Fast Stratgey

Flying in the face of adversity, following boycotting and protests from some leading agencies and not forgetting a good old-fashioned pummellling from Russell Davies, the Fast Strategy Conference went ahead without a hitch.

While the subject of the conference has polarised opinion and lead to cries of heresy it has certainly aroused the interests of planners in a way that has not been witnessed since 'Is blogging Killing Planning' debate. For the record the IPA Startegy Group are not promoting the idea of 'Fast Strategy' or that fast is better than slow. Instead we are trying to recognise the fact that the world of commerce is changing and our clients needs are changing too. This has never been more clearly evidenced than in the events of the last two weeks. We can ignore this evidence but at our peril. The least we can do is raise the debate and in that respect we have achieved taht simple objective.

So what of the conference itself?

There were some outstanding presentations on the subject of Fast Stratgey from leading planners within the industry including Adam 'Eat Big Fish' Morgan, Rita Clfton and Richard Storey. You'll be able to view their presentations here very soon and follow the on-going debate.

The winning team was lead by Amelia Torode answering the challenge set by Ian Armstrong of Honda who asked the three teams to help them lanuch a new eco car in the context of increased financial pressures on consumers. The winning pitch was encapsulated in the thought 'waste nothing'. The runners up were lead by Dave Trott with the thought 'We not Me' and Kate Stanners' team with the thought 'The Power of Frugal'. All provided some compelling thinking in the time they had available and this was recognised by the client and audience alike.

Please keep the debate alive, thank you all for your contributions and look forward to seeing you at our next conference in Spring 2009.