I really don't know how this happened. I never expected the BBC to be remotely interested in what I had to say about the world of broadcast. Yet, they asked me to speak about what I would do if they were to give me my very own channel. Who was I to refuse?
Dave Birss, BBC Online Briefing Guest Speaker tackling innovation for digital TV channels
I don't claim to be an expert on broadcast. I'm a jack of all trades who works across a whole bunch of media channels including The Drum magazine, ESI Media and OneDayCodeSchool.com. I speak at conferences all over the world. So you'll understand, I have no idea how to introduce myself at dinner parties. (Therefore, it's probably quite fortunate that I rarely get invited to any.)
I decided to tackle the topic from an innovation point of view. If I had my own channel, I'd want it to be breaking new ground and zigging when everyone else zags. So that became my channel's remit.
I used a classic innovation technique of listing assumptions and then destroying them. For this talk, I only had time to address four broadcast assumptions. And I came up with three ideas for each one. Some of the ideas were fresher than others - but it was more about the principles than the resulting executions. However, judging by conversations afterwards, it seemed that a few of my suggestions had already sparked some ideas.
This talk was really about provoking debate and challenging people's thinking. So this seems like a good forum to continue the conversation. Please feel free to use the comments to add to the thinking and blow up even more assumptions.
Thank you BBC for inviting me to speak. Now where's my channel?
Dave Birss is an Innovation Consultant and Presenter, Additive
