This weekend New York is home to Rhizome's Seven on Seven conference. Now in its fourth year, the event pairs up seven leading artists with seven thought-leading technologists to collaborate on seven projects. W+K has been involved with the event since its inception and this year is no exception.

2013 boasts a particularly strong line up of participants with a wealth of talent across both the art and technology disciplines.

Last night, sponsors HTC came together with Yahoo! News and others patrons to host a dinner in the Sky Room at the New Museum. This marked the first time that many of the 14 talented individuals had met and prompted excitement about how they plan to collaborate – and what output they might create.

Intimate dining against the backdrop of the Manhattan skyline…

After an early morning briefing today, the teams of two have spent the morning hard at work, blending their skills. 

Hacker and engineer Harper Reed is working with Mexican-Canadian artists Rafael Lozano at W+K's New York office today, developing something special to unveil to the 450+ audience who will gather tomorrow at the Tishman Auditorium to see the fruits of the teams' labour. And to top that, there will be a keynote speech from Evgeny Morozov, author of 'The Net Delusion' and 'To Save Everything, Click Here'.

You can follow the event via #7on7HTC and also check back tomorrow for updates on all the presentations. All in all it promises to be a super informative day, sparking debate and blending the world of the two disciplines.

Early on, a creative team told me that
brands are like people, with unique personalities that slowly shift and evolve.
It’s an idea I like very much (momentarily generating a fantasy brand-world where Nike meets up with Honda and Three for a natter every Wednesday afternoon, Stride and Lurpak play tennis together, etc etc).

Certainly, each account I’m introduced to feels different – different pace,
different time-frame, different concepts at work. That means, obviously, a
different approach to the research required – from quick turnaround 2-hour
tasks to much longer month-long projects. That variation is, in itself, something I am learning to adapt to.

In that vein of things, it's worthwhile pointing out that one of the best things about the internship so far is the exposure to the accounts, big and small, that I've had. It’s a great way to get a sense of the fabric of an agency, as diverse as it is, and it
means that I’ve been able to see how a wide variety of markets function. Which is good
brain food. Om nom nom.

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(Thoughts courtesy of Planning Placement newbie James.)