first dutch crossmedia congres

Today I had the honour of co-chairing the first dutch crossmedia congres in the RAI. It was an interesting day in which we could see that from where companies might start, be it newspaper publishers (PCM), television (Endemol) or telecommunication (KPN), the convergence was noticable. PCM is starting projects on the internet AND on television. Endemol is going into distribution together with KPN and KPN is starting as a television provider. (IPTV) Everybody is getting into the competition on other fields. In comparison to a year or two ago where the general meaning was that this will come sometime somewhere, action is being undertaken today. The Dutch industry is starting to get awake. Still if you compare to the UK and the scandinavian countries sophistication in crossmedia thinking is not to big. But in Holland we do have the perfect starting situation, infrastructure is excellent as also noticed by Dick van der Graaf from Endemol. What we need is disruptive thinking. I did not here very much of that today. But then are the big institutionalised companies ever the ones to disrupt? I dare to question that. Difficulty is that you have to keep your share in the current market and at the same time attack the system you thrive on.. The Dutch advertisers (the money) in the market are still a little to anxious to try really new disruptive crossmedia projects. But this is what we need to foster catalysing growth. Look for, be open to and try new (low cost) things. Start small and then let it grow organically, by users pulling on the concept. Like a circle that starts small from the middel and gets bigger and bigger all the time.