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The conversation at Influx Curated last week was mainly about the power we have as human beings to act together for the benefit of the greater good, to be more in-touch with our own personal potential and to do things with a genuine passion for what's possible.

This seem to be located at the opposite pole from the way in which most brands behave.

The danger here is that brands could easily find themselves disengaged from consumers, who are moving forward at a faster pace than brands can keep up with.

Here are 5 things brands can do to close the gap.

1. Discover your big human idea

What is that you believe in above and beyond your product and service?

2. Live up to your idea and action it

How to you prove your passion and your interest? How do you show it?

3. Converse

Be part of the conversation and act like a human being. Do it regularly.

4. Create A Community of Interest

Think about what you could do for your base. What value can you add and how can you help them do something better? How can they work through you to do something amazing?

5. What Change Can You Impact?

The world faces massive challenges over the next 20 years, what's your brand doing to find solutions?


Posted by Ed Cotton Here are a few of the things we learned and experienced at Influx Curated, which was held yesterday.

More material to follow very soon.

The vision of GOOD, the connective power of YouTube, 250 people singing in harmony, mobs for good, the meaning of good, the power of yes, the power of no, California’s need for design solutions, designing for Sudan and getting it wrong, finding ideas from nothing, saying no to CSI for mammoths, creativity from masks, provoking conversation with postcards, crowds making things, crowds promoting things, supermoms, a new manifest destiny for energy change, the need to connect with MCs, trends as stories, objects and craftsmanship, the culture of a small coffee company, tasty tuna tails, dark motivation, hope from genocide, escaping artistic block and the fetish objects of a dominatrix...



Picture by Dominique Pacheco of William Hall's mask session

A huge thanks to all of our speakers and to who attended. We had a great time.

Also, a big thanks to Flamingo who hosted our after-party.

Posted by Ed Cotton Dwell has a great interview with Emily Pilloton, one of our speakers at next week's Influx Curated Conference.

Emily is the force behind the Project H initiative, which encourages designers to work for social good and the author of a new book on industrial design.


Posted by Ed Cotton We are delighted to add Alan Dye to our Influx Curated (June 11th- San Francisco) speaker list. Alan is currently a Creative Director over at Apple and will be one of Chris Riley's guest speakers.

Alan's experience includes stints at Kate Spade, Ogilvy's B.I.G. and Landor.

Here's Debbie Millman interviewing Alan for Design Matters in January 2008.



Tickets for the event are $99 and can be found here along with more details about the event.


Posted by Ed Cotton Madison Mount of IDEO is one of our speakers at the Influx Curated conference taking place on June 11th at the Fort Mason Center in San Francisco.

Here's his response to three questions I asked him recently.

1. What’s on your mind at the moment?

All of the disruption and chaos going on in the world right now...the lack of control, the layering and interconnectedness of the various forces, the acceptance of the absurd and constant humility required to keep going. This truly feels like a cathartic and necessary process that we’re going through – that we’re flushing the now poisonous set of beliefs, actions and expectations out of our system that has served us for this cycle that’s just ending.

A new normal will emerge after this one expires. What we learn now, if we are nimble enough, will be applicable and make us stronger. But what we used to do and how we used to behave may only be marginally applicable – true for consumers, true for businesses, true for brands.

And just to really kill this thought with a tired metaphor, we’re potentially in that time and space just after a devastating forest fire when the mushrooms start to take hold and feed off of the charred bits all around.

See, I told you I’d kill it. At least I didn’t mention foraging for opportunities...

2. Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration in optimism, in how markets work and in making lists.

I find inspiration in behavioral economics and its ability to quantify our intuition and predict our actions. I find inspiration in Ted Turner and his constant curiosity, pushing and honesty. I find inspiration in airplanes and in Hank Mobley, Ahmad Jamal, Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

I find inspiration in the Lake Merritt Farmer’s Market, my family, systems, Sunday’s New York Times, passionate people, the process of cooking, our garden in the backyard, jontaplin.com, 3quarksdaily.com and tinybuildings.com.

I find inspiration in working on complex issues. And in pushing everyone around me.

I find inspiration in This American Life, kottke.org, buzzfeed.com, 60 Minutes, Digg, waxy.org/links, fimoculous.com and usually, probably Charlie Rose.


3. Is the recession igniting innovation or stalling it?

Yes.

Certain brands are treating this as a wonderful time to build for and talk to emerging behaviors, needs and desires. Others are frozen by the uncertainty in either the market or in their own viability.
 
Zooming out (and squinting) enough, you can make out prevailing outlooks across different categories. Uncertainty rules the day in Financial Services. Not surprisingly, Automotive is also in a state of flux. The prevalent sense in Food and Beverage is cautious optimism with a few key players really taking advantage of the state of the state. Energy seems to be in a very enthusiastic holding pattern while everyone waits for the stimulus dollars to settle. And so on.

The one element that transcends category is the person involved. As is always the case, good people create good things. This is true in innovation, marketing, business, parenting and beyond.

You can find out more details and register for Influx Curated here.




Posted by Ed Cotton Mark Barden of Eat Big Fish is one of our speakers at Influx Curated on June 11th in San Francisco.

Here are Mark's responses to three questions I sent across to him recently.

1. What's inspiring you at the moment?

My kids inspire me all the time. Last night I turned the tables on my five year old and asked her to tell me a story for a change. Out popped a story about a princess with 3 magic jewels. The yellow one she hung up when it was cold and that was like the sun. The blue jewel was rain when she needed water. And the grey jewel contained a butterfly. There it was, instant creativity on demand. It can be that easy if you can channel your inner five year old. And she never seems to run out of stories. How many of us can say that. Invention like that, especially the seemingly effortless variety, is always inspiring to me. And I hang on to the notion that we all possess this ability if we can strip away and get over years of poor schooling and lack of encouragement. I just saw the Tom’s shoes story that Blackberry told in its ads. That was pretty inspiring. And Obama. I admit I’m a huge fan so far. Its great to see intelligence and open-mindedness in the White House and such a calm demeanor in spite of what must be enormous pressure. What if all our leaders rose to this level of mastery and authority. I find the on-going dialog between Obama and people he disagrees with to be truly inspiring. Look at the heat he took for asking Rick Warren to speak at the inauguration. This was actually just a part of an on-going dialogue between the two that began before inauguration and has continued since. Recently Warren was quoted as saying he never was and never will be an anti-gay marriage activist. Has his position softened? Is it related at all to being engaged in a dialog with the President? Who really knows. What I sense is the power of dialogue at work. Sounds hard, lacking in glamor, and absolutely essential for our troubled times. I find people who come to the table — authentically — with those they disagree with to be very inspiring.

2. Are brands becoming more or less important?

I don’t think brands are becoming less important, no. A brand is just a story attached to a product. Stories will never diminish in importance. Human beings need them, its how we’ve always transmitted important information. In fact stories only grow in importance; a good one is still the best way to breakthrough the cacophony. So long as the exchange of goods and service dominates human interaction as it surely must (until one of the many possible Armageddons ends it) there’s a role for brands as stories. The stories need to change to fit the times of course, and in these times there’s a resurgence of the ‘true story’. That’s a good thing. The days where ‘brands’ could be an artificial construction designed to mislead are on the wane (for now) and that’s a good thing for anyone who takes the job of marketing seriously. And brands whose stories connect to the greater good, like Tom’s, will play a more important role as the Armageddons bear down on us.

3. Are communication campaigns going to be a thing of the past?

I think I’ve answered that haven’t I in the above. The venues and channels of story-telling might be changing, but the core principles of good story: simple, memorable, something being changed, beginning, middle, end, apply wherever. Certainly the dynamics of the storytelling might be changing. There’s more co-creation, for example, the seeking out of more voices to shape the brand story (consumers) along with the original author (brand owner); more attention at times to stories needing to catch on quick (‘go viral’) rather than be ‘forced’ into consumer consciousness (media weight); and the ever-changing nature of audience needs. But as long as there are things to sell and people to buy there will be a need to communicate about them. Just because one can find out about a product with a google search doesn’t mean one will. Good stories help products gain salience. Always have, always will.

You can read more about Eat Big Fish's latest thoughts in their blog here.

For more details and registration for the Influx Curated conference look here.



Posted by Ed Cotton