Brilliant Coffee Moments

Making the right decision is either going to instinct or a well considered. When I started looking to move on from Channel 4 I knew three things:

1) Broadcasting cant survive as the advertising model was being lost to online services.

2) Internet distribution methods and communities are the future of media commerce.

3) Channel 4 would never adopt online technology into it’s core business thinking.

Thus my investigation into how the marketing industry was dealing with the beautiful disruptions the internet was generating lead to Blogs by marketing planners. They were the primary source of information as very few large agencies had up to date site and the media trade publications are hopeless at reporting on the relationship of technology and media. Web2.0 was building up to full steam and thus Mike Arlington and Om Malik seemed to be covering the start up frenzy. There was of course the ClueTrain Mafia, but still no one was talking about the the ‘interestingness’ of media, technology and brands. Except Russell Davies.

For me his blog afforded insight and conviction about ‘planning’ – this gave me the confirmed gut instinct and backed it up with a wealth of insight.

His blog lives off screen too via coffee mornings. I’ve written about these before and they still remain that wonderfully rare time in the week were you get to meet other fascinating creatives working, playing and exploring media.

Some of the team at Imagination had been referencing Russell in the office, so I suggested we should pop along for coffee morning, which Louise, Cassie and I did on Friday. Great to have the opportunity to chat with Henry who writes a cracking blog here. We’ve both been to the coffee sessions in the past but never had the chance to talk. ‘Beeker‘ and Helen were also there – though I didn’t realise who they were until reading Russell’s write up. I’ve been reading their blogs for a while and it’s a ‘blimey’ moment when you actually get to meet them. And John Griffiths, which was another ‘blimey’ moment – another long time blogger and a planner with more planning experience than you could imagine. Here’s his blog, and here’s his CV database. Suppose you need a CV dbase with all that experience. Rockstar! And meeting Jason again. Maybe I’ve been to too many of these sessions. Perhaps they’re as addictive as the coffees themselves.

But meeting people is what it’s all about. From chatting to Russell and all the other planners he’s introduced me to since the first coffee morning 3 months ago, the role of a planner became a huge point inspiration for me and revealed an obvious pathway for doing enjoyable work.

Brilliant (inspiring) chap and officially the Biggest Thinker.