Those of you at Web 2.0 this afternoon didn’t see me on the "What Teens Want" panel. They invited about twice the number of folks who would actually be on the panel so that beforehand they could survey people and pick a representative mix to go on-stage. As I listened to my fellow teens go around the table backstage it was yet another reminder that I may be 17 but I’m far removed from teen culture (by choice!). I don’t use MySpace. I don’t IM. I don’t watch TV. I don’t spend $50/mo on ringtones. As Safa said afterwards, I’m a "sophisticated" user of the ‘net; I probably represent 1% of the teen market, and that’s not very helpful for marketers! So, I kindly accepted $100 for showing up and then hung around for the remaining sessions, including a solid chat with Pierre Omidyar who articulated his vision – which I already knew and support – about empowering individuals to make a social impact in for-profit businesses.
It was fun meeting for the first time people I know through the blogosphere such as David Beisel, Renee Blodgett, Tony Gentile, Jeff Clavier, and Patrick Norton (who interviewed me on TechTV a couple years ago).
Sounds a lot like Zach’s experience!