Mexican masks and gorging on pizza

Mexican masks and gorging on pizza
As the lights went down and I settled in to my seat at the BFI I worried I might struggle to keep my eyes open during the boring bits.  It was the seats - possibly the most comfortable I’ve encountered at a business event – deeply upholstered, generously proportioned and just the right angle for a snooze.   

But there weren’t any boring bits.  The eclectic mix of content and speakers ranged from Mexican wrestling masks to the future of humanity. The theme was “Beyond” and it certainly took me beyond my normal day to day. Of course I enjoyed some sessions more than others but it was never dull and I left with a lot of food for thought.

My personal highlight was Sir David Brailsford sharing the wisdom gained from his experience in elite cycling. Creating an environment where everyone thinks they can do better as opposed to asking for perfection. Habitualising small changes in behaviour.  Don’t concentrate on the peas when you should be concentrating on the steak - figure out what makes the difference. His success is all about getting the best out of people. Easy to forget that sometimes! 

I’d never heard of The Future Of Humanity Institute or Professor Nick Bostrom before but his talk asking whether Artificial Intelligence will save or destroy humanity it was the other stand-out session for me. Coming from a business that is leading the development of Cognitive Computing with Watson it was fascinating to explore what might happen when we succeed in creating AI.  So fascinating that I forgot to make many notes apart from the words, "scary" and "exciting." 

The stories shared by Dan Ariely and Anne-Marie Farrell will stick with me for a while too. I can still picture students stuffing as much pizza into their mouths as possible. Simple lessons about how to apply behavioural psychology.  

Alain de Botton intrigued by talking about "dangerous" new products that will be coming from one of his clients. Luke Johnson seemed to argue that the day of the large corporate is over (not sure I agree) but I do agree we're all looking to harness the energy and the agility of entrepreneurs.  And then we had Ron Dennis telling us how much he loves advertising and sharing his thoughts on Lewis Hamilton's progress since leaving McLaren. It was certainly fascinating.

The day finished with a quick glass of wine, a change of clothes and off to the annual dinner.  We celebrated IBM as the only B2B contender among the 20 brands nominated for brand of the year.  When we made the final 5 too, we celebrated a bit more.

Read more from Andrew Fitzgerald here and follow him @andy_fitzg

 

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