My refresher on the things that matter.

First coffee in hand.

Luke Van O – Saffron

I walked away from this talk, thinking “I want to work with you or for you.”

Luke presented a million and one reasons why branding studios should change their ways tomorrow or even better now. The mix of traditional brand hierarchies, strategy frameworks and set and forget attitudes, is a death warrant for brand agencies. Brands aren’t standing still so neither should we.

Luke explains it best himself:

• Current state of branding and brand agencies — 
  “We’re building towers of sand. Underwater. In a river.”
• What we don’t want to become — 
  “Only 61 of the companies in 1955 Forbes 500 are still there today…because they didn’t change.”
• Our choice is to be — 
  A “Disruptor” or be “Disrupted.”
• But there is hope — 
  “…we can only survive disruption by having flexible foundations.”
• Next steps — 
  “Figure out what you’re trying to achieve, then map out how to get there. Once you’re underway question everything; especially what you’re trying to achieve, and how you’re going to get there.”
• Or else–
  “How adaptable your branding agency is to change will define how long it lives too.”

Second coffee.

Rhys Hayes – IE Agency

Sorry I missed most of this one because I was waiting for my second free coffee. Certainly getting my money’s worth.

The one thing that stood out, Rhys has been through few rollercoasters. It’s worth paying attention of what he does next.

Follow IE agency on Twitter: @IEagency and join the Silicon Block Party

The one thing that makes storytelling great.

Storytelling Panel – Joel Beath, James Bush and Chris Panzetta.

Great storytelling is the centre of everything we do. Lots of great points, but this hit the nail on the head:

“Not just immersive but present”

Create an experience where the audience is present. An experience that bleeds and blends into their daily life without seeing the seams on the edges.

When my stomach started rumbling…

Alice Kimberley – Vice Media

Reporting on the new frontier of female culture, Alice took the stage by storm. Her cropped hair and skater dress bought her colourful and determined opinions home.

The Australian youth culture we represent in media, marketing and advertising is not any where close to reality.

This is really what’s going down:

• What the hell are we doing…
  “We cut down our exemplary women just as they’re about to get big.”
• Bye bye Kimmy…
  “Death of star power” because “our heros are now our friends.” The new hero is defined by accessibility.
• Hipster, wife, gothic, supermom are just labels…
  Australian women’s “identity is fluid and interchangeable” not defined by one sup-genre or label. We are no longer defined by a predetermined subset, its now a lot more complex. Our job is to look past the stereotypes.
• For when the rest of Australia catches up check out:
  https://broadly.vice.com

Burger, I can smell burgers…

Finbar O Hanlon

Lived up to his represent as the ‘Rockstar of Technology’, certainly has the hair for it.

Here’s his 5 tools to keeping you innovating through the ages:

• Curiosity cured the cat:
  Ask yourself 100 questions a day, really question the things you take for granted.
• Learning to unlearn
  The defendant in the case, build an opposing view to your own opinion
• Creating the box
  In order to think beyond “outside the box”, you need to create the box first. Ask yourself what is the box, what are the rules…
• Back to the future
  The power of reverse engineering. Focus on the output and then works backwards.
• Attenborough aspect
  Observe everything outside of yourself and the industry. Find parallels and apply them to your problem.

Is that girl’s necklace made out of candy…

Tim Devine & Lindsay Lim – DT Digital

Great points on how to make Agile work in a real environment. Collaboration and getting the team on board are they key. Not much notes other than that, I had waited way too long for some food…

Well fed and ready for the next half.

Janis Lacey, Kaine Whiteway & ‎David Roper – Crumpler

Surprising everyone, and a great kick-off into the next half, David and his team made a Crumpler bag right in front of us out of his jacket. Plus there is even more, they gave the Crumpler pattern to us for free.

This was a truly an honest demonstration of business transparency.

Pitch-fest.

Social Traders & social entrepreneurs pitching their hearts out.

This was a lesson in how to pitch right in 3 minutes.

• Get the audience to give a damn about you and your pitch.
• Make them laugh, even if it is at you.
• Drive your point home, what can we do about it?

Congratulations to the winner, Eric Agyeman from PVBS. Get a #swaggy jacket and help kids get an education. http://www.pvbs.co/

The BIG side note for the day.

Jon Gold – The Grid

My job, as I know it, won’t exist in the near future…

The Grid promises to replace the need for website designers. It is a publishing tool that builds or designs (depending on how you look at it) websites, powered by AI. It picks type, colour and layouts for you, it makes the design process look like a breeze.

My first thoughts as Jon came on stage were ones of loathing. This was a guy taking work away from me, saying that my job as a designer can be done by a machine.

Giving him a good stinky eye from the back of the auditorium, I started to form insults in my head. But I…***PAUSED***….this was day I was taking a break from the ordinary and taking the chance to step outside my comfort zone and listen. I parked my thoughts and took it all in.

Jon had a point. Too much of our time is spent on artworking. Why are we doing this work when a machine could do it faster and maybe better. The Grid, is a tool, that businesses and designers should be using to create content and websites faster. It frees designers to do other things, higher concepts, create new systems and generate new ideas…

Despite my first repulsions, The Grid is an opportunity to create new jobs and evolve rather than the opposite.

Find out more here: https://thegrid.io/

Third coffee.

Closing Thoughts

My to do list for the near future…

• Listen more – listen to podcasts, my husband more, chitter chatter on the street and on the tram. Just aim to not zone out, be present and be the Attenborough of my world.
• Find new heroes – for too long my heroes have been the design celebrities of the world, Paul Rand, Steve Jobs etc. I’m taking a big leap and looking into new ones.
• Pause now and then — as the conference name suggests, I’m going to add more pause to my day. Really look whats going on. I pledge myself not to get stuck in my own world.