Good coffee last Friday. Regulars Darcey and Erin were there from Integer. Eric came by, he is getting his MBA at Daniels and works for the Metro Denver Sports Commission. He was part of the Stop Running Toilets stunt that Denver Water and Sukle pulled off at the CU vs. CSU game a few weeks back.
[10/3 Update: Eric has just posted additional running toilet video at www.denversports.org]
And Ken came by, he's started a new job as the interactive guy at Pure
Brand and has taken to starting a blog. He wrote a little recap post of his
own from this coffee.
That's Eric, Erin and Ken.
David returned from Corona Research and brought his colleague Leo along.
Paul Timm returned with some good news, he's officially off the job market as he was just hired on at Crispin. Congrats Paul. Jennifer Mich came by. She's looking to make a career change but I didn't get to talk to her much about it. Ameet from the Daniels College of Business joined us again. Anoud joined us, she's a recent grad from CU Boulder (is that right Anoud?) And I guess that's about it.
Sorry about the bluury pics. I'm getting to know my new camera phone.
We talked about a lot of stuff. Here's a streaming list of some topics...
Web search games, airline discounter Farecast, running and mypetfat.com, ad blocker software, One Book One Denver, the movie The Brave One, the books Eat Pray Love and the Six Thinking Hats, Ideo's approach to innovation, and more.
I'm really enjoying these coffees. Stumbled on this description of Coffee Morning from the Kansas City group:
What do you talk about? Anything and everything.
It's not an Ad-Industry-only kind of thing. Have good stew the night
before? Wish you could compete for World's Strongest Man? Really
dislike the new Subway ads? It's all game here.
Is drinking coffee required? No. But it should be mentioned that coffee is a wonderful antioxident and it enhances short-term memory.
Is talking required? No. Morning grumps are welcome. But we may point and laugh at you. We'll also take a photo of you, too.
So far for us it's been a bit of a roundtable kind of thing with everyone around a single table. The numbers have dictated that rather than deliberate planning. So it's been one big conversation. We could continue that and even encourage a bit more show-and-tell. Or it could turn way casual and more of a happy hour with just interesting people milling around with coffee instead of beers. Any thoughts on that one way or another?
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.
Hope you can join us this Friday (Common Grounds @ 17th x Wazee, downtown Denver). We should have a pretty good sized
group this week. There might even be name tags in our future.
Also, I was thinking of posting and emailing a recap of each coffee,
maybe a bit on who came by and some of the topics discussed. Perhaps
even a picture or two. What do you think?
And it looks like we may be making contact with some of the members of the New Denver Ad Club, especially those in the Brand Development / Marketing Research Pod. But even if you're not a marketing strategy type, you're welcome to attend. We just like good people and interesting ideas, that's all.
And lastly, Paul, the coffee morning co-host will be leaving us for greener colder pastures at Space 150 in Minneapolis. This will be his last coffee (as a Denver resident at least). Come by and buy him a shot. Of espresso, of course.
We've officially agreed to a regular schedule for our Denver Coffee Mornings:
The first and third Friday of every month at 8:00am at Common Grounds in downtown Denver.
The next one is this coming Friday 6/1.
Paul and I are your hosts. You can see Paul's trail of reports on coffee mornings here and I will be doing the same on this site.
Why are we doing this? Because great ideas are best when shared. And the best way to share is in person. Plus the coffee's good at Common Grounds.
Coffee mornings have been instigated around the world in response to the original in London. Likemind is a group supporting similar gatherings. We're looking into linking up with them.
It seems like there can be a tendency for planners and others to be highly connected online but not in person. And some of us were talking and figured it's time for a likeminded community to start having some face time here in Denver.
Also, the New Denver Ad Club has just gotten off the ground and they have a strategic planning 'pod'. We're going to particiapte in that and will probably have some new faces at coffee as a result.
If you'd like to be emailed about upcoming coffee mornings and see what was discussed on ones you missed, you can subscribe to this site in the sidebar to the right. Just know that you will get an email whenever there are new posts, coffee related or not (of course you can unsubscribe at any time).
Margaret Mark: The Hero and the Outlaw The leading book on using archetypes in brand strategy, this blends motivational theory into the mix in a very readable way. It also segues nicely into storytelling.
David Ogilvy: The Unpublished Ogilvy A gem of internal memos and notes not meant for public view. Insight into his day-to-day agency management.
Daniel Pink: A Whole New Mind I saw Daniel Pink speak at Future Trends a year ago. Compelling speaker and a reluctant creative; a left-brain telling a right-brain story.
Cheri Huber: How You Do Anything is How You Do Everything This handwritten self-help workbook asks the simplest of questions, meant to reveal your inner priorities and motivations. Excellent as a spark for creating consumer workbooks.
Adam Morgan: The Pirate Inside As a follow-up to Eating the Big Fish this is a solid handbook for anyone advocating a challenger position in their organization.
Scott McCloud: Understanding Comics This is a comic book about comic books, but it completely goes to school on visual communications. A good aid for demistifying layouts and visual ideas.
Wendy Gordon: Good Thinking This well known British researcher gives a grounding for planners on how to think about qualitative research.