EUROPE - A speech highlighting the importance of face-to-face "tacit" knowledge was one of the highlights of the recent UFI Open Seminar in Europe, in Sweden.
The event at the MalmöMässan, Malmö, which recently hosted the Eurovision Song Contest, welcomed more than 150 delegates from 21 countries on 17-19 June.
Kjell Nordström, author and business guru, kicked off the main proceedings with a thought-provoking session on how individuals with endless choice dominate the so-called “karaoke economy".
He said that the value of “articulate knowledge”, easily available to the public on smartphones, will decrease rapidly, and will in turn reach zero.
He estimated that in 15 years, phones will hold 500 billion songs, 30,000 years of news, and 40,000 years of film.
As a result, "tacit knowledge", fed by human collaboration will be a necessity.
This was followed by workshops led by trainer and consultant Simon Naudi, the CEO of Answers Training International, challenging delegates on how little floorplans have changed since their conception, and how networking is still the key to any show.
It was also announced that next year’s UFI Open Seminar will be in St Petersburg hosted by Expoforum from 30 June to July 2.
Andrés Lopez-Valderrama will become UFI president in November 2013. The association’s presidential term builds on a three-year cycle - one year as incoming-president, and one year as immediate past-president.
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