‘Hegarty on Creativity: There are No Rules’ by John Hegarty

In this book, Hegarty takes 50 “provocations” that lie at the heart of creative thinking and succinctly explains how to harness, nurture and sustain creativity. It doesn’t matter if you make your living in the creative industries, this book is a condensed masterclass in the process of applying the creative process in everything you do.

We all want our tweets and Facebook posts to go viral organically, by the sheer power of their brilliance. But sometimes, your social content may just need a little nudge to give it the exposure it deserves. So are sponsored tweets and posts (in which you pay to promote your social media posts to people outside your network) the solution?

We’ve just done our first Pecha Kucha session at the Make Happy office, covering topics like the rules of cricket, surviving life on a narrow boat and the marketing strategies of British Airways. So what is Pecha Kucha? And why would you want to do one?

Simply put, it is a presentation format where you show 20 slides for just 20 seconds. The idea is that it simplifies and focuses talks, only having 20 seconds keeps things interesting and moving along. It started in Japan in 2003 (the word literally means ‘chit-chat’) and now Pecha Kucha nights are held in over 700 cities around the world!

Doing a Pecha Kucha was a great way to reinforce what’s really important when putting together a presentation. The format definitely gave me some points to think about next time I am presenting. As ever, structure, pacing and having simple defined points are the key.

The foundation of a great Pecha Kucha is to focus on a topic you are passionate about and will enjoy sharing. The beauty is that it’s a really accessible medium and pretty much anyone can get up and have a go. It’s also just a great way to practice your presentation skills.

Have you been to a Pecha Kucha night before? Or have you presented one yourself? What did you think?

Keeping inspired and working towards that next great idea is something we all want to achieve. An interesting article I read recently from the Fast Company explores the research of Joel Chan and Christian Schunn and the science behind brainstorming, these are some top points from the article:

Presentations are hardly anyone’s idea of fun. For many of us, it can be very easy to over complicate the situation, get increasingly stressed and start the sort of procrastination session, that although impressive, won’t be getting you any closer to the pitch perfect presentation you really want. Luckily here are are 6 points to set you on track and get you well on your way to presenting like a pro!

Any business can now be disrupted or a disruptor. This was the headline message from a HBR webinar I recently attended based on the article ‘Big Bang Disruption: Strategy in the Age of Devastating Innovation’.

Does the thought of having that difficult conversation fill you with dread? Will you do anything to avoid conflict in the workplace?

Last Thursday the world of e-commerce was shaken to its core as Asos, the poster child of online retail, issued a profit warning and 40% was wiped off its share value.

A brand pyramid is a great tool that quickly gets to the heart of a brand. It concisely communicates how a brand emotionally connects with its customers at a number of levels. We use the brand pyramid for our clients and last week I was given the challenge to come up with a brand pyramid for Make Happy. This is the pyramid I came up with.