Inspired at Influx Curated

Last Thursday it was BSSP's Ed Cotton's Influx Curated Conference : 30 speakers. 5 minutes each, the brief: to inspire.

The following are the most resonaning moments:

1. Kanyi Maqubela from Virgance and his Mobs for Good

2. Joshua Brody from On your Feet and "Stand by me". He made a case that we underestimate ourselves: "Nobody expected to come here and sing, yet you were asked to and you did it, beautifully and in harmony"

3. Paul Kim from Mozilla and his idea of "overrated surprise"

4. Mark Barden from Eat Big Fish and the power of YES. Jelly Helm (StudioJelly) later elaborated on this notion from the perspective of someone who has been in Advertising.

5. Gary Hirsch also from On your Feet and the importance of the audience and the idea of incompleteness to allow co-creation. "Allow room for interpretation, don't try to control all"

6. Jennifer Pahilka (Web 2.0) says brands will success when they become a platform for something (just like the web did).

Some of the themes or macro trends that continue to be preeminent are:

1. Collaboration, constructivism and co-creation
2. Narrative, and the importance of creating a connection through Storytelling
3. Ying-Yang, a balance of optimism and pessimism, understanding the power of Yes and the power of No
4. The rise and fall of Advertising as a creative industry
5. Designers are becoming social activists

We are living in challenging times, there is amazing opportunity if we learn to defy our culture of fear and a number of invisible rules.