Turing Festival 2013 Review
26 Aug 2013, by Calum ShepherdI was fortunate enough to attend the Turing Festival in Edinburgh on the 24th and 25th of August, 2013. The festival took place over two days, towards the tail end of the Edinburgh Festival, meaning the city was still buzzing with energy. The talks were diverse and captivating, with many speakers using technology as a foundation, rather than the subject itself. This approach made the festival feel more dynamic, engaging, and thought-provoking than your typical event.
What talks did I attend?
Five Startups Go Mad in Edinburgh Future of Money Digital Distribution Digital Marketing & Growth Hacking Festival Keynote by Neal Stephenson Future of Music
Future of money highlights
- Sandra Alzetta from Visa delivered a grounded speech focusing on mobile payments via smartphones and contactless plastic cards. She emphasized that the future of payments is both mobile and plastic, with each playing an essential role in Visa’s vision
- Mike Hearn from Bitcoin (and previously Google) gave a fascinating talk that was one of the highlights of the festival. His presentation was wide-ranging, discussing everything from Google’s driverless cars to the future of work. He painted a picture of a future dominated by autonomous agents in a TradeNet system, where machines run their own businesses, competing for human business. He also touched on Bitcoin but this was overshadowed by the broader, thought-provoking concepts he introduced
Social reviews don’t make that much sense, says Mike Hearn of Google. Lots of spam and strangers #turingfest — Andrew Girdwood (@AndrewGirdwood) - August 23, 2013
The future of money by Visa Europe. Trust. Completely agree. Money doesn’t do public betas #turingfest @NJones — Calum Shepherd (@calumshepherd) - August 23, 2013
Visa Europe forecast 50% of their transactions by 2020 will be mobile #turingfest — Calum Shepherd (@calumshepherd) - August 23, 2013
Digital distribution highlights
The standout session in digital distribution came from DJ Powers from Valve. He gave insight into the Steam eco-system and their recent developments in community contribution. Team Fortress 2 is one of their most recent success stories, seeing a marketplace built out around digital products and official community updates - launched for the entire player base. A success story included a hat seller (for in-game characters) who achieved 6 digit profits for his creations.
Team Fortress Community Update biggest grossing hour for them after launch. Awesome #turingfest — Calum Shepherd (@calumshepherd) - August 23, 2013
Digital marketing and growth hacking
- Brian Doll from GitHub kicked off this session, reinforcing the need for great marketing based on a simple philosophy:
“Build Something, Tell People”
This concept sparked some debate, particularly regarding its application in large-scale organizations. Nonetheless, it’s an ideal that everyone should aspire to, and Brian’s use of an animated GIF across his presentations was a hit!
- JP Rangaswami from Salesforce delivered an inspiring presentation. While I didn’t take notes, I was thoroughly impressed by his storytelling ability and how he guided the audience through the ever-evolving landscape of technology.
“Living infographics”. Steven Drost from Stipso explains how text can become more than a sum of its parts #turingfest — Calum Shepherd (@calumshepherd) - August 24, 2013
Focus on tribes. Focus on communities that already exist’s Brian Doll from @github - Calum Shepherd (@calumshepherd) - August 24, 2013
If you’d like to learn more about the event, check out the official Turing Festival website.