Last friday saw the first Learn, Create, Produce event which was hosted by CIG. It was an day born of a very simple idea: why can't Guernsey hold a well respected and attended annual event celebrating creative talent and thinking from around the world through a series of talks?
A lofty goal to be sure but one that got off to a flying start last week at the Duke of Richmond Hotel when a packed room of delegates welcomed Theo Lorenz and Professor Tanja Siems from London's Architectural Association, Anthony Tasgal of POV and MPC's Ben Cyzer.
First up were Theo Lorenz and Professor Tanja Siems who talked of the importance of collaboration and having the flexibility to compromise to come to a conclusion. They illustrated this through a series of projects that they and their students at the AA have undertaken across Europe. Whereas Anthony Tasgal later called it being a "Hyphenate" Theo and Tanja referred to the idea that we all need to operate in multiple disciplines to achieve our goals and calling people within that "Slashers" (as in "designer/ photographer/illustrator").
Next came Anthony "Tas" Tasgal, a behavioural economist and a truly incredible orator. After a 15 year career in advertising as an Advertising Planner for agencies such as BBDO, DMB&B and Euro RSCG and working on accounts from Amex to KFC, Peugeot to Ford, Glenfiddich to Unilever Anthony started his own Strategic Consultancy, POV, in 1998 specialising in applying new thinking from domains such as science, film and cultural theory and creativity into brand and communication development and training. Tas talked of the importance of storytelling in creativity and understanding the role that emotion plays in that process. It is not enough to simply inform and tell people, you need to engage them at an emotional level.
Last but certainly not least came Ben Cyzer, head of creative strategy at MPC - the global creative studio that works with the advertising, film and entertainment industry on projects such as Life of Pi and the Harry Potter franchise. He talked of the process of delivery and detail and how important execution is to the comprehension of the success or failure of the final idea. The breadth and depth of MPC's work was truly breathtaking as well as extremely humbling.
In between these talks were a series of panel discussion including not only the speakers but also local designers, members of commerce and political voices who talked about points and answered questions from the floor. Dealing with issues from education to connectivity. The event was a complete success and we have loved being involved with the design and organisation of this event and other brand and animation work for CIG . We look forward to being involved in bringing the event back again in 2014.