Darth Strategist

Some really interesting thinking was performed yesterday. It was a great day and I want to tackle a few of the areas that were brought up in individual posts [although I've noticed whenever I say that I never seem to get round to it], but a couple of things really jumped out.

Firstly, the sustainability debate featured in a number of presentations - the sense was that there is a both a responsibility and an opportunity presented by the threat of climate change for our industry. 

Mark Cridge: We believe we can have a strong influence on behaviour, we should be looking to use it. He then quotes Ed Mayo, CEO of the National Consumer Council:

"While marketing got us into this mess, it may be that marketing can get us out"

[Note: This comes from a report by the WWF called Let them Eat Cake: Satisfying the new consumer appetite for responsible brands. You can get it here.]

The second thing that struck me was how important the performance is. Every winner was a brilliant thinker but they also had fantastic style, great visual aids, they worked the crowd like pros.

I think it's important for planners to remember that part of our job is communicating - presenting strategy as well as hatching it.

And this was a masterclass in wooing an audience, comic timing, charm and the like.

Congratulations to Russell, who took home the prize, with his pean to planning.