Some of the country鈥檚 leading media professionals gathered at Birmingham City University this week for the second annual Rethink Media conference to discuss the latest trends in digital media and to learn how organisations can generate engaging content to meet the rapidly-changing expectations of today鈥檚 audiences.
With a line-up of industry speakers including Buzzfeed鈥檚 Jonathan Perelman and Ben Cooper, Controller at BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra, the event, organised by the university and held at its new Parkside building in Eastside, looked at ways of driving creative business models.
The conference was hosted by TV presenter Jason Bradbury.
Main topics of discussion at Rethink Media focused on how to best create sharable content and increase online engagement.
鈥淭he emotional quota matters more than the intelligence quota鈥, said .
鈥淓ven very specific content can reach a giant audience through the emotional force of sharing. We need to think about content not just for consumption, but also for communication. We want to create something that speaks to people,鈥 he added.
Panel debates led by Inderpreet Sahota, editor at BBC Asian Network and Stacey Barnfield, editor of the Birmingham Post, posed questions on the challenges facing organisations with audiences and consumers now creating content themselves and running their own digital channels.
鈥淭here are a lot of 鈥榬andom acts of digital鈥 happening. I think it鈥檚 important to avoid 鈥榗arpet bombing鈥 and take a targeted, strategic approach to online content,鈥 said Ben Cooper.
The event also saw the launch of the Media Power 20 (MP20), which aims to recognise those people having the biggest impact on the changing media landscape.
