Would you still want to do your job if a machine could do it better?
Empathy sits at the top of every list of skills machines supposedly cannot touch. This isn’t wrong so much as temporary, defined by what AI can’t (yet) do. Which suggests we have been drawing the line in the wrong place: it’s never been about what we're capable of.
The Green Eggs and Ham effect
In 1960, publisher Bennett Cerf bet Dr Seuss fifty dollars that he could not write a children's book using only fifty distinct words.
How to write a brief
A brief is written from inside the business by someone who knows everything, then read from the outside by somebody who knows nothing.
AI didn’t create slop, humans scaled it
Creators who use AI well are the same folks who created well before it existed: clear thinkers who use these tools to amplify their expertise, as opposed to a substitute for it. The creators producing slop with AI are, overwhelmingly, the same folks who were producing slop without it.
The most important slide in your client presentation
The most important slide in any client presentation is the first slide the room sees right after the cover page.
What is experience?
Consciousness doesn’t exist inside the brain. The brain exists inside consciousness.
Strategic loglines in experience definition
When a massive killer shark unleashes chaos on a beach community, it's up to a local sheriff, a marine biologist and an old seafarer to hunt the beast down.
The red thread of brand experience
The red thread is the single idea that holds everything together. It’s the connective tissue between what a brand says, what it does and how it makes people feel at every point of contact.
AI is not a strategy
“AI-powered” has become the new “data-driven”. It sounds impressive, but it doesn’t actually mean anything.
The art of reduction
Michelangelo believed the sculpture was already complete within the marble block before he touched it. His job, as he described it, was simply to chisel away the material that did not belong. The statue was not built. It was revealed.
Reverse engineering F&B experience design
F&B spaces at most events are designed for just one thing: feeding people efficiently. But 58% of attendees say networking is their primary reason for being there.
Show your work
At school, we were all taught the same lesson: showing your work matters as much as getting the answer right.
The most powerful voice in the room isn’t yours
People trust people more than they trust brands.
Event apps must be built around need
The event app is often the most overpromised and underdelivered part of an experience.
If you don’t measure networking, you don’t measure the event
Five questions. One framework. A 24-hour window you cannot afford to miss.
The cost of added value
Every agency knows the play: go beyond the stated scope to show the client you understand their needs better than the brief describes.
The 3 Ns of guest experience
58% of attendees say there is one thing above all others that determines whether an event was worth their time.
Liminal spaces in experience
The best event strategies treat liminal moments as part of the narrative, not gaps in it. Every touchpoint, from the airport transfer to the final farewell, is an opportunity to immerse rather than isolate.
What losing a pitch teaches you that winning never will
“Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.” Except when it isn’t.