Teens In Tech 2.0 Grows Up
Posted by meredith on 02-09-2010
Today’s Ypulse Youth Advisory Board post comes from Enrique Gavidia who returned to the “Teens In Tech” conference in San Francisco this past weekend. Below Enrique reports back on some of the issues raised and the progress he saw from last year. Remember, you can communicate directly with any member of the Ypulse Youth Advisory Board by emailing them at youthadvisoryboard at ypulse.com…or just leave a comment!
Teens In Tech 2.0 Grows Up
With mild lighting grazing rows of “Google-colored” chairs, and the sweet aroma of cookies, milk and orgasmic French Vanilla lattes wafting from the kitchen; the spacious Google offices in San Francisco made for a cozy spot to host this year’s Teens In Tech conference. While the target audience and demographic in attendance largely stayed the same, the conference itself appeared to mature some since its first inception. Case in point, among the noticeably larger crowd of attendees this year were the familiar faces of speakers from last year, but also Steve “The Woz” Wozniak, who made a special appearance prompting older geeks in the crowd to glow with the giddiness of teenage school girls.
As the event got underway, several themes from last year were revisited (more on that in a bit), and once again the air was filled with an entrepreneurial spirit powered by the dozens of teens in attendance, collectively emanating a confidence rooted less in their age, and more in their abilities and the potential stature well within their grasp. Here were some highlights…
Digg.com’s charismatic Danny Trinh started off the event with a sequel to his talk from last year on dealing with the “Milk & Cookies” of life, discussing how to bake said “cookies,” and prepare oneself for entering the tech industry. Trinh touched on a few motifs that would recur throughout the day encouraging young attendees to not only passionately believe in our ideas and abilities regardless of age, but also to dismiss our fears and inhibitions towards failure, staying on edge by making stupid decisions and taking risks. He reminded the room that the web is a meritocracy, and the expense of failure is belittled by the potential for success so there’s nothing to lose by jumping right in. But as a merit-based arena, the skills brought forth by aspiring talent better be sharp enough to cut through everything else that’s out there.
From there, the event continued with more energetic talk of entrepreneurship. Along similar thematic lines, the speakers that followed Trinh emphasized the importance of being passionate and thinking big, advising the audience to “start movements, not companies,” and to “develop solutions, not just a product,” all the while encouraging the younger attendees to not relegate themselves to what society thinks teenagers should/could do.
All of this culminated with conference founder Daniel Brusilovsky interviewing self-made “teen whisperer” Josh Shipp [who spoke at the 2009 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup] on the trials he encountered along the way to becoming an “overnight success.” In between constant interruptions of laughter at the irreverent tweets projected on the live Twitter feed in the background, Shipp shared his humble beginnings along with his insight on what actions propelled him to success. This, combined with an inspiring talk by Dropbox CEO Drew Houston near the end of the conference, surely left everyone feeling that “anything is possible”… if you actually commit to do something about it.
A prominent theme from last year was the whole “school vs. work” debate, with most of the speakers surprisingly leaning towards promoting work as opposed to going to/finishing college. This year, however, the consensus among speakers appeared to shift, with virtually all of them covering the importance of school, and how school-vs-work decisions should be handled carefully on a case-by-case basis. At the same time, with speakers citing the main positives of school as “college parties” and “learning how to learn” as opposed to the pursuit of any specific subject, I couldn’t help but feel the message was slightly muddled. Overall my takeaway was that there’s nothing to lose by continuing one’s education, and that doing so can only help those who aren’t already well-versed in their field; a reassuring mantra to remember the next time I find myself thinking I’d rather be assaulted by a gang of splintered broomsticks dipped in sulfuric acid than sit through a groan-worthy lectures.
Finally, an interesting theme raised this year was the viability of teenagers, both in a societal context and from a marketing perspective. Best Buy’s Tim Showalter-Loch opened the discussion by linking the success of the brand’s @15 program to its consideration of teens as legitimate investment-worthy entities. He also raised the familiar contradictions underlying the social dichotomy between teens and adults – with adults simultaneously regarding teens as “naive,” “inexperienced,” and relatively not “knowledgeable” in a normal context, but in contrast viewing them as experts in technology and technological trends. It was noted that teens are the ones who dictate what gets bought when mom and dad go to a computer store, and serve as a cheaper and more convenient alternative to tech support. In short, without teens, many adults would be lost, yet they are still a relatively voiceless segment in society. Thankfully, companies like Best Buy’s increasing interest in the opinions of teens is starting to change this.
Overall, it was an interesting gathering, and I left pondering what next year will hold both for “Teens in Tech 3.0,” and the inspirational teens that make the event possible… also when I could get some more of those French Vanilla Lattes…
About Enrique Gavidia
Raised by a flock of bunnies in the urban metropolis of San Francisco, this young swashbuckling stallion grew up to inherit many of the talents of his furry friends, including the obscure fields of learning to excel at guitar and knowing how to program computers. Now off on his own as a University student living with his human family, he is constantly honing in on his many talents, aspiring to succeed in the fields of digital media, software development, and/or music. And thanks to his fluffy mentors, he is now the [self-proclaimed] hottest thing to grace his neighborhood since spicy Mexican tamarind candy, and hopes that one day everyone can revel in his mild glory.
Categorized under: Web, Youth Advisory Board