Everything that happens at Stream is assumed to be off the record. Why? Because it allows people to speak candidly, and stop pitching (even if it’s only for three days).
Socrates (or Sokrats for those who have seen him in his starring movie role) challenged the conventional wisdom of his time, which ultimately got him killed…BTW, by asking questions and engaging his audience to answer them.
15th November 2017, and I’m at an event I can’t place in a place I can’t pronounce: this is Stream in Ojai, California, helpfully explained to me as an unconference.
#WPPstream came to the USA for the first time last week. Innovators, founders, tech titans, members of the military, commentators, Pulitzer winners, spoken word poets, artists and electric tuba players gathered for three days.
Earlier this month, I attended Stream, WPP’s unconference hosted by their CEO Sir Martin Sorrell and Israeli technology pioneer Yossi Vardi where they handpick a group of 300 brand execs, media and technology leaders and entrepreneurs to share on any topics they want by the beach in Greece.
As the founder of a young startup, a persistent voice in the din of my mind is always questioning me: how to sustain innovation and build an environment that will enable a free flow of ideas; questioning the norm; and fostering a no-holds-barred climate of enabling genius.
Contrary to the opinion of much of Hollywood, the architects of dystopia will not be the corporate leaders, technologists or marketers of this world. After four days at WPP Stream among the company of some of the world’s best in those fields, I’m now clearer than ever on that.
This year I’m excited to have participated in WPP Stream for the 3rd time, and I already hope to be coming back next year! As a person who is used to attending a lot of conferences and events, I may hear you ask, what’s so exciting about an un-conference anyway?
In October 2016, I won a wildcard place at the WPP Stream 2016 in Athens.
It’s not every week that a man who built a $20bn company invites you to a remote weekend retreat with 320 of his closest friends.
Agoraphobia is a rare condition in a medical sense but an all too common one at work. There are two challenges; the first is to find an open space (to be scared of?), the second to enjoy the freedom that the space allows.
WPP's annual Stream event is billed as the (un)conference for (un)conventional thinkers. So what goes on out there? Three guests who have just returned tell us what they learned at Stream 2015...
WPP’s Stream unconference this year was a 2.5 day mind meld around all things digital – from the neuroscience of marketing (did your eyes really see what they saw?) to the latest thinking around content strategy… and even a session on work/life balance.
Technology - the most creative, powerful new force on the planet - is disrupting the oldest institution in the old world, the Establishment. Here are a few of the hi-tech hot tickets.
In 1492, the Queen and King of Spain sent Columbus in search of a better trade route to Asia. He discovered a new world and reported back, “the world is round.”
Increasingly, India is becoming the next frontier for digital growth, and #StreamIndia is just the platform to explore the digital future.
Three days of absolutely stunning conversation, interacting with the friendliest mega-minds behind some of the smartest companies in India, getting a 3D print out of myself (and I’m not gonna lie, a fully Bollywood dance floor!). WHAT’S NOT TO LOVE?!
Everyone's talking about it. It's the topic of the moment. I'm doing it right now. Even President Obama's doing it.
With many individuals from different all aspects of the healthcare spectrum participating, an attendee always felt like he or she would get a fresh take on every topic.
What happens when you put health policy experts, deans of medical schools, pharmaceutical executives, heads of electronic medical record companies and tech entrepreneurs together in a room?
It's too easy when you spend your time shuttling between London, New York and San Francisco to forget that there's a whole other world out there. A world that isn't dominated by Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Twitter.
This year we were privileged to attend another wildly successful WPP Stream — and this year might have been the biggest yet.
Thoughts and reflections from WPP Stream 2016
If you thought business meetings can only be done in conference rooms and around round tables, it’s time to think again!
Stream is a private, invitation-only (un)conference, hosted by Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, and Yossi Vardi, the godfather of Israel’s hi-tech industry.
Stream is not inhibited by narrow definitions. Instead it explodes in every direction, to remind us how narrowly we marketers have come to frame this most human of all human attributes. Creativity.
The thing with health initiatives is that they are not always one-size-fits-all.
It’s the unpredictability that I love. You’re surprised by scintillating thoughts from someone you haven’t heard of or met before, and there are many such at each Stream.
I've noticed two things about the ad game. First, we're a business that - on the surface - changes and moves at a fast pace.
Think about the first album you ever bought…
I was one of the lucky few to attend WPP's invitation-only "Un-conference," Stream that took place in Ojai CA between November 16 th and 19th, 2016. Hosted by Sir Martin Sorrell and Yossi Vardi, the event attracted the best and brightest minds in advertising. - See more at: http://inmobi.com/blog/2016/12/07/wpp-stream-and-the-cost-of-trust-in-advertising#sthash.5J5WQCHP.dpuf
As a regular meditator, I’m in a twice daily pursuit of a deeper state of consciousness. But beyond running beachside meditation sessions at Stream (itself quite the departure from my day job of running our digital business in Europe), I didn’t expect to undergo a genuine mind-set shift at WPP Stream.
Whoop! Play boosts the immune system. True story, it enables our brains to positively overcome our fears, inhibitions and inherent baggage to actively Think Differently. It cajoles us to face challenges in a non-threatening way, forging new pathways and opening our minds to possibilities never imagined…
If there were three words to describe the events that were soon to follow, they would be: Fun, Intellectual, and of course, Network.
WPP's Stream is unlike any conference I've ever been to. Appropriate then, that it is billed as an "unconference". No schedule, no agenda, and certainly no PowerPoint.
Western visitors to India are confronted by a paradox of the things they know and the things they see. On the one hand some know that the CEO’s of Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Pepsico, Infosys and others are Indian.
You may have an important health message, but if you're not reaching the right audience for that message, it may as well all be for naught.
Over the past four years we’ve been bombarded with Millennial talk. Truth be told, I suggest we stop using the term Millennial altogether.
Last month, I had the privilege to attend WPP's first Stream Africa event, "The (un)conference for (un)conventional thinkers".
Having just returned from the amazing WPP event, Stream Asia in Phuket, Thailand, I’m both excited and encouraged at how brands are starting to respond to the opportunities that mobile programmatic advertising offers.
I was excited and yet anxious when I received my first invitation to WPP's Stream Un-Conference. This came from two places - first, what in the world was an un-conference and second, would I be outnumbered, as someone on the client-side, by creative and media agencies?
If Snapchat and its soon-to-be everywhere clones survive the boom bust cycle that is the new world of mobile phone apps, I think it will be a sign that we are not OK with EVERYTHING being shared and pinned to our social resume until well past our last days on earth.
Are you a Diamond or Graphite? Clue? You could be either. It's all a matter of organisation.
No agenda, no keynotes and no sales pitches. No PowerPoint presentations, no suits and no egos (well, not as many as usual).
The Stream conference uses a user-generated or crowd-sourced conference format, which is highly interactive and demands and gets total participation. No predetermined format, no agenda, nobody laying down a roadmap -- it's totally democratic, even anarchic.
Our most recent gathering in Cannes was a characteristically inspiring meeting of minds serving as a distraction from the noise of the festival (plus flip-flops and pastels are just more conducive to creative thinking, fact).
There's no shortage of new health technology in this day and age -- but we need a shift in thinking in how we use this technology, says Ben Ingersoll, chief creative officer at Grey Healthcare Group.
Away from the Croisette, a short boat ride away, Tuesday afternoon is WPP Stream@Cannes. This year Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner visited the advertising asylum along with...
