IBM
IBM is a Fortune 500 technology company operating in 170 countries, but based in America. I actually grew up around IBM thanks to my dad who's worked there for 35+ years now. So getting the opportunity to collaborate with such a long standing company with a rich history was a humbling experience.
Think is IBM's new annual business and technology event where 30,000 people gather to learn and make the world of business work smarter. For Think 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, I worked together with IBM's Social Discipline team to capture visuals and highlight compelling stories of innovators and machines alike to showcase across @IBM's social channels on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram.
The people who attended are changing the world across every industry imaginable and it was an honor to capture these innovations and thinkers. I'm not sure I'll ever understand things like lattice cryptography or blockchain. But one thing I will walk away with after this week is a deeper understanding of the exponential growth of technology and the creative geniuses who bring it all to life and make it safe and accessible for all.
My favorite part of this project was photographing a behind the scenes look at IBM's new campaign "Let's put smart to work." Set up on the conference was a live portrait studio with Ogilvy. Their team would interview innovators present at the conference, take a portrait, edit and create the banner with how the innovator is putting "smart to work" and place it live on the biggest billboard on the Las Vegas strip minutes later. Pretty amazing! You'll see the photos from that below.
For this project our team delivered 3 Instagram Stories and 2 feed posts during the event. My contribution was primarily through providing images for use.
“Paul has a knack for connecting with audiences emotionally through his craft. His creative work whether it’s photography, video, or just coming up with ideas is only one reason I like Paul. As a social media native, the work feels naturally at home on the channels we’re trying to cut through on and he just has a heart for people that you can see in the way he builds relationships in the creative community and works with Clients to bring their stories to life.”
Social Media Coverage
Posts from @IBM featuring our team's work.
Gallery
Below you'll find a collection of images and then separate galleries for each topic.
Images from 5 in 5
Images from Portrait Story
Images from Think
Paul Tellefsen is an entrepreneur and brand strategist with over 15 years of experience. Known digitally as technopaul, he is a social media native and pioneer of digital community who has helped author the story of people and brands like Socality, Land Rover, Paul Brandt, IBM, Superdry, Basecamp Resorts and Ford through brand development, community development and photography. With a degree in Emerging Media and Communication, Paul believes that people and stories have the power to unite us through innovating digital and analog connection.