We had a good coffee last Friday, filled the back room table which was nice. Among those who dropped by were David an analyst at Corona Research, Tonia from the Office of Communications and Marketing at Daniels College of Business, Elissa joined us (but I forget where she works), Wade and Natalie from Integer, Bob Taber of Thomas, Taber & Drazen, Meg who manages PR for IZZE, Ameet who is getting his MBA at Daniels, and 
Serena who is a recruiter at Wolf Creative.
Also Paul Timm was there. He just moved to Denver from San Diego and is open to interesting work opportunities. He is an "Innovative, entrepreneurial marketing strategist experienced in brand architecture and positioning, new product development, creative direction, and grassroots marketing. An accomplished team leader with international experience, balanced quantitative and qualitative expertise, and a Duke MBA." If you'd like to get in touch with him let me know.
Matt came by briefly to say a few words about the Denver 50, the awards show put on by the NDAC. Specifically he was responding to some thoughts lobbed by Paul recently. Matt said the criteria they use to judge the show goes beyond abject creativity and considers the strategic backstory and ultimate effectiveness of the work. I can't find the applications online (submissions have been closed) so it would be great to find the exact criteria and post it for all to see. Anyone?
We talked a bit about a lot of things. A few bits include:
- New forms of artistic/social expression, like pecha-kucha which involves a rigid 20 ppt slides of 20 seconds each. Pecha-kucha is Japanese for "chatter" and is now featured instead of a more traditional poetry slam type event at a nightclub in Tokyo. It was featured recently in Wired. Here's an example:
Interestingly the piece (and the pecha-kucha example) is written by Daniel H. Pink, whose name also came up in our chat because of the book he wrote, A Whole New Mind. I think it came up as we were talking about new skill sets required of marketers. Some in attendance were students looking to get into planning, and it is a particularly timely conversation for them.
Anyway, Tonia mentioned there is a similar self-expression event at the Bug Theater called Freak Train. It gives the stage over five minutes at a time and happens the last Monday of every month.
- We also talked about the movement of some planners to more independent research/strategy boutiques like Egg Strategy and Brand Juice and of course kind of an opposite move with CP+B acquiring Radar. (Incidentally, John Winsor the former head of Radar writes a nice blog about the whole transition into Crispin.)
- We talked about talent and the trafficking of creative portfolios; Serena mentioned Carbon Made as a good place to start.
- We learned that Ann Taylor trains its staff to walk 'briskly and purposefully' throughout the store, even when they've got nothing to do. That was worth the coffee right there!
- Fame, the shopping lab in Minneapolis came up, as did General Systems Theory and stages of growth, and universal insights into breakfast vs. lunch, etc.
The top picture shows Meg, Dave and Bob, the bottom pic shows Ameet and Tonia.
Good fun. Thanks to all for coming.
Next coffee is 9/21/07.
