Never.no Scott Davies CEO
What was your biggest lesson in 2020? Prior to the pandemic, we travelled the world to do business, but we’ve realised that we can work remotely – and it works! There’s been a huge shift in mentally, which has enabled us to work, create new business, interact with staff and generally manage a business from the comfort of our home. Not only are we getting a work-life balance back, but we’re also seeing clients continue to produce captivating content, and it’s even delivered remotely! What was your proudest moment? It’s been a particularly proud moment to see the Never.no team working so hard throughout the year. We’ve innovated and functioned naturally, adapted to new workflows with ease and strived to support our clients and developed our content management platform Bee-On. Looking back over the year, we’ve worked with some of the biggest broadcasters and brands across the globe, including Sky Sports, SBS, Channel 10 and ITV, supporting audience engagement for shows, such as The Martin Lewis Money Show and a range of football projects for the Premier League and A-League football clubs. Plus, we’ve produced and delivered virtual music events, featuring cloud graphics, audience-generated content and real-time polls – safe to say, it’s been an action-packed year!
Iconik Mike Szumlinski CCO
What was your biggest lesson in 2020? I think the importance of agility has just been reinforced for me. This year has taught me that the unexpected is going to happen. That means if you can’t be dynamic in the way you work, you’ll have a hard time weathering storms. I’ve learned to design work with dynamic processes, so I can change in a moment, without breaking the core processes. What was your proudest moment? For me personally, I installed a retro arcade into my truck and I haven’t had to shave once this year. But the proudest moments came from seeing our team at Iconik help our customers adjust to remote working with video, when they didn’t have a choice. That, and the fact that our company has been able to care for our team and remain stable through all the uncertainty of 2020. What will December 2021 be like for your business? I really hope that we will be celebrating every major media outlet using Iconik to some degree. Iconik has been growing a lot in 2020. We know that maintaining the same rapid growth month after month with a high retention rate is more challenging as a company grows, but this is our main focus going into 2021. Personally, I believe we’re going to nail it! What one piece of media tech do you wish someone would invent? I’d love to see a solid AI solution for rough cutting. There are some basic solutions available now, but none of them are really good enough. It’s a matter of time until AI can build an entire timeline, when given a description of what you want to achieve and a directory of media. That’s going to be a huge win for the industry.
What will December 2021 be like for your business? By December 2021, we hope to be past the pandemic and working within a new progressive and open-minded industry. As mentioned,
we’ve had to adapt in so many new and innovative ways and meet rapidly evolving trends, with media workflows, content creation and media consumption. We have exciting plans for our cloud-based content management platform, Bee-On, that will continue to support broadcasters, digital content providers and brands’ needs to enhance audience engagement like never before. The year 2020 was the catalyst for the adoption of cloud-based solutions, so we expect to see an almost fully virtualised and connected industry. What one piece of media tech do you wish someone would invent? Technology that enhances and delivers a more immersive, shared sporting experience with friends and family at home. Virtual headsets have been around for years, but I’d love the tech to evolve and be more wearable and lighter. We’d then see software and apps being developed to immerse family and friends into sporting situations. Imagine sitting in your living room, watching the Olympics and sharing that experience with your best mate, in the stadium, but on the other side of the world. Sports are a global phenomenon and should be shared together. Best thing(s) you watched this year? The Mandalorian . Although it came out in November 2019, I’ve since watched it again in preparation for Season 2!
What’s the best thing(s) you’ve seen this year? With people quarantining in place, the animals seem to be taking back territory and my dogs are having a hard time with this. One day, I was able to witness a deer jump into my yard where my dogs were and they just stared it with no idea what to do. That was pretty funny.
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