Arianna Huffington took the center stage and keynotes this year’s AdTech San Francisco this week and as always, nailed it again, despite a couple of questions about the controversy around the ongoing discussion of unpaid versus paid bloggers prior to and following the sale to AOL. (and in general as a standard for the industry).
Yet, with fearlessness, poise, humor and confidence, she moved from old media to new media and referenced Craig Newmark, Guy Kawasaki and Biz Stone as well as cited quotes from her mother and Shakespeare all within a ten minute window.
Her focus and leave behinds primarily revolved around humanity, the need to return to hyper local engagement (and Enchantment per Guy’s new book) as well as connecting with community. (she gives examples including their focus on Patch, the new hyper local sites — a friend of mine runs Santa Cruz).
Arianna also talked about the importance of sleep and how sleep deprivation doesn’t serve anyone or anything…..”we can’t be enchanting or engaging if we’re sleep deprived,” she says.
She says of new media, “we suffer from OCD – obsessive coverage of topics,” and related to humanity, she quotes Biz Stone who said of Twitter, “it is not not a triumpth of technology but a triumph of humanity.” Her full talk below in a two part series. Also up on YouTube.