I traded locations — and, in some respects, centuries … early Monday afternoon, moving from the dark, formal Marriott Marquis to the bright, white Frank Gehry-designed new IAC headquarters and The New Yorker Conference: 2012. The ticket price was $1,295 for a two-night, one-day series of often eclectic conversations and presentations involving New Yorker staff and a variety of thinkers/doers in science, the arts, news, etc. — and a constant supply of food and drink. No questions from the participants during sessions as a rule but most of the speakers hung around long enough for between-session comments and queries; many stuck around for dinner. The rules weren’t very 2012 — no photography, no live blogging.
The session that touched our area of interest most: Web 2012 as envisioned by Barry Diller, Arianna Huffington and Craig Newmark; moderated by Ken Auletta, who didn’t introduce any of them because he said they are all known already — and by their first names. Yes, Craig did use some of the same lines from conference to conference but I probably was the only one who heard him twice Monday. (He also suggested I blog about the duplication. Some lines were much more well received at this conference, by the way.) Ken did his usual fine job but at times it was like herding cats. Some highlights: more after the jump…
User-gen: Speaking of cats, Barry continued his theme from other conferences where the subject comes up: it’s the professionals versus cat throw-up. He doesn’t see much talent emerging from user-gen. But he made a push for search — remember, IAC owns Ask.com — suggesting that in a world of content, discovery becomes even more important. As for user journalism, “Knight-Ridder actually did classic journalism — nobody’s done as good a job on their own.”
Craig: “I do see people who would normally be considered amateurs doing a lot of the heavy lifting today.”
GoogleClick: Sure, Barry said, he worries about the prospects of Google buying DoubleClick. He said IAC spends over $200 million on internet advertising and takes in about $600 million, making it both media buyer and seller. He called Google’s efficiency “a virtuous circle” and said Microsoft (a sponsor of the conference) is not at all a player in search. “You push that a few steps further and we will absolutely be living in a 100 percent Google world.” But he is against taking it to the feds: “I don’t think it
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