Learnings from Planning-ness

Planning-ness, the 2 day event organized by Mark Lewis (of DDB) to fill the gap and disappointment left by the cancellation of this year's AAAA's Account Planning conference, is over. And it was a huge success. The theme was "Get excited and make things", we had amazing speakers, great energy and most importantly just plain FUN!

Below are some of the themes that resonated with me the most:

DAY 1

Grant McCracken's notion of Corporation Respiration: breathing culture in and out.

David Brown on making documentaries: the key is the story and its compelling characters, casting will be critical and spending time with the actors will dramatically improve results.

Mary Jane Stevenson and Emily Duncan from "Organizing for America" presented narrative as an organization tool in grassroots movements and storytelling as the most powerful weapon in creating connections and engaging all kinds of audiences.

Ken Eklund, creator of many ARG including "World without Oil", on the importance of the state of play, experimentation and collaboration.

I was very thankful for the opportunity to volunteer at the event and very glad to see the Academy of Art University getting involved in this kind of events. This was all thanks to Cameron Maddux, faculty and director of Account Planning, who is promoting the importance of ART in advertising, business and schools.
RIGHT: At the Barrel House photo from Cameron.

Knowledge comes from everywhere

What could city planners and leaders learn from a bunch of hippies.

Recycling Architecture

Financial and safety concerns aside this is an applaudable example of local architects Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello putting the 3 R's into practice. They propose to repurpose the Bay Bridge's old infrastructure into sustainable low-cost urban housing. The Bay Line to be added to the eclectic list of SF neighborhoods.



Why I like their proposal
Overpopulation and the food crisis are two of the biggest challenges ahead. In both of those challenges LAND will play a preeminent role. The recycling of architecture provides with possibility—think of the tons cement awaiting demolition in the US today—and at the same time puts a break on the continuous invasion of the land and endangerment of animal and plant life. While we cannot undone the damage caused by decades of industrialization we can aim to maintain the balance of our ecosystems. We are recycling just about everything else these days and if we can figure out how to safely recycle infrastructure and reuse land we could be taking great steps to solve some of the challenges laying ahead of us.

A little bit Sci-Fi. A lot of cool. Personally I would still rather live on the firm land...


Read the BAY LINE project proposal here.