I recently visited the ‚Next Web‘ conference that took place in Amsterdam. Overall it was a great conference and I recommend it for anybody who wants to learn what will be hot and ‘next’ in terms of startups.

One speech that I can recommend was given by Gabe Zicherman on Gamification. Gamification is the concept of applying game mechanics such as rewards, status, instant feedback etc. to real world challenges such as training, website engagement, and even speed limit control. Gabe gives entertaining and deep insights into the matter. Watch the full talk (!) here on the conference website.

The conference also had a place for start-ups to share new technologies, which was particularly interesting for me. I have listed four different startups here that could be of interest for leaders. Not all will be easily implementable in large corporations. However, it does provide us with insights to a few of the current trends and possibilities.

Canvasdropr (www.canvasdropr.com)

My personal favorite of the conference because they promise to solve a very real problem: Have you ever wanted to share a video in a web presentation? Often pretty cumbersome if not impossible. Canvasdropr allows you to do that and much more. By working on a blank canvas that is shared, all visuals and videos can be dragged from e.g. YouTube on the canvas. Recommended specifically for creative & visual teams…but any team with visuals to share can benefit from the technology.

Infogram (www.infogr.am)

Have you noticed the trend to show & share info graphics, these cool-looking one-page data visualizations? I have always wondered how to create this on my own, nicely designed without going to a designer or spending significant amount of money on it. The startup Infogram lets you create your own info graphics based on their nicely designed templates. Nice to present e.g. on a website or in a report or ppt.

Meetin.gs (www.meetin.gs)

This one is on meeting organization. Probably not so much for company teams but more suited to freelance groups and consultants. It makes cross-organization meetings run efficiently as you can link into all social media profiles of a person and as a result can rely less on the email issue. Nice and easy tool. For me, one step further would be to have integration with doodle.com, the platform where you can align on best meeting times.

Overall, it is interesting to see the underlying trends that are changing the way we work, and subsequently the way we will have to lead.