iod convention 2009

Yesterday was the day and a fine old affair it was too… Beautiful weather, a comprehensive array of talented business professionals as the speakers, and a box of guests who were good fun to be with. Well you don’t really want to spend a day in a box with people you’d rather not be with, let’s face it.

The video showreel, in case you missed it up on the BIG screen at the Royal Albert Hall is here and the link to the IoD convention website is here for a more comprehensive overview of the day.

The best part for me, was seeing more than 2000 people drinking Aquapax in one place at one time and smilling while listening to the iconic c-l-i-i-c-c-k noise resounding around the wonderful Royal Albert Hall as the ‘celebrity’ guest speakers opened their Aquapax to refresh themselves on stage. That and listening to Sir Stuart Rose, who made a lot of sense to me! So much so, I’ve even written to him today to try and take his inspiration a little further…

Oh yes and the morning presentation from The King of Shaves Company (Tim Wright) was pretty good too. It’s a good speaker who engages with his audence and doesn’t need to constantly refer to his own notes and Tim is a good speaker.

I hope to put some photos of the IOD convention in the photos section of this blog soon, so do come back to see if you can identify yourself captured on camera…

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i have a dream…

Kevin Roberts gave a barn storming speech at the IOD annual conference last week and re-iterated for me why he’s such a legend in ad-land. The man retains his capacity for original thought; despite all his exposure to so many different ways of doing and thinking things. He remains true to himself and that’s cool by me.

Of course he pushes his ‘lovemarks’ theme constantly, but listening to what he says makes so much sense; he’s a speaker well worth making it along to listen to if you get the chance & it’s quite fun trying to place his accent, as it seems to change from ‘Kiwi’ to ‘Yank’ to ‘Manc’ all within a half hour…

The ‘I have a dream’ reference is in the context of ‘Dr.King’ being a ‘lovemark’ who never suggested he had a Mission Statement or a Strategy to discuss. I love the fact that this connection with the passion of one of history’s greatest speakers (Dr. King, not KR). It made so much sense to me sitting in the audience of the Royal Albert Hall, it was as inspirational for me as it must have been to those 1/4 million people who marched in peace back in ’63.

As an entrepreneur, ‘I have a dream’ is what gets me out of bed every morning; it’s what drove me from the comfort of corporate life, away from the assurance of the kind of pension that some people work their whole lives for in unfulfilled misery…

‘I have a dream’ is a more important reality than any business plan mandated by unimaginative investors, who diligently read columns of hypothetical balance sheets making sure everything adds up in a world that hasn’t come about yet.

Having a dream and living it is where any ambitious venture has got to start – without a dream, it’s too controlled and restricted by the elements which can be guaranteed. It becomes a plan to eliminate the potential things that might create failure, rather than a dream to capture the imagination and acceptance of a market and in so doing become a ‘lovemark’.

Thank you KR – I really enjoyed your inspirational talk. Now to work some of the ‘Aquapax love’ into words for those who seek the kind of assurances in a business plan that are impossible to guarantee. The same potential investors who don’t have a ‘feel’ for what their money is actually being used for, providing it makes their notion of a ‘return’. – I wonder if and what they dream of?
🙂

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