BRACAU 27 BLOG'S

From left: Darren McCormick, Mattias Hansson, Jeff Benjamin, Scott Belsky and moderator David Michel-Davis
Hyper Island CEO Mattias Hansson was on a panel discussing the Digital Talent and Leadership Dilemma during 2009's Advertising Week in New York City.

Together with a panel consisting of:
Darren McCormick, Digital Agency Cultural Lead, Microsoft
Jeff Benjamin, VP, Interactive Creative Director, CP+B
Scott Belsky, Founder/CEO, Behance
Mattias offered his perspective on if a change needs to happen in the way we educate the digital leaders of the future. The panelists also discussed what they are doing about it and what must be done as an industry to find and develop the thought leaders of the future.

An excerpt from Boards Magazine's capture of the discussion:
"Asked by moderator Webby Awards executive director David Michel-Davis whether there was a lack of talent, the speakers agreed the problem was not talent per se, but rather finding it.
(...)
When Michel-Davis asked where the most demand for his students came from, Hansson was quick to answer: 'The most need [for our students] is from agency networks,' said Hansson, 'but it's not where they want to go.'

Hyper Island, which does not follow a formal curriculum, encourages its students to find their own voice by taking up creative pursuits outside the school's walls, a practice that, he intimated, is not always fostered at agencies.

Hansson added that many agencies try to resolve the digital brain-drain by simply parachuting in digital talent in a bid to magically effect change. Those types of hires are frustrating turn-offs for young graduates, especially if the agency does not also devote resources to retraining existing staff."

Click here to read the rest of the Boards Magazine article!

Business Management 2009 students Carl-Henric Möllerström, Conny Bark and Jakob Adaktusson (who are about to graduate from Hyper Island this week) have started two companies - while studying! We were intrigued and asked Carl-Henric to tell us more:

Why did you start the companies?
The idea of Winelinking.com, started by Jakob and I, came when I realized the incredible interest around wine and the hard part about selecting wine. You select wine by label or chose the wine you always drink or after what the TV chef says. But since we have different taste buds we don’t like the same wines, therefore, Winelinking.com gives you just recommendations from the people who like similar wines as you.


Click here to watch a bigger version of the video.

With M & B that I started together with Conny, it was not so complicated, we had Telenor as a customer before the company started and it gave us great opportunities. I had already experience of setting up companies and it was just to get going. It is also very interesting to work with the streamline of companies IT-structure and communication.

What are the companies about?
Winelinking is basically a recipe- and wine site that provides personal recommendations of recipes and what wines you should test all along what the users think. But it also works as pure wine and recipe search engine if you’re not a member.

M & B, however, makes IT solutions to other companies. We are working primarily to improve efficiency of company's internal communications by creating a better communication, documentation and user portal.

What are your goals?
The objectives for Winelinking is that by “the system of the crowd" give accurate recommendations of which wines and recipes you may like.
We can already show all the wines available at Systembolaget and we will as soon as possible make it possible to view the e-shops that sell them.
We want to provide as many recipes and wines as possible and a natural objective is of course to make an iPhone app.

The objectives of M & B is to use cloud services to streamline the companies communications and IT infrastructure. We have had a positive cash flow from the beginning due out that we had consultant job before the company was started.
We have become Registered Partner with Microsoft and we expect to be Gold Partner within a few months on the platform Sharepoint and Office Live.

Why did you decide to start the companies together?
In both cases, it was a shared interest in IT and business that led to cooperation. Since the personal chemistry worked well and we have additional properties knowledge and experience we work very well together.


What do you say to other students who might think starting a company is too big of a hassle while still studying?
Sure, it may be perceived as hard to run two companies while studying, but it is not really that hard if you think it is fun and believe in what you do, (that sounded cliché-ridden).
And when it pays for itself in different ways, one realizes that it is really worth the effort, but I guess it takes a certain drive to do it.

On a personal level, what do you hope to learn?
The industry is very young and changes all the time, so I learn new things all the time.
One important thing I have learned is that the internet is for the information society as the steam engine was to industrial society. I do of course want to be very good at what I am doing and quickly put into practice the ideas I have, for there is more.


Thank you, Carl-Henric, and have a great last week at Hyper Island!