John was one of 12 presenter/mentors at the June 2011 XMedia Lab Global Media Ideas conference at the Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia.

John’s speech was entitled 21st Century Citizenship in the Digital Age, and presented thoughts for how digital technology, the internet and social media have brought about key paradigm shifts in the way we work together. Innovative business ideas are great, but it is our relationships with one another, including and beyond the screens, that help us not only balance our lives, but achieve our goals.

The speech was heavily tweeted, including such lines as “An audience will stand by and watch you fail. A community will stand up and help you succeed” “Transparency…works for everyone’s success,” and “An attitude of service takes our ego out of the equation, and brings us present to do our best work.”

The conference drew an amazing group of international creative and business visionaries, including Martyn Ware, co-founder of British rock group The Human League, and Vesna Petresin-Robert, digital artist and partner in London-based design studio Rubedo.

Other presenters included Norwest Ventures partner Tim Chang, Tokyo mobile technology consultant Kei Shimada, Gowalla BizDev partner Andy Ellwood, and China Idol producer Eric Zho(pictured here with John and journalist Sonia Caeiro).