Technorati Tags: conference, web2.0

More in English.

This past weekend, starting last Thursday actually, there was a dual convention — an A/V festa and a musical instruments fair, both at the Yokohama Pacifico. Fortunately I was able to go on Thursday for work, so the crowd was manageable. I had a long entry brewing in my head, but the system downage has exhausted the excitement so I’ll just keep this short. The coolest part was perhaps seeing the soon-to-be-released Technics digital turntables up close. The mixer is also new, and the whole setup can be connected digitally. The demos by local DJs were quite good; I’ve got a few short video clips which I’ll post in a bit. The other note worthy part of the A/V festa was how much Any Music was being pushed. Any Music is a new music-downloading service which you access via proprietary hardware very similar to your current shelf stereo systems. Involved companies include Denon, Kenwood, Onkyo, Pioneer, Sharp, Sony, Victor/JVC, Yamaha and a few others. Each company makes their own hi/fi system with an RJ45 jack in the back to connect to the service. I tried to take one picture of each brands’ Any Music system; they all have speakers and a little lcd monitor. It’s basically your next-generation audio system for the average consumer (though only in Japan for now). Audio-related companies in Japan are clearly afraid of Microsoft’s Windows Media Player framework, though perhaps similarly so of Apple’s iTunes success. Unfortunately, I can’t agree their answer is any better. But only time will tell. At the moment, it’s simply another “module” to plug into your PSX.

If you like acoustic guitar of a more relaxing nature, I also recommend Al Petteway’s works. I’m still surprised he isn’t more well-known, but perhaps that’s to Al’s liking. I got a chance to meet him purely by coincidence at a D.C. music festival during my summer with The Fool. He was a nice guy with some serious technique.

It was clear she was very adept at public speaking when she opened her talk by asking 7 people (including me!) in the front rows to pick their favorite character from her book. (Without an English translation of her book it was difficult to comment, so I had to pass :) This opening tactic of course keeps attendants on their toes, as nobody knew who was next. She also tailored her analogies with the audience in mind; a predominantly male-oriented audience (though unfortunate) meant sports analogies (hm, but Sony employees? :) should suffice. On the subject of mentoring and leadership, for example, sports have coaches, so why shouldn’t businesses? (Keep in mind we’re talking about Japanese corporations here — many of these topics will seem obvious to those familiar with American corporate culture). But she took it a step further — those eloquent with words and language will be better mentors and leaders (”言語感覚の無い人はコーチになれない”). A soccer coach who says “Keep your eyes on the ball” is teaching nothing.

At times throughout her lecture it seemed her words were better suited for “upper management,” to those who should open their eyes a bit more for new ideas sprouting up through the younger generations. This was also evidenced during the Q&A session, when numerous younger employees — including a new employee from April — mentioned their dissappointment with current bosses and managers.

Mastunaga-san commented a few times about the importance of revenge, and the effect it has on helping ideas succeed. She was going after the oft-discussed angle on how desparation makes or breaks a project, but when it makes, it makes big-time. The revenge part was interesting — all three main characters in the iMode debacle had failed spectacularly in their previous occupations, so there was a particular sense of urgency. This sense of urgency is sorely lacking in many Japanese companies.

While talking about the success of the mobile phone, and the challenges in coming up with applications other than simply “just for talking”, she quoted well known author Inoue Hisashi, who apparently said (but never wrote down):

This roughly translates to “Make difficult things easy, make easy things with meaning, and make meaningful things fun”.

And finally, it was particularly amusing to hear her take on what each decade of one’s life represents. Matsunaga-san is particularly young for her accomplishments — only in her early to mid 40s. After a question from the audience by a female who was frusterated figuring out what to do with her life, here’s how Matsunaga-san laid out the generations:

• The 20s are career assessment
• The 30s are for focusing, challenging, and war
• The 40s are for career rebuilding

For her, each decade was more fun and exciting than the previous, so she’s banking on her 50s being even more so. The ‘war’ angle was interesting; perhaps it’s time I get back to reading a little Sun-Tzu.

As we approach half a century since the last Olympics in Tokyo, I predict that Tokyo will again — or at least a major metropolitan area in Japan — bid to host one of the next 3 Summer Olympics; that means in either 2016, 2020, or 2024. The 2008 Olympics in Beijing will be a good practice run as all of the new hotels and “shopping campuses” currently announced will be completed by 2007.