Planning-ness

So, we were supposed to have the major Planning Conference in SF this summer and on my agenda was always, "What can we do at the Academy and with the students to create some awareness of Art of Planning"  Then the planning conference got canceled.  Which surprised no one.  Many consider it a lackluster event with too many planners saying the same thing about how great we are ... while our industry continues to prove us wrong by doing very little in regards to changing the world.  Way too much talking and listening.

So, time to move on....

But not so fast.  Mark Lewis at DDB San Francisco wasn't about to let it die, and he would ditch the talking and listening and concentrate on DOING.  He started speaking with people about doing something different, the movement happened on Facebook, blogs and through Mark's relentless pursuit of getting people interested excited! I knew there were two things the Academy had plenty of to offer - space for hosting and passionate students for volunteering - so I offered those up to Mark.  Well, Mark wrestled with the many logistics regarding organizing a conference, but it finally started to come together - and he was going to need both our space and volunteers.

You can see more about what happened on the Planning-ness site or twitter buzz: including bios, decks and videos of the amazing workshop technicians.

But, I thought I'd give my path.

First, this thing sprung on me like a startled water moccasin. I'd been pretty distracted by Mary's health and trying to keep 6 classes + the AP department in order when I suddenly realized that really cool people were going to be hanging in our house pretty soon.  The night before the event, we couldn't start setting up until about 9:30 because of classes in 60Fed - furthermore once it was down to just 3 of us around midnight (we had sent the student volunteers home), Mark decided we needed to shift the rooms because of increased participation.  This made for about 4 hours of sleep (both nights, but the 2nd was due to partying).  However, despite the hurried putting together and the exhaustion, the event was remarkable.  The students who attended were professional, smart, enthusiastic and participatory.  The speakers were enthralling and thought-provoking.  The attendees were fun and interested in doing things differently.  Again, you can find many people out there chatting about it.

Let me try ten personal things worth a remark:
1) Standing in 21st Amendment + our ADV office talking with Grant McCracken about the direction of education and learning was as exhilarating as his amazingly insightful talk about creating a CCO (which I think is right on.)
2) Max Schorr co-founder of GOOD magazine getting me to think about coding the Awesomeness Manifesto for Wall Street.
3) Rob White and Adrain Ho got us to think with a Beginner's Mind, rather than best practices. (thanks Evgenia, I owe you)
4) Having a little student mini-session with Ken Ecklund, thinking about applied play/gaming. He is the brilliant creator behind The World Without Oil game.
5) Gareth Kay and Jason Oke calling out Connections Planning.
6) Clay Parker Jones making me think more about the small things that can create big things, and the ease to experiment ... so why not try?
7) Ed Cotton giving great advice and engaging with Apo.
8) Meeting and reconnecting with so many lovely people.
9) Wish I could somehow split in two and made Frank's presentation; glad the deck is available... hopefully video too.
10) Andrew O'Dell smelling my beard ... twice. Something special about that.

Anyway, I got planning-saturated.  It had immediate impact on my lectures and will have lasting impact on the program and me as a thinker.  Thanks to all who made it such a fabulous experience, and there are many of you!

Picture: My Account Planning 2 students made a game for an assignment 2 years ago ... little did I know games and making would trend pretty heavy in that space in just a couple years!