A few of us attended a conference today, at The National History Museum, called ‘The Battle of Big Thinking’, organised by The Account Planning Group. Lots jokes about dinosaurs.
It was a bit of an experiment – almost Pecha Kucha stylee – in that loads of people had just 15 minutes to present. It was a huge success. No one could bang on for too long, for fear of the air horn bringing their 15 minutes of shame to an abrupt end.
It was a head-to-head thing too, in that a few people ‘battled’ on a given subject, and then the audience had to press their control pads and vote for the winner. Pop Idol Planning. Ish.
Though it certainly wasn’t just planners. How boring would that have been? First up was our former Honda client (now the big cheese at Motorola), Simon Thompson:
Simon got all touchy-feely, wanting to talk about his emotions. Aaah. He lost out, though, to Greg Nugent, Marketing Director of Eurostar. Greg talked about climate change. Crowd-pleasing subject.
Chris Forrest, of research company The Nursery, was absolutely superb. Give him work.
Very cool indeed.
Russell Davies, former Wiedens man and now bloguru (does that work?), was his usual inspirationally innovative and brilliant self:
Here we see him leading a mass Magnus Pike aerobics session. Which helped him beat BBH legend Jim Carroll.
Had to leave before the end for a client meeting, so not sure how it all ended up. Had hoped to see Trevor Beattie v Nick Hastings. How was it?
It was a great idea, and the expermient paid off handsomely. Well done Malcolm White and the APG. More please.
