Introducing Uenoland

Ueno’s first “conference” is coming to Brooklyn on May 2–4, 2019.

Ladies and gentlefolk, step right up. Uenoland is coming.

Part “conference,” part vaudeville show, it’s Ueno’s first event of this kind, and we’re doing it because … well, we’ll get to that in a little bit.

First I want to give you the quick hits. Just the facts ma’am. The things you need to know. I won’t drag it out. Or add a lot of words that aren’t needed. I’ll get straight to the point. Use Occam’s razor and just slice this thing into the bare essentials. No fuss, no muss. I won’t write things just to write them, or to fill up a word count.

Nope, not me. I’ll just get right in there, to the heart of the matter. Just start with the highlights. The things you absolutely can’t live without knowing. No fat, no extra sauce, no potatoes or veggies or all that other stuff, just the meat.

Maybe meat is the wrong word? Some people don’t eat meat. I’m actually one of them. Well, depends on how you define it. I do eat some types of meat. I’m not a strict vegetarian, I have some cheats. I’ve tried but I just haven’t gotten all the way there.

It all started about 15 years ago. I had this cat and I just started thinking, wait, why am I eating meat, I might as well be eating this cat. And I don’t know about you but I don’t think eating your own pets is very kuul.

How do you like that I write kuul? You might know it as “cool” but I just think that’s such an unkuul way to write that word. So I’m trying this new thing. It might catch on. Maybe not. Not everything in life works out.

Take this article for example. It was supposed to be about an event and now I’ve just completely ruined it by writing about some random things.

Ok, let’s get back on track.

What?

Uenoland is a “conference.” It’s a place where you go to unlock your creativity. It’s a place where magic happens. Both literally and figuratively. The speakers will be from different backgrounds.

We are finalizing the speaker list now and will share it very soon. The people we are talking to are designers and developers, comedians and rappers, shark photographers and pirates. What they all have in common is that they make something.

Where and when?

Uenoland is happening in Williamsburg, Brooklyn this May 2–4. It will be at the beautiful A/D/O space.

Why?

Now that the what, where and when is out of the way I want to talk about the most important part, the why.

And to explain that I first need to talk about the aspirations of Ueno as a company.

Our main focus to date has been on creating digital things. Apps, websites. A couple of years ago we started to get deeper into branding. We also added a content team to create videos, photos, animations, 3D.

All of these things are great. We are very good at them and we will absolutely continue on with digital as our core focus for the foreseeable future.

But ultimately I don’t believe in building a company around a specific deliverable. A website is a deliverable. An iOS app is a deliverable. At some point both of those will change drastically.

I can’t say I’m smart enough to say what exactly will happen in the future, but I can say that I’m old enough to say that the only constant I’ve ever seen is change.

Ok, that all sounds great but what’s the point?

We want to build a company that lasts for a very long time. We’re here for the long haul. And to do that we can’t build our core strengths around specific deliverables. We can’t just be the best app company. Or the best website company. That will make us obsolete. I don’t know exactly when but there’s no doubt it will happen in the next thousand years. Maybe even sooner?

For Ueno to survive we need to think bigger. Our core strength needs to be solving complex problems using creative ideas.

Some people call it design thinking, but that’s a bit of a buzz word and it’s also too limiting.

But whatever you call it, the thing we need to ultimately become very good at is taking on any type of complex problem and figuring out the best way to solve it. Totally independent of the deliverable.

Since we started we’ve experimented with all sorts of things.

Some of them have worked out great and some have failed completely. But that’s the exciting part about experiments, the unknown. If we knew exactly how they turned out it wouldn’t be an experiment.

In the early days of Ueno we started to do what eventually became Chatty Hours. It’s been a great way to meet and learn from all sorts of people. We now have them monthly in each of our offices.

We’ve explored things like ueno.design. We did ueno.store which we will soon re-launch with items we created ourselves.

We’ve created an international superstar in Tory Satins. We created a 3D interview that made no sense to some people. We’ve worked with all sorts of artists to create Ueno art. We’ve designed and built our own offices.

All of these have been small steps in the same direction. We are a company of ideas. We are a company that can tackle different creative areas and deliver something that is (hopefully) great.

That’s where Uenoland comes in. It’s probably our biggest experiment so far.

“We don’t know if this will be the first and only Uenoland or if this will be the first of many. It could be a train wreck or it could be a moon shot. If Fyre Festival taught us anything it’s that either way, it will be a blast.”
— a quote from me

But why should I go?

That’s a good question. You have limited time, limited money. Why should you spend it to go to this event?

To be honest, I don’t know you that well. We just met. But from our brief encounter I know you are an iconoclast, a renaissance human, a “thinker,” an explorer of ideas, a believer in the theory of everything.

You want to be inspired, you want to meet amazing people in one of the best cities in the world. You want to take a short break from your every day life and come back rejuvenated, exploding with creativity.

I say all this fully knowing that you are not someone that gets fooled by flattery while also being super smart and having probably the best personalities I’ve ever experienced.

And for a person like that there is no better place than Uenoland. Get your super cheap early bird ticket now.

Haraldur Thorleifsson — he hopes he’s pronouncing that correctly — is Ueno’s founder and CEO. But that should probably be clear by now.

Like to wear red tracksuits to work? Because Ueno is hiring.

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