Planting new thoughts

Why the term is in danger of becoming meaningless. This week, many of the industry’s finest minds are gathering in the beautiful city of Amsterdam for the annual Insight Innovation eXchange Europe conference ( IIeX ). I was fortunate enough to attend IIeX Europe two years ago, and was inspired by the clarity of thinking, quality of presentations, creativity of solutions, level of collaboration and, yes, the insight on display. I came back buzzing with ideas for new ways to think about developing insight and how the output might become better embedded within an organisation. Since then, I have spent time with other insight-focused organisations and conferences including Insight Management Academy , Insight Intelligence and the Insight Show . These interactions have further reinforced my belief in the power of insight. It also got me thinking about what true insight is and how it can make a real difference - given my job title was ‘Head of Insight’, I figured I should ha...

Why the actual is fighting back against the virtual. Over the last few weeks, I have read, heard and watched lots of predictions for the year ahead – the media and communications industry loves a prediction at this time of year. These predictions typically morph into a few meta-themes and for 2017, most were centred around the ever-tighter grip that technology will exert over our lives, both professionally and personally. Artificial intelligence, machine learning, virtual reality, chatbots …. unbelievable and exciting advances in technology helping us to automate just about everything. But whilst most predictions foreshadowed ‘traditional’ media coming under increasing pressure from the overlords of automation, I did detect something else. A mention here, an aside there, maybe even the odd demi-prediction. A recognition that the more our lives are dictated by technology, the more important it will be to ensure a human counter-balance. Focusing on ‘real’ rather than ‘reali...