As the Ogilvy press release confirms, Bastholm is a considerable asset for the company and also for New Media Days 09:
“Lars has been working in the interactive marketing industry for over 12 years. After starting up Grey Interactive in Scandinavia, he joined Framfab in Copenhagen, Denmark as Creative Director. There he worked on some of the world’s most recognized brands, including Nike, LEGO, Sprite and Carlsberg.”
“The Chief Jurist for the 2009 Cannes Cyber Lions, Lars is one of the most highly awarded and recognized digital creative executives in the industry with three Cyber Lions Grand Prix’s of his own. Before joining Ogilvy, he spent four-years at AKQA, most recently as Co-Chief Creative Officer where he was key to winning interactive assignments for Coke, Smirnoff and Motorola.”
Expect the seats for this presentation to disappear faster than the revenue streams of print media.