Because we are what we share (or just embed in this case)

What were they thinking?

I understand that this is one of the busiest and most congested roads in the country but you don't have to shove it in my face now do you?!!!

Like Auntie like Niece

Psfk San Francisco - conference notes

Ed Cotton (BSSP, Influx Insights), started the day speaking on why trends and inspiration matter. Quoting Picasso, “The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape”, he posed the question ‘How do you compete for their [creative people] attention?’

“Trends are useful only in context, context makes things matter”

9 inspiration themes; Envy, Improvisation, Combinations, Looking backwards, Frustration, Timing, White space, Out of context, Insight driven. On each he elaborated and gave examples, you can find here Trends- Should you care?

On Looking backward he said don’t be a slave to the new, connect the past to the present and show the history of a trend. On time; common sense, if you wait for the research to tell you you’re right, you’ll miss the boat. If only it was this easy to explain to clients! Combinations; how can we combine new & new or new & old to create new things?

Ed concluded by suggesting that we track trends over time, develop our own core themes and have a point-of-view on trends and share them.

Next up, a panel discussion on what makes San Francisco so unique and inspiring? On the panel were SF locals Amit Gupta (Photojojo, Jelly),Liz Dunn (Funny or Die), Colin Nagy (Attention), Kevin Allison (Financial Times) and Jeremy Townsend (Ghetto Gourmet).

One question pretty much explained the essence of San Francisco 'what do the celebrities of a city say about it?’ LA has the beautiful people; George Clooney, New York has the rich people; Trump and San Fran has Steve Jobs. SF has a lot going for it:

• It is removed from the power structures
• Like-minded communities in real space and time
• Life outside of work is important, “If you are spending 14 hours a day at your job, you’re probably not very good at it”

As a result, SF’s chief export is start-ups and ideas, there is willingness to trust and an active free styling entrepreneurial scene that embraces failure as part of the process. There is a lesson here I believe for Dubai, failure is not recognized positively in the business community. The taproot foundation example of micro entrepreneurship caught my particular interest; it was created for experts from different backgrounds to work pro bono together to help local nonprofits increase their impact.

Next, Chris Riley (Apple) gave a presentation on the three residents that have shaped his world. Stuart Brand, founder of the Long Now Foundation, Alice Waters Bay Area chef who started the local food movement and Paul Hawken author of the Ecology of Commerce.

After this presentation you can easily trace a lot modern macro trends to SF, I added two books to my to read list; How Buildings Learn (should be insightful for the times we live in here in Dubai) and The Ecology of Commerce and I was motivated to identify the personalities that shaped my world so far, a thought for an upcoming post.

Jen Bekman followed with a discussion on how ‘frustration is motivating’, Yeah! I thought I need to hear this. From a tech background and a new interest in art, project 20x200 was created. An online community that believes ‘art is for everyone’ and thriving by benefiting and supporting both the creator and the user.

In conclusion, she posed these questions; how is it [work/project] fulfilling? How is it useful? How is it different? How does it matter?

Next AndrewHuppin (NASA) and Ezra Cooperstein (Current tv), an interesting coupling given their respective political affiliations, talked about creating through collaboration with consumers. Some points from the discussion:

• Foster a more open culture; change habits, collaborate and infuse technology
• Learn from outside entrepreneurial communities
• It is a challenge to get internal buy in with no bottom line
• Stress the long term benefit
• Be ready to listen
• Figuring it out while doing it “like changing tires on an airplane mid flight”
• Put participation into the end product

Gareth Kay (Modernista, Brand New) led a panel of Eric Corey Freed (organicARCHITECT), Josh Morenstein (fuseproject), and Frank Striefler (TBWA\Chiat\Day & Media Arts Lab) in a discussion on making the inspiration Matter.

• Adding life to work is more inspiring than adding work to life
• Some relax into inspiration others need the pressure
• How to motivate jr. staff? Constantly discuss things
• How do you make inspiration matter more inside your company? In organic ARCHITECT people are encouraged to challenge ‘Put up or shut up, out design me’
• Having a POV creates expectation

Frank Striefler also explained how Media Arts inspires TBWA\ to connect the dots differently and foster collective clarity in a team on what should be done vs. what could be done for a brand.

Jean Marie illustrated how Starbucks is a thoughtful brand and shared a how to create thoughtful change. Some highlights:

• What are the entry points to innovations?
• Wefeel.com, a website that aggregates common thoughts in cities
• How does space influence behavior? Think of the behavior of people living on an island
• Thoughtful = like a friend = always there = surprising in new ways
• Understand that conversations happen, it is up to you to be part of it or not
• Converse. Example, my starbucks idea.com

Max Schorr (GOOD) spoke about aligning interests and how GOOD has applied this approach to building their company and magazine.

• Doing good doesn’t have to be altruistic.
• One bottom line (profitability) vs. the triple bottom line (sustainability, profit, positive impact)
• ‘Green. No Green. Green’ when will the trend of doing good become the norm, so we can talk about new things

George Parker (AdScam/MadScam) then led a panel of Rohit Bhargava (Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence), Lynn Casey (Team Noesis), Adrian Ho (Zeus Jones), and Mark Lewis (DDB SF, Planning from the Outside) in a discussion on how conversation with consumers can improve sales.

Clients want to get involved in social media, it is important to consider:

• Do you want to create or do you want to participate?
• Understand the client’s motivational check list: ‘Someone told me I have to’ or ‘I want to get noticed’ and then address it
• Parker: make them understand “Social media is not a switch you can turn on”
• Make the client understand the medium; constant vs. one off
• Try a lot of little things vs. fit it into this year’s budget and media plan
• Consider what value are you handing to a consumer?
• What is the ROI of blogging? The I = time

To end a day of inspiration and trends in SF Josh Handy and Nate Pence of (Method) shared their thoughts on how method is setup to be a creative company:

• Focus on the most influential consumers. listen
• Design and Good as an inbound culture not marketing ploy
• Not a creative department but a creative company
• Collaborate and think out loud, example the method wiki wall
• Award employees for articulating the values

Everyone then regrouped for an after party hosted by PSFK and Behance. Because the best way to cap a day like this is to have more fun ; )

Made me think 'WTF?'

Talk about a design that can't live up to a claim. How does using disposable cups protect the environment?

Quote of the Day

The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer

Nolan Bushnell,

founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's

"It is not the curse but the power you give the curse that makes the difference"

Character from the movie Penelope

Off to SF ...

I am in SF for the PSFK conference and some wondering. Really looking forward to the presentations and seeing some friends. Will try to update with some tweets

Planning team getting creative @ Jam Jar... well we try

Sam and I oh! the enthusiasm of the beginning...

my first attempt in progress...

Kedar was full of enthusiasm he ended the day with two pieces.

The first session was tons of fun that Sam, Alia and I went for a second try on the 4th July:

Sam's piece; he said that it has inspired him to create a whole series. In his own words 'Boom'!!!
my second attempt, it was inspired by team trifecta perfecta ; )

The Jam Jar is a fusion art gallery and painting studio tucked away in the AlQuoz area in Dubai. One sign of the up and coming art culture quickly coming to life in the region.

Random play

Picture of the day is back on.... loving it. Guess where I shot this?

Made me wonder

Sam and I went to see this a week back and we were excited to watch it in IMAX. To get there and be met with this. Made me wonder 'what is the point?'

We watched it anyway, we are not hard to please ; )

Peak 29

I believe that so much of what we can achieve together is inspired by individual actions. On that note, my buddy Kedar has decided to celebrate his 29th birthday by climbing the highest peak in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro, in support of children in Kenya. His climb will raise funds to build a children's ward in Kenya. To track Kedar's mission visit his blog Peak 29, I hope it will inspire you to support him and donate to this great act of helping children get the medical attention they deserve.

Donate to the cause & Get an update on the mission:
Peak 29

Check out the charity:
Gulf for Good

SIXTY 2008

SIXTY is the annual magazine published by VCU Brandcenter as a collaborative point of view of the graduating class. 2008 is out, have a look.

WTF?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ( Highlighted in red)

a 'me' in 'we'

MIA

Sorry I have been mia for a long while. A lot of things have been going on. Promise to update soon. Missing you guys.

quote of the day

Reminisce

Hey yall. I lost track of 'picture of the day' so I thought I'd start again with something special. I went into a very old part of the country and took a few picture of old architecture.
I loved roaming around the area, every corner was exciting to explore. Some houses are being demolished and other restored by a preservation campaign.

Being useful

I saw this yesterday in Mercato Mall and thought it quite an interesting act by a brand. Costa Coffee has sponsored a nursery for moms.

How is our industry planning on moving forward

Cog like

I found this video about a clever office contraption on iKbis.com. Reminds me of the Honda cog spot.

Face2Face III

The Martin Agency's president and creative director Mike Hughes (one of the nicest people in advertising) and McCann Erickson's chief creative officer Joyce King-Thomas have a chat in the third installation of Face2Face. It is as delightful as the Goodby & Droga and Clow & Bogusky episodes. Check it out, Creativity.com

Sama Dubai tv

I love the new look of Sama Dubai TV. From the website design, typography, show concepts to the commercial break spots. Oh and I can't forget the music in those break spots, whenever I hear it in a weird way, I feel inspired.

Impossible is nothing

in the face of determination. Machiavelli once said " Where the willingness is great, the difficulties can not be great".
It is not a secret that I am a huge football enthusiast. I am passionate about this sport, this culture for many reasons. One being its powerful unifying quality.
A few months ago I worked on a project for FIFA at the Adcenter. One of the major challenges as a planner was to help my creative team feel what football culture is beyond the 90 minutes on the pitch.
Today, I witnessed an example of this culture, this powerful unifying quality. Both national teams of Saudi Arabia and Iraq were playing for the Asian Cup and the title of "Champions of Asia". Once it was known that these two teams were in the final, the feeling on the street was no matter who will win the game, we all will be winners. Because either is a brother Arab country.
Honestly, I felt the same until today before the game began. It struck me in the early minutes of the game that this Iraqi team could achieve what war strategies, thousands of soldiers and gunshots have not been able to do. The sight of a unified happy Iraqi people. The opportunity to read the paper tomorrow and read about Iraq and celebration in the same story.
I felt this overwhelming support for the Iraqi team. They played their hearts out, they stood up to the normally strong Saudi team. Although the Iraqi team was dominate 52% to 48%, still at half time the score was tied.
In the second half they came back on with even more determination and attacking force, and for it they were rewarded with the winning goal. Saudi fought back but it was not their day.
This game, this title, this day belongs first to the Iraqi team and people. A team made up of all the tribes in Iraq, playing for not the suni, sheea, Kurds, etc but IRAQ. Second to the rest of the Arab brothers and sisters.
My prayer is that this be a tipping point or reminder that Iraq is strongest as one. That Arabs are stronger united. That Iraq was and will always be a hub of Arab culture and the situation in Iraq is on the verge of real change for the better.

Thank you:
22 N Sabri
3 B Abbas
14 H Abdul Amir
2 Jasem Mohamed Gholam
15 Ali Rehema
5 Nashat Akram
18 Mahdi Ajeel Karim
13 Muhamed Karrar
11 Hawar Tahir Mulla Mohammed
24 Q Munir
10 Younis Khalef
1 Ahmed Ali
23 Mohammed Kassid
20 Nabeel Abbas
12 Haidar Abdul Razzaq
4 Khaldon Ibrahim
7 Ali Abbas
8 Ahmed Abid Ali
19 H Khadim Taher
6 Salih Salih Sadir
16 Ahmed Manajid
9 Mohammad Nasir
17 L Saleh
and the coach Veira and supporting staff
for reminding me that Impossible is nothing.

Consumer fatigue