Russell Davies

13th August

blog detox

I'm about to have two weeks holiday so I think I'm going to try and be blog-free for a fortnight.

(Which is also because where I'm going will be fairly devoid of wifi etc.)

And I'm quite interested in seeing if it changes how I look at the world, I've always maintained that being a (slightly) regular blogger makes you more observant - it makes you peer around yourself the whole time, looking for bloggable things. So I wonder if that'll stop.

And I have to do quite a lot of writing while I'm away, so I'm looking forward to doing it in a big black notebook with a big fat pen. That'll be fun.

See you all soon.

what's next for planning

In my role as Chair of the APG, I'm supposed to be writing a piece for Campaign about the future of planning and that. I have some thoughts, and I've been quite inspired by my experiences at the US planning conference and judging the UK APG awards.

But it's going to be very hard to do better than something Dylan Williams has written for the APG website. Have a look. See what you think. I think it's brilliant. You can get it by going here, scrolling down a little and downloading it.

Planning Conference - final thoughts

First of all, I have to say, the organisation was flawless. Apart from some microphone issues on the first day all the technical stuff was seamless (and the technical people were lovely, which is always nice.)

The 4As and the Planning folk who ran the thing did it all really well. Nice coffee. Reasonable hotel. All the basics taken care of.

And I don't think they should be blamed for the fact that most of the speakers didn't really set the place alight. On paper they were all good choices. We all bought tickets after all. It's just that, for some reason, on the day, quite a lot of them were a bit dull.

It was also very odd meeting people who read the blog. There's a disconcerting imbalance to meeting someone who knows lots about you, when you know nothing about them. Though it's obviously very gratifying.

And it's slightly worrying that people are starting to link to my comments about the conference. In my head I'm writing for about 5 people who read the blog who I kinda know. I may have to get more circumspect if more people are going to read it.

I'd love to go back to Chicago when it's less hot. There seems to be a really vibrant commitment to public art there, but unless you have an air-conditioned suit it's too hot in August to go and look at it.

And finally, I was reminded how much I like Americans. Even in the airport a couple of people came up and said 'nice job' about the speech, which would never have happened in the UK. Even if people were thinking it (which they probably wouldn't be.) Incredibly generous and polite people, Americans.

Buying and Valuing Creativity

Miles Nadal is a really smart man. He kinda hides it behind an incredibly flat and minimal presentation style. And MDC are really interesting - a Canadian company with stakes in people like Crispin Porter and Bruce Mau.

They understand that creative people and companies don't necessarily want to work for them, but they do need to grow and they need someone to help with that. And there is entrepeneurial opportunity in that.

my thing

Seemed to go OK, though everyone looks kind of bored in this picture.

It was very nice to meet lots of people who read the blog (though kind of wierd too.)

if anyone wants to contribute to Planning 3.1 the link is here (the password is 'apg')

And the UK APG - which I urge you all to join - is here.

Business For Diplomatic Action

Keith Reinhard is speaking now. From Business For Diplomatic Action. He's talking about America's image around the world.

And obviously lots of data is showing that America's prestige around the world is in decline. But I don't think this is the only truth of this issue. Have a look at this editorial from Adrenalin mag. Click on it to make it bigger, and readable.

I like this guy. This is proper old school presenting. Well-written. (Actually written as a speech, not a seat of your pants presentation.) Articulate. Occasional flashes of dry humour. Good use of video and quotes.

sweltering gehry

Wandered over to Millenium Park at lunchtime and saw a recital going on in the sweltering heat. Lovely to see the orchestra in shorts. The Gehry pavilion is a fantastic thing.

The only problem with both that, and the Anish Kapoor sculpture is when it's sunny, they're very hard to look at .

the rest of day two

Gareth's summed it up much better than I can. He was very good in his panel session, as was Malcolm Russell from MindShare.

I've been concentrating on writing my own thing for tomorrow. It's called Planning 3.1 And I can't really remember why. But I've built a little wiki here (the password is 'apg') that I thought I'd invite people to visit and help me to create.

Might be interesting. I've just chucked up some really basic initial thoughts for now.

Malcolm Gladwell

Malcolm Gladwell was, of course, very good.

Articulate, amusing, clever, engaging.

Of course if you've read his books or heard him speak then you might have heard all the stuff. But it's still worth hearing again.

It reminded me that there's nothing like knowing your topic for making your speech any good. And there's nothing like writing a book for knowing your topic. That's probably why Mark was the only other significantly good speaker.