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I went to the marvellous Like Minds in Exeter at few weeks ago.

Two days of immersives, learning lunches and inspirational speeches. I didn’t even make the evenings of music and film as my fuses were blown. But I’d recommend going along to anyone going next time. It made for some great (overheard) breakfast conversations about whiskey and tapas (among other *things*).

I’m not going to launch into a blow-by-blow account. So much was synthesised, it’s hard to resist the temptation! Instead, I’ve pulled out key learnings in the hope they may be of use.

1. Consider Your Role

The theme was Curation and Creativity – my first ‘one-off’ workshop discussed this with regard to the publishing industry. Fascinating. I could have carried on all day and beyond.

It was posited that we are now all curators. We decide what information to disseminate and to whom – whether it’s Flickr pics, news stories or twitvids sent via Buzz (!), LinkedIn, Facebook etc. So where does this leave the publishing industry?

Many agreed that traditional media should look to evolve relationships with readers. The Times paywall effectively destroyed thousands of relationships – how else to maximise and indeed monetise these rather than focusing on a traditional model?

As someone said, ‘It’s just a journey’. Sure, the media are great at producing stories and have (in some cases) acted as arbiters of taste. But analytics and customer insight enables us to learn ‘how’ to curate or provide news according to audiences.  This is surely a good thing – rather than continuing to arrogantly assume that we know exactly what readers want.

As an ‘insidious marketer’ who creates content for brands, I felt there was a degree of  sneering at brands getting in on the act.  I don’t seen how this has less value or credibility than that of the media writing within an editorial policy. Brands have value to add in terms of contacts, product/sector information and customer relationships? They just don’t offer the breadth and ‘objectivity’ that traditional media offers.

In fact, much of this sentiment echoed that of the Festival of Ideas’ News Futures event ‘What’s The Bloggin’ Story’.

Andrew Dubber negated curation later in the conference suggesting it was not for us to curate content – leave it to the masses. An interesting argument – democratic to the extreme. But it felt slightly messy to me. And a little inconsiderate for those trawling through future content and ascribing values – cultural or otherwise – to something that may have had no value to its originator.

2. Evolve Your Business / Organisation

Evolution of business for the information age was repeated in the lunchtime speech entitled, ‘Can You Crowdsource Creativity’. After a stunted start, defining  crowdsourcing, we agreed that it effectively enables clients to supercharge their pitching.

For those in-house, it was agreed that this is *a good thing* as long as briefing and evaluation is properly managed.  For agency-side, we identified it was necessary to adapt to trends and evolve business and recruitment accordingly.

3. Be Brave
The second ‘one off’ workshop by Shaa Wasmund ‘How To Grow Your Business in the 21st Century’ was less immersive, more inspirational speech. Wow, what a woman.

Shaa gave us some great advice – lots of it intuitive but good to hear illustrated with real life examples.  Top tips?

Build partnerships – be bold and punch above your weight. Collaboration is crucial for success – on and offline.
What’s the worst that could happen? None of us like failure or rejection. But nothing ventured, nothing gained. And if you don’t ask that big corporate to sponsor, get involved, etc – you’ll never know what was possible.
Admit your mistakes - we only learn from our mistakes and we all make them. Showing your stomach shows self assurance and confidence. And asking questions rather than assuming you know (or should know) the answers is another powerful lesson I’ve learnt.
You can’t be good at everything – no wo(man) is an island. An important lesson in these days of micro-business. So build a team and play to your strengths.

4. Stay Present
What initially appeared to be a leftfield speech by Karren Brook from Whitespace Leaders couldn’t have been more apt. Karren talked about the need to be present and aware. Important when talking to clients, collaborators – pretty much anyone really.

Having been to numerous conferences filmed, tweeted, photographed by attendees, I sometimes find it slightly irritating. To properly understand and discuss issues, I find it useful to stay present. Sure, it’s good to share – but often conference organisers already have this covered. As this brings up the issue of curation, I guess it depends on your objectives for the event – to learn, to document or to be seen and heard.

Great Minds Think Alike?
Tosh. I saw on the hashtag an acerbic tweeter getting their knickers in a twist about Like Minds.  Despite it’s billing, the (beautiful) irony is that people don’t think alike. I was keen to debate and hear other views rather than reaching consent with a bunch of polarised groups. And this was fortunately possible – without any  bunfights!

The fabulous Scott Gould and Andrew Ellis compered with panache and dynamism. The best I have seen in fact. Thanks again for a great conference. Looking forward to the next.

All pics thanks to Harry Duns – http://www.flickr.com/photos/harryduns