Eat:Strategy, Recap and Reflections

Duane Brown‘s launch of Eat:Strategy was a success. Speakers included Brian Cugelman, Jon Lax, and Cheesan Chew among many others. It was the first time, to my knowledge, that marketing strategists and design thinkers got into the same room and talked to each other.

Duane’s format was effective. Speakers got 20 minutes to present, had to really stay within the time limit, with QA happening one on one during the breaks and over lunch. It’s a great format and Duane really pulled of a great venue and a great launch. A massive thank you and recognition to him for his leadership.

Memorable takeaways included Brian Cugelman’s communication framework, which is a unification and reinforcement of scattered communications literature. It’s excellent, and I encourage you to contact him directly, or perhaps speak with him at the next WAWTO. It’s absolutely solid.

Cheesan told a story using Idea Couture’s big image method. It’s spectacular. And if you get a chance to ever take in an Idea Couture preso, I suggest that you take it. I’ll thank Cheesan for making me aware of the value of very high resolution photography that you take yourself and use in presentations to tell stories. It’s spot on.

Finally, Jon Lax presented an absolutely polished mega-trend presentation on the importance of design thinking when grappling with a three screen + Internet Of Things world. He’s emphasizing the importance of multi-disciplinary planning teams and has a refreshingly rational approach to iterative development with high failure tolerance. It was nice to see measurement get its own pillar. He believes in what he says, and says it really well. I’m better off for having seen him.

Special thanks to all the speakers, the organizer, and volunteers that made the event a success!