Nordic Exceptional Trendshop 2006

Free Lab TV from the event

About a week has passed since Nordic Exceptional ended. It was a blast and a big thank you goes out to everyone being involved, either you were audience, exhibitor, helper, speaker, camera man etc. As program chair for the fourth time in a row, I can say with confidence that this year's NEXT was the we've held so far!

We have just released the Lab TV webcasts from the conference. So watch or re-watch the exciting, fun and thoughtprovoking talks from the entire day. It's free till December 31 and there are, I believe, exactly one webcast for each day, all the way to Christmas eve. Call it our own Lab TV X-mas Calendar ;-)

Also, we have just updated Flickr with our very own Morten Fauerby's fantastic pictures. Check them out as well.

We have already begun planning Nordic Exceptional Trendshop 2007, so stay tuned for more. The date you'll have to book for the conference is November 16th 2007. The exhibition is November 17-18, 2007. Hope to see you there.

Instant ASCII Camera

Vuk Cosic from croatia will both be presention at the conferencen and exhibiting the Instant ASCII Camera during the event.

The Instant ASCII Camera is working in the same way that the instant cameras located in the railway stations. The difference is though, that this particular camera produces portraits in ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) and that it is free of charge. This means that the pictures consist of different letters; numbers and symbols that put together in a specific matrix form a portrait. The consumer approaches the camera, presses the green button and instantly receives his/her portrait on a supermarket type of receipt. Even though that you cannot use these pictures for your passport it still provides great opportunities for future application.

Using the Instant ASCII Camera it is possible to get free portraits of yourself. However you cannot use the portraits for your passport due to the fact that your portrait will only consist of letters, numbers and symbols put together to form a picture!

Link: Instant ASCII Camera

All the speakers at the conference

The whole line-up of speakers at the conference is ready. Read about the Slovenian artist, Vuk Cosics' ASCII art, the American professor Eugene Polzik's research on teleportation, the German interaction designer, inventor and DJ, Christopher Bauder's project with interactive BUGS and learn more about the Danish last-century inventor, Jacob Ellehammer and his visionary and foresighted ideas as told by Louise Skyggebjerg, director of the Danish Technical Museum.

Check out the program - and get ready for loads of inspiration to your own innovative projects.

Take a trip to SIME in Stockholm

Another Scandinavian conference is right around the corner. It takes place in Stockholm, November 22-23. It's called SIME - Scandinavian Internet Media Event, and the NEXT crew think it looks so cool, that if it wasn't for the long working days we have up to NEXT, we would definitely go.

"Scandinavian Interactive Media Event, SIME, celebrates its 10 year anniversary this year. Just as previous years SIME gathers the most important companies and the most exciting speakers during a two-day conference that ends with the “Academy Awards of the Internet”, the official awards ceremony at Berns in Stockholm."

They are still accepting nominees to the Internet Award show, and there are way too few Danes among. So check out www.sime.nu and nominate your Internet creation to SIME. It's free of charge for internationals.

Apart from the Awards, loads of interesting people will speak at the conference, among others:

- Andreas Weigend, Professor Stanford, ex-Chief Scientist at Amazon.com, (US)
- Ted Cohen Senior Vice President, Digital Development & Distribution EMI Music, (US)
- Dan Gillmor, Journalist, leading blogger and the champion of the citizen media movement, (US)

Thumbs up to SIME which rock on for the 10th consecutive year - we just cross our fingers that Nordic Exceptional Trendshop will be able to go on for just as long.

Henrik Føhns is the host at NEXT

Our host at the NEXT Conference is Henrik Føhns. He was also the conference host at CustomerMade - an event Innovation Lab and O'Reilly Media Inc. did in cooperation this April. He handled the job so well that when we were about to choose this year's NEXT host - we once again wanted to take advantage of Føhns perfect mix of experience, both when it comes to understanding the impact of new technologies and his pleasent way of leading a conference.

He started the legendary radio program The Harddisk (in Danish) at Denmark's Radio back in the beginning of the 90's. Later he spend some years as editor at Samvirke, a Danish consumer magazine delving into everything related to food, health, purchases etc.

However, one week ago Føhns proclaimed that he will return to The Harddisk at Denmark's Radio. And furthermore he will officially carry his new job title the very same day he is host at Nordic Exceptional Trendshop. We hope the conference will show to be the perfect inspirational kick-start in Føhns new (old) job.

Visit Føhns' blog at www.mondofunza.com

Plundr: Laptop Location Based Game (Area/Code)

Plundr is a new location-based game of piracy and trading of goods on the high seas created by the company area/code. Plundr is designed to be played on laptop computers by players who are navigating through space in the ‘real world’ while connected to the internet. The game play takes place on different virtual islands that each corresponds to a real-world location where you can buy and sell goods; prey on Merchant Ships and battle nearby players. You begin your journey as a bilge-spewing land-lubber in a leaky tub and then you can search the ocean for unsuspecting ships to plunder so that you can upgrade your ship and amass a fortune in black market goods.

And Co-Founder and Managing Director of area/code Kevin Slavin have also promised to amaze the audience with a lighting talk about the Plundr game.

Link: Plundr

NEXT2006: The venue

The conference venue at the IT University of Copenhagen - is ideally positioned in Copenhagen’s major new district, Ørestaden. The character of Copenhagen is ever changing and with this new and very attractive district quite literally in the centre of Copenhagen, the city is attracting businesses, housing projects and educational institutions.

Today, Ørestaden is a gigantic building site, buzzing with activity and creativity. Right there in the middle of it all on Rued Langgards Vej is the IT University, designed by Henning Larsens Tegnestue, and completed just three years ago.  This is where NEXT2006 will be taking place.

IT University of Copenhagen is a teaching and research-based university concerned with information technology (IT) and the opportunities it offers. It is a graduate school which undertakes both theoretical research and applied research into the interaction and growing importance of information technology to society.

Speakers at NEXT

One of the cool things about NEXT, is that it's not just an exhibition of exceptional inventions - it's also an exceptional gathering of some of the most inspirational minds and trendsetters around at the moment. We already have the first handful of speakers on parade and another handful waiting with their final confirmation.

The Nordic Exceptional Trendshop Conference will be held December 1st at the IT University of Copenhagen - just next to the exhibition hall to strengthen the synergie between talk and try, thinkers and practitioners.

During the coming days we will introduce the different speakers on the blog, with a short collection of articles, pictures and ideas they have taken role in.

The first three profiled speakers at NEXT will be: Jane McGonigal, Colin Bulthaup and George Dyson. Stay tuned for more.