These are my top takeaways from the 2011 PSFK conference in NYC and what these trends mean for the advertising industry and agencies. BIG thanks to Vanessa Carney and Avin Narasimhan for sharing notes with me (I lost my notebook after the conference). Without your notes and subsequent blogs posts I definitely wouldn't have remembered half this stuff.

1. 2011 PSFK CONFERENCE

2. “PSFK is the go-to source
for new ideas for creative
professionals. Our aim is
to inspire our readers,
our guests and our clients
to make things better -
whether that’s better
products, better services
or better ways of living.”
Piers Fawkes, founder & CEO
www.PSFK.com

3. Making creativity happen
Merging the digital and physical
worlds
Ending boredom
New heroes
What it all means

4. MAKING CREATIVITY
HAPPEN
Ask yourself:
• Is it smart?
• Is it simple?
• Is it surprising?
• Will anyone give a shit?

5. MAKING CREATIVITY
HAPPEN
The barriers are lower
than ever before.
You just need to get
out there and create.

6. "People want to be part of things."
- Yancey Strickler

7. Airbnb.com was created in 48 hours when the founders
needed to pay their rent.
It has become “the eBay of space”

8. MERGING THE DIGITAL
AND PHYSICAL WORLDS.
We’ve moved from the Information Age to what she calls the “hybrid
age” - we’re not just using gadgets but we will experience life
amongst technology, where technology will proliferate with sensors
all around us, when machines become more intelligent...what will
happen is that this age will be full of a lot of disruptions

9. MACHINES WITH
PERSONALITY.
Technology is
becoming so ingrained
in how we live, we
often forget where one
ends and the other
begins.

10. RACHEL STERNE IS THE CHIEF
DIGITAL OFFICER FOR THE CITY OF
NEW YORK.

11. Mobile tags are everywhere.

22. IS MOBILE TAGGING THE
FUTURE?

23. THE NEED FOR DIGITAL
LITERACY
• How does all this
technology work?
• What am I agreeing to?
• Whatis being done
with my information?

24. ENDING BOREDOM
• AaronDignan is on a
mission to end
boredom.
• Game-like experiences
can make ordinary
tasks extremely
compelling.

25. For most people, work is boring.
Life would be more fun if it were more
like a game.

26. Why do we like games?
• Games have structure
• Games are satisfying
• Games have rich narratives
• Games can be learned
• Games can be measured
• Games provide feedback in a timely

27. The best games live
here
Anxiety
Challenge
w
F lo
Boredom
Skill level

28. Focus on what makes games exciting to
people.
Create opportunities for participants to
learn and develop skills to drive
satisfaction.

29. Points and badges use game mechanics
to prey on people’s compulsions. It’s just
baiting people. And it wears off.

30. NEW HEROES
Everyone who spoke was a “maker.”
They had an idea. They didn’t know if it would work,
they probably heard a lot of reasons why it wouldn’t.
They didn’t do months of analysis or build out
detailed plans accounting for every eventuality.
They just did it.
They failed often.
And so they revised and did it again. and again.

31. Crisitunity!

32. IF MAKERS ARE THE NEW HEROES,
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR DIGITAS?
We need to embrace the maker culture.
We need to become faster, nimbler, unafraid to
fail.
We need to stop throwing away the ideas that
clients aren’t ready for.
We need to let our ideas fly or die.

33. WE HAVE TO, BECAUSE THE
COMPETITION IS ALREADY THERE.
New Horizons

34. “Communications tools don’t
become socially interesting
until they become
technologically boring.”
-Clay Shirky