A short, garbled wrap up of Planning-ness 2013 in Boston, MA. It's not meant to be comprehensive of the entire conference, but should hopefully give you a little flavor for the event. It's a fun one y'all. If you want the REAL presentations, check them out here: http://planningness.com/2013-presentations/

1. A FEW TAKEAWAYS FROM
PLANNING-NESS 2013
THAS NASEEMUDDEEN
@THAZ7

2. ANOTHER YEAR, ANOTHER BODY OF WATER...
BOSTON: COMMUNITY ROWING CENTER

3. HOWDY!
Every year, I try to do one of these little synopses for the folks who didn’t get a chance to join in
person - nothing beats the real thing, but hopefully this gives you a little flavor
The takeaways are mine, the quotes + charts often blatantly stolen from our incredible speakers
All presentations are cited for reference - suggest you guys check them all out in their entirety
when you can: http://planningness.com/2013-presentations/
This isn’t meant to be exhaustive (I wasn’t in on every presentation and sometimes I take awful
notes) - just a few favorite key takeaways
Big thanks to the all wonderful presenters, Mark (and family!), Claire, Dylan and the volunteers
who make this thing sing every year -- all on donated time
You guys are the best...

4. “PLANNING BY NUMBERS” IS A FALACY
**You all know this, but I have to say it anyways...
Given the increasingly complex job strategists are tasked with, it’s no surprise that we’re constantly
looking for the next great model or heuristic that will bring additional context to our thinking - many
of us come to these conferences for such inspiration!
However, it’s so important to remind ourselves that there are no real answers to questions like
“how to make something viral”- there are principles we can learn that help inform the choices we
make along the way, but in our business nothing supersedes amazing ideas and brilliant thinking
The balance between art and science is one that strategists must keep close to their hearts - never
erring to far either way

5. HOW TO DESIGN A CITY

6. FOOTPRINTS TO URBAN DESIGN
“We do not create space. We alter it.” - Dan Pitera (Detroit Collaborative Design Center)
Designing a city is designing to the human experience - less about creating a space to attract
people to live there and more about creating a place where people who already live there can
thrive, grow perhaps consider returning to if they move away
Cities are made up of footprints - they mark memories, experiences and losses holding the
significance of a human action, captured in a physical sense as well as holding emotional
weight
An important distinction: (population) density = complexity of human interactions, not the
number of people per square foot
http://prezi.com/z7a5keenwroz/how-to-build-a-city-with-a-city/

7. “A great building must begin with the immeasurable, must go through measurable means when
being designed, and in the end must be unmeasured” - Louis I Kahn
Sound familiar??
URBAN DESIGN MEETS (OUR) STRATEGY WORLD
IMMEASURABLE MEASURABLE IMMEASURABLE
ideas
intentions
desires
social mobility
structure
form
space
materiality
emotions
desires
memories
thought
http://prezi.com/z7a5keenwroz/how-to-build-a-city-with-a-city/

8. “A city is a place your heart can sing”

9. A nice little augment to a traditional SWOT analysis as it is used in urban design exercises
Taking a step beyond the typical quadrants, the “STEEP” axis can adds context and the ability
to create more actionable analyses
STRATEGIC TOOLS: STEEP/SWOT MATRIX
S(trengths)
W(weaknesses)
O(pportunities)
T(hreats)
S(ocial) T(echnology) E(conomic) E(cological) P(olitical)
http://prezi.com/z7a5keenwroz/how-to-build-a-city-with-a-city/

10. “...(use) design methods that promote the spontaneity of idea sharing (not a method that leads
to a particular result)”
- Design to verbs not nouns: (ask how a city functions in terms of actions rather than things)
- ”Creative amnesia”: when approaching a new problem sometimes the first thing to do is forget
what you know (way harder to do than it sounds)
- Look at the overlaps of function rather than discreet functions in isolation
- Try not to be too prepared (every strategist gasps for breath...)
STRATEGIC TOOLS: PROBLEM SOLVING TRICKS
http://prezi.com/z7a5keenwroz/how-to-build-a-city-with-a-city/

11. CONNECTED DEVICES

12. TELEVISION: INDUSTRY OR DEVICE?
Awesome “future of” session with MIT’s incredibly sharp Henry Holtzman
TV is dead.
TV is more successful than ever.
Most of us have heard iterations of both - but “TV” isn’t defined solely as a device (or set)
Fundamental truth: people will always seek entertainment; GOOD entertainment
TV “channel” or network is what is in danger of becoming meaningless - it’s no longer an
organizing principle given the plethora of content out there
Particularly endangered is the network channel which doesn’t seem to have any kind of
cohesive thread binding discrete content together

13. THE “SECOND SCREEN”
Currently we develop apps for a second device to monopolize a viewers attention - as a
companion to a TV show, with the assumption people WANT to be monopolized
The reality is, people don’t want to pay full attention to a single entity
Doing “something else” while watching TV isn’t a new behavior - people have always
done other things with things that don’t require their undivided attention (reading, leaving
the room, cooking, eating...) -
Yes, people do like talking to each other about shows, which is why social media is
perfect forum for having conversations - but creating a standalone app to moderate social
conversation can be meaningless - it’s far more simple to just play on existing platforms

14. FUTURE OF TV
The Future of TV is bright according to Henry Holtzman: more choices, more places,
interactivity and MORE PIXELS.
Another hypothesis: the Future of TV may lie in the form of the app store rather than a
channel guide...
Premium content migrates out of channels and into apps - creating more interactive, fully
experiential content in ONE space rather than splitting into two screens - in the same way
that magazines + newspapers have become apps (rather than splitting attention between
a ‘screen’ and a paper)

15. A CASE STUDY: NEXTREAM
Holtzman brought up one very interesting MIT project: NeXtream as a “Social TV” platform
This project poses the question: what if we could allow a social network BE the network
(taking the power away from channels)
The simple framework for filtering is as follows:
The screens are working in consort rather than competing for attention - two steps of
filtering and functionality
http://eco.media.mit.edu/static/nextream/index.html

16. • Holtzman brought up one
very interesting MIT
project: Nextream as a
“Social TV” platform
• Essentially it has the
screens working
TOGETHER rather than
competing for attention -
two steps of filtering and
functionality: allowing a
social network BE the
network (taking the
power away from
channels)
• The simple framework for
http://eco.media.mit.edu/static/nextream/index.html

17. HOW TO DESIGN FOR KIDS

18. DESIGNING EXPERIENCES FOR KIDS
Loved this last session of the event (I also wrote my undergrad dissertation in children and
play, so perhaps a bias...)
Things to bear in mind to successfully design for kids:
1. use of natural elements
2. utilize a range of play experiences
And remember: kids create their own narratives for whatever space you give them - kids
will make play without you facilitating a thing

19. What we once thought kid’s play
looked like...

20. ...how kid’s play best.

21. “Play doesn’t make a kid a better adult,
it makes a kid a better kid”

22. 5 KEYS TO SUCCESSFUL PLAY
1. Wabi sabi - the idea of impermanence (slight imperfections - holes, strings...)
2. Secrets - dens, forts, a place that’s away -- finding the secret world in a video game
3. Hard fun - adventure play - play with an element of risk
4. Play with scale - feeling very small vs. feeling very big
5. Real - playing with REAL things vs. kid versions of the real

23. CONTAGIOUS IDEAS

24. CONTAGIOUS IDEAS
Jonah Berger led an interesting session centered around his book, Contagious - the science
behind how things catch on (ugh, “go viral”)
Still a very salient point - “social currency” being one of the most motivating factors of a
contagious idea - being an individual ‘in the know’ is a fundamental human desire.
I stumbled on some great sketch notes summarizing the main seven thesis points of
Berger’s framework for contagious ideas (which is far more interesting than me writing
them...)

25. http://www.thegraphicrecorder.com/2013/03/20/sketchnotes-of-good-life-project-interview-with-jonah-berger/

26. http://www.thegraphicrecorder.com/2013/03/20/sketchnotes-of-good-life-project-interview-with-jonah-berger/

27. HOW TO BE FABULOUS

28. OH HAI!
You say: “Drag show?”
I say: “Yes please.” (duh)
Wild horses couldn’t keep me away from the ever-fabulous Sheila Dubai...
Brave, unapologetic and fabulous, huge kudos to Ms. Sheila for strutting her stuff and
reminding us all the core of this conference - to cut loose a bit and remember to have FUN
while learning a thing or two.

29. BE F!@#ING FABULOUS
Fun exercises comprised much of the session, the most important reminder was: BE INTERESTING
I know that sounds a bit wank-ish, but sometimes we forget - we’re too wrapped up in the work
itself that we forget that being super interesting people MAKE us good at the work
Do things that you love and that ignite your creative spirit and the “work” answers often become
more clear:
- having deep passions = new perspective
- don’t be afraid to use that perspective in how you solve (work related) problems
- utilize that unique perspective as a problem solving lens rather a filter for judgement

30. SEE Y’ALL NEXT YEAR...