From today’s keynote on “Looking for Ideas: a Media+Entertainment Perspective” at X|Media|Lab - good turn-out in Auckland, with start-up interest in content and social media.

My keynote was preceded by 42 Entertainment CEO Susan Bonds with her imaginative distribution narrative-styled ARGs (alternate reality games for The Dark Knight’s “Why So Serious” and Halo 2’s “I Love Bees”), followed by a cross-platform magazine company HB Media Ltd director Vincent Heeringa, who reminded me of a Kiwi equivalent of early Richard Branson and Felix Dennis.

The ARGs were very convincing, and talking to Susan afterwards, there’s more intellectual property here than the studios take advantage of, in terms of content communities created and unique registrants. Early beginnings of a new production model for marketing (and monetizing that marketing).

On the HB Media front, leading with a well designed mag called “Idealog” - very tough model in print media; everyone wants to read magazines and newsprint - especially in bathrooms - but the model needs to be social news crowdsourced…to survive. More updates to follow…

# Apologies on Slideshare crunching the text.

What do Adrien Brody, Three 6 Mafia, and Shakespeare in Love have in common? They all won Oscars.  And you didn’t think they would. That’s right.  At the end of the day, the human brain is far too limited to ascertain with any true degree of certainty who will end up with the austere, naked, Bruce Willis-meets-the Tin Man-lookin’-fella at the end of the night.

But the thing is:  It feels really, really good when you’re right.