Fast Company Innovation Festival 2023 Takeaways
A handful of us Lifties had the privilege of attending Fast Company’s Innovation Festival this fall in the bustling Big Apple. The event brought together a diverse community of marketers and innovators from across the world, fostering enlightening discussions, purposeful networking, and invaluable insights.
Without a doubt, it stands out as one of the best marketing conferences and CE experiences we've been a part of as a team. The hands-on “Fast Tracks” workshops around the city allowed us to visit marketing agencies, businesses, and brands we use every day or aspire to be.
Here’s a breakdown of our top takeaways:
Listening Like a Leader: How to Do It and What You Aim to Hear
Facilitated by Art Markman, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, University of Texas at Austin
You’ve heard it before: Great leaders are great listeners. But how do you actually foster these skills in increasingly hybrid workplaces? Art Markman unpacked the science behind active listening and refined critical, yet often overlooked, strategies to listen beyond what’s said in a room and understand the values that drive every conversation.
The first law of jazz is that you should listen more than you play. The same is true in leading roles. Spend much more time listening than you do speaking.
People will come to you talking about the symptoms of a problem or what they think are the causes of the problem - a good leader will ask questions about the other. For example, your colleague is telling you that the cause of a problem is XYZ you have to ask what the symptoms are, and vice versa.
As a leader it is pertinent to solve issues in tandem with your team instead of for your team.
Listen for disconfirmation, the solution in your mind might not always be consistent with what’s best for the organization.
Allow yourself to be surprised by terrain you have already walked on. In going through a process, you might have reached the same outcome as someone else, but you can always learn from others perspectives - stay open.
Inefficiency drives innovation - not the reverse. The goal of meetings is not to be efficient, sometimes that means listening to the same information repeatedly - this is a good thing - quell the urge to rush.
The Evolution of Secondhand Shopping with Dianne Von Furstenburg
Hosted by DVF x Archive
Sustainability has been the biggest buzzword in fashion in the past decade. Environmentally conscious consumers want clothes that last and look good. Earlier this year, DVF (Diane von Furstenberg) and Archive partnered to launch the DVF ReWrap resale program. Our team traveled to DVF HQ to hear Diane discuss the history of her iconic brand and share stories behind her favorite pieces.
Stay true to yourself - The best, most important thing we can do for others, is to be true to ourselves. Live your truth and everything else will follow. The relationship you have with yourself is always the most important.
The path to sustainability is timeless and thoughtful design with quality material. Take your time, design with purpose.
“When I started as a young girl, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I knew who I wanted to be - I wanted to be a woman in charge… when people would ask, ‘who do you design for’ I would say ‘a woman in charge.”
Revamp and Refresh: Pearlfisher’s Approach to Design Innovation
Hosted by Pearlfisher
One of the best Fast Tracks of the week, we collaborated at Pearlfisher as they shared their innovative design philosophy and guided us through small breakout groups to create and sketch out our own creative ideas. Pearlfisher’s innovation process collides multiple perspectives to unlock new thinking and transform ideas into reality. They focus on three types of innovation:
Innovation Strategy: Discovering and defining focus areas and roadmap
Brand-Driven Innovation: Meaningfully growing existing brands
Disruptive Innovation: Creating new brands; new categories, products, technologies
Five teams were tasked with Disruptive Innovation, creating a new brand in the hard seltzer category, each working within unique cultural drivers and curveballs.
The winning idea was PAUSE, a hard seltzer targeting women ages 45+ experiencing menopause and perimenopause, with ingredients optimized to ease symptoms.
Congrats to Lindsay for being on the winning team!
Revolutionizing retail: unlocking the power of digital commerce
Presented by Capital One, Rent the Runway, & Warby Parker
From trying on virtual clothes and glasses, to purchasing vehicles with better and faster financing options, consumers are in an era of unprecedented retail innovation. As transactions move increasingly toward digital platforms, companies that adapt to this shift can unlock unparalleled insights to learn more about their customers than ever before and offer them better, more personalized experiences and products. This panel explored how organizations drive digital transformation by utilizing data, emerging technologies, and enhanced transactional experiences to improve customer retention and drive business forward.
Every person needs to feel like they’re getting a customized experience that they are choosing, not that we’re leading them to
People don’t want every single thing digitized- pick & choose
Digical - digital and physical have to intersect
80% of capital one customer calls, just want confirmation - want to talk to another human
Sonic Secrets: An Immersive Journey into Audio Branding with Made Music Studio
We joined global sonic branding agency Made Music Studio in its world-class recording studio to experience an immersive playground of sound, complete with a listening session led by expert producers. Audio innovation has transformed sonic branding through all sectors including entertainment, social media, and industrial and experience design. We learned how our favorite brands use cutting-edge audio technology to create their own identity, and got an exclusive look at the Tostitos Remix generator and even created our own remix.
Thank you, NYC!
Innovation Festival was one for the books. If you’re looking for a next-level marketing conference, these are the top speakers, innovators, & brands…in the greatest city in the world. It left an memorable mark on our team, inspiring us to push boundaries and elevate our work to new heights.
See you next year, New York ;)
