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[APPLAUSE]
Hello, everyone and welcome.
Welcome to Google.
How many of you found it slightly unnerving getting
into a lift today that didn't have any buttons to show where
the floors were?
I certainly did the first time I came here.
I heard the story about one visitor who was told, for a
joke, that they were voice-activated lifts.
So this guy got into the lift.
And he said very confidently, fifth floor, please.
Doors closed, go up, open on the seventh floor, he doesn't
know where he is.
So we're very glad that you all made it here to the ninth.
Delighted to see such a large and beautiful audience in
front in me.
My name is Dan Cobley.
I'm the managing director of Google here in the UK.
And I want welcome you today to this very first Think
Bigger event.
So this Think Bigger event is a first of a series of Think
events that will run throughout 2012.
And it's a big day today, personally, for me because
this is the first event that we've hosted since I took over
the role of UK MD, having spent five years in marketing
at Google before that.
It's a very big day for all of us here at Google in this
office, because this is the very first event we've had in
this building since we moved here a few months ago.
And it's the very first day that we've been on this floor.
So last time I came into this floor of the building, I was
wearing a hard hat and safety shoes.
So our production team, were definitely working to the wire
to get this ready for today's event.
And hopefully it will be a big day for you guys, too, a day
of big speakers, of big ideas, of big possibilities, and of
some connections and discussions you might have in
the breaks that will lead to big things for you all.
So the inspiration for the content today is largely taken
from Think Quarterly.
Here's one of our, the latest one.
So Think Quarterly is a publication that we put out
four times a year, as you might guess.
We have had editions on data, innovation, people, and speed.
And we'll be drawing from those subjects in the content
of today's sessions.
But we've also asked the speakers to look at the
content through the lens of the worsening economy that
we're in right now.
So in the UK and across Europe, as you know, the
economy is not looking so great.
However, I definitely think that we are in a two-speed
economy here in the UK.
And I'm not talking about the north south divide.
I'm not talking about the urban and rural split.
I'm talking about the difference between the
traditional offline economy and the
digital online economy.
So if you look back to Q4, high street sales in the UK
grew by about 3% year on year, a little
bit less than inflation.
Whereas e-commerce sales grew by about 24%.
If you look at the media marketplace, media growth in
the UK was 3.5% in 2011.
And it was about 16% for digital media.
And a recent study that was done by BCG showed that for
SMEs, for small businesses, that are significantly online,
they are growing four to eight times faster than their
offline counterparts.
So I believe that there is a two-speed
economy here in the UK.
There is the recession-bound, slow-growth, traditional
offline economy.
And there is the high-growth, high-opportunity, digital and
online economy.
And I believe that the more of your business, the larger
proportion of your business, that you can expose to that
digital economy, the more chance you guys have of
growing your businesses and prospering.
And one of the roles I see for Google here in the UK is to
try to be your partners and your guides in that journey,
in finding those digital opportunities and
possibilities and leading you to make the most of them.
So that's pretty much it for me in the introduction.
Our first speaker in a moment is somebody who helped found
lastminute.com and is the UK government's digital champion.
So she knows a few things about helping to transform
businesses and people's lives through digital.
It's Martha Lane Fox, very happy to have her here.
She's going to be interviewed by Peter Barron.
Peter Barron is our Director of External Relations and a
former editor of the Newsnight program.
So they'll be on stage in a moment.
But as well as being informative and educational,
we'd like today to be interactive and fun.
And so to try and get us all in the right mood for that
sense for the rest of the day, I'd like to invite on stage
Kirk Vallis from What If!
And I'll put you in his capable and very large hands
for a little warm up.
Thank you, Kirk.
[APPLAUSE]