The
Zeitgeist Media Conference at St. Xaviers
All Picture Credit - Zeitgeist Media Conference, St. Xaviers College, Facebook Page
All Picture Credit - Zeitgeist Media Conference, St. Xaviers College, Facebook Page
On the 8th and 9th
February 2014, I participated in the Zeitgeist Media Conference at the St Xaviers
College in Mumbai. There were panel discussions by eminent media
figures and entrepreneurs. They were three talks scheduled for the first day
and another seven talks scheduled for the second day.
I reached St Xaviers College by 2 pm for the
first talk of the day by Rocky and Mayur. They presented the food travel show
Highway on My Plate on the NDTV Good Times channel were the first speakers.
Learning points from their talk were:-
· No man is an island, find people and team that can take your vision
forward.
· Risk Appetite needed. Assess your skill sets and then go ahead and
take the risks needed.
· Differentiate yourself in your industry – There are 50,000 people
looking for the same job. How are you different?
· Be a purple cow and create cronuts (a doughnut and croissant combined)
· Whoever works hardest will not win. Whoever brings most value will
win.
Make music with the objects around you
Taufiq Qureshi an Indian classical musician and
composer was the next speaker. He spoke about the importance of sounds in
everyday communication. The talk was title sonic branding. Learning points
were:-
· Every brand has a sound we associate it with. The sound should be so
different that when people hear it they must listen.
· Sometimes the power is in saying less.
· Use Sound Percussions. Different types of sounds can be created. Not
necessary to create them from musical instruments only. You can use everyday
objects to create music as well.
He showed us some video advertisements he had worked
on and how he used everyday objects for some of his performances. This concept
of creating sound from everyday objects fascinated me. It was similar to being
able to learn from the world around you and not just from school. You don’t
have to create sound from musical instruments only. Similarly you do not have
to do all your learning at educational institutes only. You can learn from beyond as well. But the school still becomes one important aspect of your entire educational process.
P Sainath is a superstar journalist. He delivered the final lecture on the
first day. I had seen Mr Sainath’s movie, ‘Nero’s Guests’ at another conference
at St Xavier’s the previous year. He is an Indian journalist and
photojournalist focusing on social problems and rural affairs. This was a talk
I was really looking forward too. Mr P. Sainath was going to be speaking about
how contemporary media is not as honest as it seems and why major issues of the
country were not reported enough. Some of the main learning points I got from
here were:-
· Love your profession. Make sure it is what you always wanted to do.
· Specialize in one field in your industry. Do not try being good at too
many things.
· Conventional Journalism has become the service of power.
· Society needs to respect journalists more. Basic journalist earns as
much as a desk clerk.
· There is Paid News prevalent in popular media where a lot of the
content that appears in papers are paid for and people are not made aware of
it.
· Why were there 512 journalists to cover a fashion week event and only
6 journalists to covers suicide cases in the city.
· Great journalism always had a bit of dissidence.
There was a lot to take in, on the first day of
the conference. I was very impressed by P. Sainath’s talk that evening. I went home and saw another four hours of his
lectures online.
Let us Learn Together
Tweet @AbhishekShetty_
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