Shazam’s Chris Barton, on stage at Global IAA „Creativity4Better” conference

Cristina Blanaru Business, Events, Marketing, People

Chris Barton is entrepreneur, co-founder and Board Director at Shazam, expert in mobile apps. His presence on the stage of IAA Global Conference „Creativity4Better”, along with an impressive number of global leaders from innovation and tech, creates the exposure frame for the theme the conference has this year: innovation culture.

Chris Barton launched Shazam in 1999, starting from the original idea of helping users identifying a song from radio or from public space with the help of a mobile phone. Before smartphones, there was a way to find the title of a song, namely calling a number and bringing the receiver close to the radio. At the launch, the song database from Shazam was of 2 million songs and the identification process was lasting 15 seconds.

Starting 2008, with the launch of smartphones and Shazam’s listing in app stores, the app saw a huge expansion, being used on day to day basis today by over 1BN people and storing over 30M songs.

After selling the company to Apple, Chris Barton continues his activity in another niche, the entrepreneurial one. Today, he is consultant and investor for tech startups, and continues to be Board Director at Shazam.

His professional background, as founder and leader Shazam, Mobile Strategist for Google and Dropbox or counselor for tech start-ups recommend him as a real innovator and a person that knows the mobile apps consumers.

Along with Chris Barton, „Creativity4Better” will also have on stage the legendary designer Karim Rashid, o Jacques Seguela, founder RSCG and Chief Creative Officer for over 25 years, Mailine Swildens, Google Director ZOO EMEA, Rory Sutherland, Vice-Chairman Oglivy UK & TED Talks superstar, Bruno Bertelli, Global Chief Creative Officer Publicis Worldwide and most awarded Italian creative in the world, Geoffrey Hantson, Creative Officer Happiness.

The conference is an international event organized by IAA Romania, will take place at National Opera in Bucharest on October 17th and the tickets can be bought on www.creativity4better.com and are Euro 315 (+VAT) for IAA members.