I am sort of live blogging LeWeb2012. Which means I am switching back and forth among the blog, Google+ and Twitter. This means poorly written posts, for which I apologize in advance.
Jamie Oliver is on stage at LeWeb London 2012. I am surprised to see him here at an internet conference, but it turns out he’s a great fan of and user of Instagram. He’s surprised to be here, too. He says conferences lie this are a “natural filter.”
Oliver is telling Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s founder and Loic le Meur. Le Web’s impresario, that his job is to disrupt the food industry, which he says is as corrupt and as large as the arms industry or the oil industry. He broadcasts in 80-130 countries, depending on the project, and feels he’s running a food revolution. He says there is new money coming into broadcast, although not into conventional TV, and in the next three years big things will happen.
Oliver believes consumers will change behavior if given good information, and uses the example of pink slime, and how when he explained what it was to his audiences, companies like McDonalds were forced to change their policies. He calls what he is doing “facilitated activism.”
“We’re all on a journey. Forms of interrogation are all positive, ” Oliver says. “we have tons of information about public health, but few people are doing anything about it. Great decisions in the world will be changed by people in halls like these with their smartphones and tablets.Honest and genuine communication goes a long way” . He also said building his app totally changed his business.
It’s nice to hear Oliver say that he just wants his son to grow up healthy and happy, and not try to change the world or get funding or anything meta like that.
