On making history, creating momentum, being human & other creative journeys
Part cutting edge marketing advice for B2B marketers, part family reunion — the B2B Forum, a Marketing Profs event, celebrated its 10th year this week.
Here are the amazing keynotes I had the privilege of capturing.
Ann Handley: Welcome Home!
Ann Handley, Chief Content Office for Marketing Profs, shared advice on making B2B history and encouraged us to look to the past for guidance on how to navigate the future. She inspired the audience with lessons on how to "fail like Leonarda Da Vinci" because experimentation is part of the process, "think like Laura Ingalls Wilder" because solving problems takes time, and "train like Tina Fey" because successful creativity requires that we embrace our weirdness.
Andrew Davis: Momentum
Andrew Davis, founder of Monumental Shift, gave a talk on how to stop chasing moments and start creating momentum. He encouraged the audience to break the cycle of puking content everywhere in favor of strategic distribution, because the "when" of distributing great content is just as critical to success as the "what."
John Maeda: The Creative Leadership Challenge
John Maeda, Design Partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a leading venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, has a background in computer science and art, which gives him a unique perspective on design and the future of technology. His keynote described how computational design is shaping our experience in every moment, and how inclusion is the future of technological innovation.
Michael Wesch: Our Mediated Culture
Michael Wesch, anthropologist and professor at the University of Kansas, looks at the ways our technology has shaped the human experience. He explores the painful costs, as well as the hopeful moments in our collective search for identity and recognition. His podcast, Life 101, is about the 21st student's search for education.
Sarah Lewis: Creativity, The Gift Of Failure, And The Search For Mastery
Sarah Lewis, Harvard professor and curator extraordinaire, has studied hundreds stories of creative genius, and finds that what we need to thrive in our own creative journey has three parts: orienting to mastery, private domains and what she calls "nimble grit"-- knowing when to stick with something and knowing when to quit. See also, her TED Talk on Embracing the Near Win.