It’s a wee while ago now, but Social Media Week was a big success for us. We did over 20 presentations during the course of the week and invited several guests to speak too.

This was a great experience fort he team; getting everyone thinking about what social media means for individuals and businesses now, as well as visualising what the future holds.

I was pretty busy, leading a presentation on the psychology of social media and another on how crowd involvement will evolve brands in the coming years.

• Read the Psychology presentation
• Watch the Psychology presentation Livestream
• Read the Brand Meme presentation
• Watch the Brand Meme Livestream

These are both subjects that I feel strongly about. As a designer I am passionate about working collaboratively with other experts to create online social environments that are a force for good. As an agency person, I’m fascinated by the idea that the future of branding, as with corporate reputation, could be in the hands of the impassioned customer.

The psychology evening was a great success. I invited a few friends to join me on the stage, each brought a unique perspective to the subject. Craig Hepburn, Global head of Digital and social media at Nokia talked about how Nokia is applying a wider view on social networking tools – creating enablers that can transform peoples lives in developing countries.

Catriona Campbell, Founder of Foviance, the international customer experience agency, explained social media from the perspective of the generation that has grown up with it.

Lauren Wagner, graduate of Oxford Internet Institute, talked about her exploration into the power of social media to tackle the one of the worlds biggest social problems – depression. She described how social media can not only help people connect, it can make those connections more rewarding.

All in all it was a fascinating week. I hope that we can do it again next year (although I might not leave my preparation until the last minute next time. Who am I kidding…)

Today I did an Equator Academy on Brainstorming. 

Take a look at the presentation

We do a lot of coming up with ideas here and I felt strongly that we could do it better with a few simple guidelines distilled from the ton of information that’s out there.

Brainstorming is one of those things that everyone thinks they know how to do but few few do well. I like to think that we do it pretty well at the moment but could do it even better.

I have beg, stolen and borrowed from around the web to create this presentation which I hope neatly describes the most important tools that we employ when doing brainstorms.

I hope you find it useful too.

Here are a few of the things I looked at when putting this together. Very useful reading when you’re preparing to do a brainstorming session:

• Warm-ups
• More warm-ups
• Brilliant Frog Design presentation about brainstorming (blatantly plagarised, sorry!)
• Ways to suck at brainstorming
• Some good notes from IDEO
• The paperclip story – an amazing true story that shows the power of lateral thinking
• Really good article on idea generation and block busting
• The brilliant book Gamestorming by Dave Gray; Sunni Brown; James Macanufo
• And finally… the brainstorming song that my son Stanley loves - Imagination Movers!

I don’t pretend that this is the be-all-and-end-all of brainstorming. Please add a comment if you can share anything that you think makes for brilliant brainstorming.

I had a brilliant visit to Fish In A Bottle on Monday to talk to them about what we do at Equator.

Justin, their MD (He’s standing behind me on the San Fran Tram two posts down the page), came with me on the Cross Creative outing to San Francisco and we agreed on return that one of the things we’d take home was Facebook’s programme of bringing in external speakers to inspire the team. I agreed to speak at Fish In A Bottle, if Justin would reciprocate.

On monday, I did my bit. The idea was to introduce our integrated design approach and talk a bit about what I’ve learnt works and what doesn’t. The presentation is in the form of a series of challenges that every good integrated design team should be working to (of course ours already are!):

Launch the presentation

Thanks to everyone at Fish In A Bottle for your hospitality (especially Justin!).

I hope you like the presentation, if you don’t agree with something, drop a comment.

Responsible Capitalism

or

How to re-invent the way business works so that it does some good along the way

There was a strong message at the TEDx Oxbridge that to change the world we must change business.

Business as unusual

It’s no longer enough to make money. The world is too interconnected for this to be a long term plan for the future. This is a good thing. The fact that the technology that brings us all together, (to play farmville amongst other things) is having an effect so profound, that it’s causing the foundations of business itself to shift, is really exciting.

The message is really simple. If you do bad things in the name of making money, everyone will know pretty quickly and soon you won’t have many customers. If you do good things, everyone will know pretty quickly and soon you’ll have lots of customers.

So what were the important discoveries?

1. Old ideas can solve new problems

Akanksha Hazari talked about an ingenious plan to help third world areas get proper access to clean water and sanitation. The idea uses the loyalty scheme model employed by credit card companies.

It’s a need/want equation. For many people in these parts of the world, a mobile phone is a vital lifeline.

The concept allows individuals or groups to join a loyalty scheme. A percentage of what they spend on their phone goes into a fund to buy upgrades to their water and sewage treatment network. Brilliantly simple.

2. Ignore old models of the future

Alex Steffen is one of the world’s leading planetary futurists. He described how much of our model of the future is a product of the past (flying cars, hoverboards etc). He suggested that using these ideas as a guide to where to go next may misleading.

So where do we get our future from then?

3. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you understand your customer

Richard Seymour’s presentation went some way to answering the question left hanging after Alex’s. Firstly, Richard explained that anyone inventing or creating must work hard to be relentlessly optimistic about the future. If you’re not you can’t hope to create something better than what we have today.

Secondly, he went on to demonstrate (modestly, through some failed projects he’d been involved with) why it’s so important to gain a richer understanding of for whom you are creating.

He described how focus groups are often a waste of time because people don’t know what they do. He gave a great example:

“What is the first thing you do when opening a sugar sachet?” he asked.

Most responded with a two-handed tearing motion.

“Wrong.” The answer was that everyone shakes the sachet to push the sugar to one end before tearing it open.

People don’t know what they do so you have to watch them to find out.

4. ‘Safeguard the Helpless and do no wrong.’

Richard finished with an extract from an old Templar oath: ‘Safeguard the Helpless and do no wrong.’

He has this quote as his screensaver in order never to forget the importance of your role as a creator of the future: “If your job is to meddle in creating the future, step carefully, or do something less dangerous.”

5. If your customers are changing around you, move with them.

Paz is an unlikely popstar. He has broken through by working really hard to get his music stolen. He moved to LA to be singer-songwriter. He made an album of songs and resolved to get a few more people to steal it each day. It was one or two at first, then 10 or 20, before long thousands of people were stealing it. Finally he started to get invited to play gigs supporting well-known bands; then headlining.

Then followed a key moment. He was invited to meet with a large music label. The exec. described the turmoil of the music industry thanks to internet piracy. He saw this as the death of music. Paz saw it as an opportunity to get more people to steal his record: “Where are the pirates stealing the music from?”, he asked. The exec explained that Bit Torrent was the worst culprite!

That night Paz uploaded his music to Bit Torrent, and doubled the number of people stealing his music.

After his talk, I wanted to congratulate him on his brave attitude to the music industry some people think is dying. He explained how all we has doing was giving people what they wanted and as a result had already been paid back ten-fold with all the opportunities that have come out of it.

This, I thought myself, is a good lesson about how to make the most of a fast-changing world.

6. If you want to split the atom, bang some heads together.

Two speakers talked about how we can use serendipity to create more product, more nourishing relationships.

The first was Lizzie Shupak. Her Wok&Wine nights have been designed to re-energise the idea of a networking event. By carefully curating the surroundings, she has created a event that successfully breaks down barriers gets people talking.

The principals of it are:

• An unfamiliar surrounding – a warehouse, building site etc.
• One big table covered in 40lb of shrimp – so everyone has to get their hands dirty.
• Lots of wine – obviously the most important ingredient.

These three ingredients, she argued, take people out of their comfort zone, and give them something to bond over. They therefore make for really constructive, creative relationships. Interesting – I hope to go to one and try it out soon.

Next up were Thor Muller and Lane Becker, founders of Get Satisfaction. Their awesome presentation talked about ways you can create serendipitous happenings in your office or studio. They described the five things you need to make happen to create the best opportunity for these events:

1. Connectivity – Breakdown the barriers (e.g. Wine)
2. Motility – Get people to move around, connect and keep moving until something sparks (e.g. Don’t sit down)
3. The prepared mind – Understand and be committed to the purpose (e.g. Scene setting)
4. Porosity – Being open to ideas (Do you have and idea or can you elaborate on someone else’s?)
5. Directionality – Where are you going with this?

I’m going to try and initiate some happenings like this in our studio. I’ll write about them if it takes off.

7. You get brownie points if you introduce yourself first when networking

Finally, a lesson about networking. This is something I confess to being rubbish at. Whilst I enjoy talking to people and finding out about what they do, I’m terrified of the initial introductions. So what do I do? I stand around looking awkward until someone (brave or desperate) comes over to talk to me. Those that do, get loads of attention from me because I’m so grateful they put me out of my misery.

It occurred to me that everyone, to a greater or lesser extent, feels like this. So, perhaps it’s actually beneficial to make that first move. Which reminds me of the ‘being vulnerable’ message in a pre-recorded TED presentation shown on the day.

So, I’ll leave you with this; Brené Brown from TEDxHouston:

Ooh, One more thing before you go!

If this is the first time you’ve heard of TED, you need to dig some more – there are so many amazing speakers, with so many amazing things to say that have taken part. You need to check it out:

There’s a website, podcast, blog, Facebook.

Here’s another video that I enjoyed from the day. This is Elizabeth Gilbert, best selling author (of Eat, Pray, Love – but don’t tell anyone I know that!) talking about creativity. She has a good point:

Me and friends on a San Fran Trolley

But I didn’t wear any flowers in my hair.

I did, however, meet some cool people from some of the most innovative, forward-thinking businesses in the world.

The trip was really illuminating and there were loads of takeaways for me to bring back to Equator.

Among others we met people from Facebook, Ideo, Happy Cog, Get Satisfaction, Current TV. To a man, they were friendly, honest and massively inspiring.

I did a little slideshow to my friends at Equator about our experienced and what we learnt.

View Cross Creative trip to San Francisco slides

The trip was organised by Carole Dunlop as part of the Cross Creative series. Thank you Carole!

I think I’ll be back out on the west coast as soon as I can.

“Peace out.”

Love this!

The other day was the first in the Cross Creative Series I’ve been invited to take part in. Cross Creative is a networking and training series of events for people in the digital industry. Episode one got the series off to a flying start:

This year’s delegates (is that the right word? How about participants?) include:

• Justin Eames from Fish in a Bottle – They create superb interactive experiences, including online games for some of you favourite TV series.
• Sarah Tierney from Twig - Twig is a sort of “video wiki”. Delivering informative video content through a clever interface that encourages exploration and discovery.
• Kat Hebden from Shed Media - An independent UK TV production company specialising in contemporary original content and are pioneers of multi-channel delivery.
• Nick Roy from YuVa - YuVa has a groundbreaking ambition to create innovative digital signage, and digital installations. To make our visual environment a little more alive and interactive.

In addition, we were joined by three people who had some really interesting stuff to say:

Firstly, Gareth Langley, from Stardotstar, joined us to talk about his experiences of Cross Creative ’09. Cross Creative is a series of sessions in which participants discuss key issues in the digital sector and learn from each others’ experiences. It also includes a sort of school trip to meet some leading lights in the field out in San Fran. Gareth had some great insights from his tenure:

• Elevator pitches – He described how he’d learned how to wow someone in 60 seconds. I usually just mutter an introduction that succinctly covers our remit: “uh, websites and stuff.” Hopefully I’ll learn to improve on this!
• UK/US cultural difference - He talked about how inspiring the US companies had been. Their openness and willingness to share was key “These days it’s more important to tweet an idea that patent it.” (can’t remember who said that, but it neatly sums up the approach these companies take). He also talked about the different networking technique they had – working the room rather than standing in the corner (I need to learn that one for sure!)
• Preparation – This is more a mental note for me, but it appears we’ll get to meet some really interesting people, and preparing questions in advance is important in order to get the most out of the discussion. Companies like Pixar, Get Satisfaction, IDEO etc are on the list to visit.

Next up was Iain Ritchie, a godfather of digital. Iain has worked with a huge range of organisations and, amongst other things, is currently chairman of Iomart PLC, Computer Application Services Ltd, The Interactive Design Institute and Caspian Learning Ltd. He talked about the opportunities and pitfalls with creating digital start-ups, seeking venture capital funding and selling your business to one of the largest manufacturers of consumer electronics in the world.

Finally, we were joined by James Kirkham from Holler. Holler is a digital strategy agency who have been doing really exciting integrated digital marketing for a range of big names including: Channel 4, E4, Jergens Naturals, Kickers, P&G and Red Bull. His main focus was on the importance of collaboration to create great integrated communications. This is an interesting and timely subject. What we already know is that to engage an audience online, companies need to talk in a more personal, entertaining way than they are used to - The passive consumer no longer exists; they are now active participants; “Technology facilitates but the audience creates”. This means that the marketing department no longer pulls the strings, it’s the audience that’s in control.

There are a few quite high profile examples of this happening. Most notably is Tim Kring’s decision to change the storyline of Heroes right in the middle of Season 2 based on fans’ feedback. This sort of responsiveness to the hard-core fan-base has become a must-have ingredient of a successful enterprise.

James’ assertion is that by teaming digital experts with more traditional production houses it is possible to create raw unique content that entertains. Then by capitalising on existing online brand fans, it is possible to create immensely effective campaigns that generate ongoing support rather than the flash in the pan effect of more traditional advertising channels – Branded Entertainment.

An example of his work in this area is the Jergens Naturals camapign where Holler created a 5 part compact TV series about skincare, designed to be screened on Youtube. Not only did it successfully engage viewers, it was commissioned as a full TV series in Australia.

Another example is their work with Red Bull to engage with blogger fans and inspire them to create the branded entertainment content that would power wider Red Bull communications. This was acheived by “super-serving” the fanbase; contacting them directly with neat gifts and an incentive to talk about the events and create photography and video content around them.

To be continued…

This first session in the series is by definition, just the beginning. I think I’m going to learn loads of useful stuff (like only doing my email before lunch and before the end of the day – thanks Justin!) so I’m going to try to discipline myself to write a post after each one to capture what went on. It’s useful for me and, dear reader, may be useful to you too.

As always, if you’re bubbling up with annoyance or inspiration about anything I’ve written, please leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Today is the day that Marty McFly visited in the future!

This is so cool but also makes me feel really old. I remember watching this and thinking that 2010 seemed impossibly far away. So where the hell are the hoverboards and auto-lace-up nikes?

Addendum: There’s still time!

“On October 26, 1985, Dr. Emmett Brown arrives from the future and tells Marty McFly and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker that he needs their help to save their kids in the future. They depart in the flying DeLorean time machine as Biff Tannen accidentally witnesses the departure. They arrive on October 21, 2015, where Doc electronically hypnotizes Jennifer to sleep and leaves her unconscious in an alley to keep her away from his plan.”

The screenshot of the time machine’s dashboard is a fake and it appears to have tricked loads of people, including me. The good news is, for the enterprising among us, there’s still time to invent the hoverboard etc.

Believe it or not, this advert is real. It made me feel like I was living in some fucked up future from Bladerunner or Robocop or something. Maybe I’m getting old, but having this sort of thing on the TV really freaks me out.

Is it just me?