Here you can to find all the stories about our journey to the final event. From scratch to the first idea and the final realisation of the concept.
What has Happened
The Barter
Our first work stream was to develop value for our event through various barters.
Barter is a system of exchange by which goods are directly exchanged for other goods without using a medium of exchange, such as money. So we started with a fan and went direct to Ciudad Universitaria assuming that we will find enough students, who we can exchange with. That was a great experience to understand what the real meaning of value is, for us as a group and more important for people living in Madrid.
Following some pictures of successfuls trades.
Kick Off Event @ Casa de Velasquez
Gathering all the information we have found and experienced, we have prepared a seven minutes artistic performance about our results.
The Chair of Entrepreneurship of the ESCP was hosting an Entrepreneurial Concert, named with NUEVO MADRID, which gave us the perfect stage to present our ideas.
Please watch a very short wrap-up version of our performance.
Gathering all the information we have found and experienced, we have prepared a seven minutes artistic performance about our results.
The Chair of Entrepreneurship of the ESCP was hosting an Entrepreneurial Concert, named with NUEVO MADRID, which gave us the perfect stage to present our ideas.
Please watch a very short wrap-up version of our performance.
Every Friday, the Medialab organizes an Open-Lab to develop prototypes in collaborative workshops. Here, experts from very diverse fields are getting together to build something meaningful.
Meeting medialab-Prado
2013/01/31
2013/01/30
2013/02/07
Based on our kick-off event Nuevo Madrid at Casa de Velazquez, the plans are being made for a new technology related event in Madrid between the 5th and 9th of March, 2012
The audience will be involved in the co-creation process from the very beginning. The invitations will be sent out after a media-upload on a platform of choice (Twitter, Instagram, Youtube) to attract tech-savvy spectators, however, this is a NON exclusive even3
The event itself is a mutual interaction, which enables a real time co-creation with the audience, either exclusively through new technology or with an additional layer of interpretation through an artist. The result will be a dynamic creation between the performance and the audiance
Spectators will also have the possibility to answer questions of their past self...
The initial event concept
2013/02/08
For us, this place felt like the epicenter of entrepreneurship in Madrid. An amazingly inspiring place for everyone, who needs help on own projects and is willing to create impact on society together with the same mind-sey.
Since Spain is and was always an early adopter of social & digital communication, what is the kind of innovation they do now thirst for? Kinect, as an example of social interaction with new technologies, was already one project that was spot among the Medialab Members. For us, this place is the right spot to identify something that moves us socially and personally. The connections already made are fruitful and will certainly get us to the next level towards our NewMadTech-Event.
Medialab-Prado is a program of the Department of Arts of the City Council of Madrid, aimed at the production, research, and dissemination of digital culture and of the area where art, science, technology, and society intersect. Many workshops for the production of projects, conferences, seminars, encounters, project exhibition, concerts, presentations, etc. take place in its versatile space. All activities are free and open to the general public.
After last Friday's pitch and its challenging questions from the "dragons", our team New Mad Tech sat together to discuss the concept of our scheduled event. We worked on our main weak point in the design, and simplified the concept into a more feasible layout considering the time constraints of the event organization. The concept evolved towards a platform aimed at new tech start-up companies from Madrid that are centered around social interactions and communication. The essence of the event is to offer an entertaining, original beta-experience where new tech start-ups can apply. The team of New Mad Tech will carry out the organizational part and the platform shall be developed as a recurring event series in the Madrid start-up landscape.
Our conceptual progress
2013/02/08
There, we will have the possibility to meet 22 different technology start-ups that have successfully participated in the Yuzz competition funded by Banesto and "choose" potential collaboration partners for our event.This morning at 9.30 am we dived deeper into the Madrileño Entrepreneur and Start-up Ecosystem at the Salon MiEmpresa, the event for entrepreneurs and SMEs in Madrid. We reached out with the goal to make some more contacts related to our upcoming event, in the search for young start-ups in the new tech field.
This morning at 9.30 am we dived deeper into the Madrileño Entrepreneur and Start-up Ecosystem at the Salon MiEmpresa, the event for entrepreneurs and SMEs in Madrid. We reached out with the goal to make some more contacts related to our upcoming event, in the search for young start-ups in the new tech field.
Our first promising contact we made was at the Yuzz booth, where we met young entrepreneurs from the IT field. They invited us to come to their co-working space next week and discuss the conceptual outline of our event.
Salon
Mi Empresa
2013/02/13
Do you know what “drifting” is? It is an experience that consists in wandering through a city without a fixed goal. You can find your path step by step, by following signs, talking to people, and thus discover places where you would never have been to on your own. It is all about, once again, disrupting personal cognitive prejudices; keeping “open” to one’s environment, seeing things differently.
It occurred to us that drifting was actually a good experiment to make when preparing our event about New Technology since we are still thinking about the concept of it and looking for venues where it could actually take place. Drifting in Madrid was a way to discover how New Technology is integrated in this specific urban landscape…
2013/02/20
Drifting
We initiated this drifting experience at Callao, in the city center and were at once attracted by a Hotel in the first street we were walking in. It was called “High Tech Hoteles”. Curious, we immediately went in, to get some details about the concept. According to the receptionist, “High Tech Hoteles” is a hotel franchise wide spread in Spain, called “High Tech” because there is a computer in each room. Apart from that, the receptionist could not see anything special and technology-friendly about it. “If you look for something really technological, you should go to the “3D Cinema”, located outside of Madrid, it is one of the biggest in the world, and it is – as far as I know – the first thing I think about when you ask me about New Tech”…
The place was kind of “strange”, located in a nice “old building” made futuristic through nice light effects and sober design… The most striking thing was that there were not so many clients. Plus, the salespersons seemed rather annoyed, distant, were not very eager to explain us what was new and exciting about the products to be tested. We wandered a little through the various floors, could test new games using the KINECT technology (and had much fun as you can see on the photos and video below) but in the end we came out a little frustrated about the whole thing; first because these new technologies were not so “instinctive” at all and easy to use, second, because we were not even one time given a glimpse of the craziness we were expecting to see or feel somehow. After all, isn’t technology a bit about “bizarre”, surprise, fun… MAGIC ?
Our third key “technology encounter” during this drifting through Madrid actually happened in Chueca, when we visited a very promising lighting store selling lasers, LED, and all kind of really nice lighting technology. Once again we spoke to the saleswoman and asked her about the newest technology in lighting, the really “next big thing” going to happen on this market. She was not really able to answer it. “It depends on which light you are talking about… I don’t know…”. And then she began to speak about the lighting technologies in a very technical way.
Couldn’t technology be actually FUN ? EASY TO UNDERSTAND ?
We also discovered very beautiful monuments during this drifting experience; we wandered idly in colorful streets and chatted….
While brainstorming together in a gluten free bakery around well-deserved coffees and cappuccino we came to one conclusion:
To people, technology is mainly about an object they can use to make everyday life easier. When it is broken they throw it away and buy the latest one. But they don’t really feel involved in the way it is produced by engineers and developers. They don’t have the impression they can have a personal impact on it. Maybe this is a key problem we have to think about…
How do we want to do it?
We are currently working on elaborating a clear idea which will have a lasting impact on the community. In order to create dynamics, we decided to continue to make personal contacts. It will be a crucial aspect of our project to create a sufficient community even before the event. Gabriel invited us to attend the next session of “Think commons”, a platform at Matadero to exchange ideas. In addition, we identified the community of Medialab-Prado and the University of Mondragon which is focusing on entrepreneurship, as an ideal target group. Meneame.net is a great platform to spread the word on a big scale.
How about other partners?
Another great discovery for us was Makespace, a community inventing hack space in Madrid. We contacted them to explore the possibility of a co-operation. Moreover, we identified Mahou and Community Brewery as potential catering partners. Another interesting contact might be red.es, the public corporate entity attached to the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism (MINETUR) which is responsible for promoting the development of the Information Society in Spain.
What can we offer to Medialab-Prado?
The overall goal is to let their projects grow by adding our media contacts and networks. We can also contribute by the introduction of big profile partners to raise awareness.
In our second meeting with Gabriel Lucas of the Medialab-Prado, we were finally able to present him our event idea. The feedback from an insider of the Madrid start-up scene was much appreciated and gave us some great further insights. Moreover, we are convinced to have found a valuable partner and friend supporting us on our next steps.
Gabriel liked our plan overall, but had some valid points we need to consider. These include how to identify and contact early adopters in Madrid as well as how to attract people in general.
2013/02/13
Second meeting with Gabriel
2013/02/25
Despite a very busy schedule, the CEO Miguel Angel Orellana of The Graffter took some time to welcome us in the holy halls of the accelerator Wayra. The Graffter is an Augmented Reality (AR) app currently in development. It remains to be very promising, also in anticipation of the release of Google Glasses. The video in the link below gives a snapshot of this fascinating AR technology and like the slogan truthfully states: Imagine the possibilities.
Meeting with "The Graffter" at Wayra
During the meeting we were pitching the values of our event, yet another time, and we were glad to encounter an open-mind. Unfortunately due to our time constraints and an unlucky timing (depending of the perspective ;)) The Graffter will not be able to participate with a beta-version of their app. As the event is only in two and half weeks time and many other important events are currently coming up and happening, such as the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
Nevertheless, the meeting was still a success in our opinion, as we now can better understand the different needs of start-ups in their different phases. In general terms, our major take-away was that our target group, that is to say start-ups right before / during their beta-phase, would highly prioritize trustworthy beta-testers over possible investors. Miguel explained that there are many platforms and events centered around investors, therefore our concept of a beta-experience seems very appealing. This affirms our feeling that New Mad Tech is on the right track and helps us streamline our value proposition.
We are grateful for the invaluable input and feedback we received during this one-hour lunch talk at Wayra.
Another lesson was learnt.
After having refined our event concept even further and now with a concrete action plan, we sat together with the minds behind Make-Space Madrid yesterday night - a community of visionary makers with a local reference and a mundane inspiration. Make-Space, as a start-up itself and ready to launch, seems to be the perfect sparring partner for our entrepreneurial adventure of a beta experience event. Thanks to Gabriel from the MediaLab Prado, who passed us the contact of Cesar Garcia Saez, we could make this fortunate encounter. 10 minds brought together through serendipity and an effectuation process. People, who share the common value and motivation of creating something and trying out new things in Madrid.
Our active minds also left our bodies thirsty, therefore we decided to hit a local bar in Lavapies to strengthen our newly made relationship with Make-Space. A relationship destined to last!
Meeting with the Maker's of "MakeSpace"
2013/02/26
We had a meeting on Friday afternoon with the two co-founders of Eye Qoala.
It took place at the ETSIT where the two entrepreneurs work daily on their project in the lively environment of the Complutense University of Madrid. It gave us the occasion to talk around a coffee and deepen our understanding of the technology they are developing and are possibly willing to commercialize soon. It is really key for us, now the event is growing closer, to make sure our vision of it matches their own (even though we still aim to surprise them a little bit). What kind of feedback are they expecting from the testing of their product? We also submitted our event planning ideas to them, in order to get a feedback and some suggestions on how to improve it.
We grabbed the opportunity to ask them some questions about the new-technology community dynamics in Madrid as well. They might have ideas on some other startups that could be interested in our event and willing to participate. The beginning of a new fruitful partnership…
A new partner : "eye Qoala"!
2013/03/01
A new powerhouse partner : "Fundación Créate"!
2013/03/08 - lunch time
Serendipity is probably the term that describes our meeting adequately in this instance. From idea to partnership in less than 24 hours, we had a great conversation and discovered the commonalities between the Fundación Créate and NewMadTech. We are very much looking for to the collaboration, as they will be a great contributor to the success of our event, thanks to their methodological & procedural skills, network and strong personalities. With our aligned goals, it was long overdue that we finally met this institution.
ser•en•dip•i•ty |ˌserənˈdipitē|
noun
the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way: a fortunate stroke of serendipity | a series of small serendipities
