Marcus Collins, award-winning marketeer and cultural translator, author of the best-selling book ‘For the Culture: the Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do and Who We Want to Be’ and digital strategist for Beyonce on the value in belonging. The former Chief Strategy Officer at Weiden and Kennedy and recipient of Advertising Age's 40 under 40 award who was inducted into the American advertising Federation Advertising Hall of Achievement tells us how the work of philosopher, Emile Durkheim and Beyonce, queen of the Beyhive, have taught him to ditch the trendspotting and tap into the power of organic communities.

Further reading: My site: www.marctothec.com/fortheculture LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marctothec/
Book: For The Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and Who We Want To Be

Emmanuel Probst, global brand thought leader at Ipsos, adjunct professor at UCLA, Wall Street Journal and USA Today best-selling author of Brand Hacks on the art and science of brand transformation. His fascination in the quest for meaning is explored further in his latest book, Assemblage which is about how to build brands that transform people and the world they live in. Emmanuel tells us about the power of brands to influence the future as consumer preference for authenticity, meaning and storytelling exposes performance marketing as tactical and a waste of money.

Further reading:
The Art and Science of Brand Transformation book here: https://rb.gy/qmq41
Emmanuel Probst on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emmanuelprobst/

Sakshi Chhabra Mittal, the founder and CEO of Foodhak on a revolutionary new food subscription delivery and app startup which significantly enhances peoples health and wellness by combining modern technology and traditional ways. A former venture capitalist at Softbank and biotech head at Pfizer, Sakshi tells us how to combine ‘delicious’ and ‘good’ in food to offset what she calls The Four Horsemen - Cancer, Diabetes, Dementia and cardiovascular disease, and lead a revolution in healthy food.

Further reading:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chhabrasakshi/?originalSubdomain=uk
https://foodhak.com/

Dr Eric Solomon, founder and CEO of The Human OS, on the intersection of psychology, brand building technology and creativity. His experience in marketing leadership positions for YouTube, Spotify, Google, Instagram and Bonobos has led to his development of what he calls the Human Operating System. As he helps leaders steer their companies through the risks of AI, he reminds us to keep 'humanity in the tech stack' by asking themselves the purpose of what we are doing and why in order to best to navigate change.

FURTHER READING LINKS:
My site: www.TheHumanOS.co
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericinnyc/
Author page on Entrepreneur: https://www.entrepreneur.com/author/eric-solomon

Allen Adamson, co-founder of Metaforce, author and adjunct professor at the New York Stern School of Business on how to innovate experiences beyond the consumer perspective and the importance of curiosity in the age of the marketeers. As someone who comes with a rich background in both agency and business, he explains why observation of the absurdities of life are the key to communicating great ideas, and why Jerry Seinfeld if hadn’t made his name in comedy, would have been a great marketing man.

Further Reading:
www.metaforce.com
https://allenadamson.com/seeing-the-how-book/

Dev Patnaik, keynote speaker, CEO of Jump Associates, board member of Conscious Capitalism and author of Wired to Care on how empathy will drive business, why learning and growing are essential for its future, and how the next 10 years will determine the happiness of the human condition for the next 1000 years. A trusted advisor to some of the most influential companies in the world, he explains how to learn is ‘to listen and repeat’, while to grow is ‘to do and reflect,’ creating purpose in the boardroom, which is the essence of conscious capitalism.

Further Reading Links:
Dev in Forbes, link to page: https://www.forbes.com/sites/devpatnaik/?sh=55aa1ac122f3
Dev in MarketWatch: Tech companies are suddenly playing it safe---why that’s a blunder.
Dev in Chief Executive: The Disney Effect: How CEOs Can Fortify Against the Panic Button Era
Dev in Ad Age: Superfans and Microtribes: How brands can harness passionate consumers to drive growth.
Dev in Fast Company: Widespread Empathy: Rewiring Your Corporation for Intuition
Link to Dev’s book on Amazon: Wired to Care

Dr Mansoor Ahmed-Rengers is the founder of Frankli and OpenOrigins and a researcher at the University of Cambridge. In this episode he discusses how to combat media manipulation tools such as deepfakes and generative AI. Mansoor predicts that once the hype dies, AI-generated content will be seen as cheap and derivative and that prestige brands will want to distinguish themselves by showcasing human-made content. Brands that completely divest from old school, non-AI ways of creating content will realise it was a massive mistake in a matter of 3-5 years.

Further Reading:
frankliapp.com
www.openorigins.com

Heather McGowan, keynote speaker, author and champion of humans in the Future of the Work on how business leaders must prepare for a post-pandemic world. One of Forbes’ top 50 Female Futurists, she preaches the importance of life/work integration to reset the way we think as Gen Z begins to replace Boomers in the workplace. Heather emphasizes that it is not "where we work" that matters but how "work fits into people’s lives" today.

Further Reading:

https://heathermcgowan.com/about
https://www.linkedin.com/in/heathermcgowan/

Michael Donahue, who has spent 60 years in the advertising business including leadership roles at the ANA (Association of National Advertisers) and the 4A's (American Association of Advertising Agencies) reminds us of a) the importance of continuous learning and curiosity, b) why it is never too late to pioneer and innovate (Michael led the 4A's drive into digital over two decades ago when he was at "retirement age"), and c) the need to focus on loyal users and the next generation and, finally, how we should be more worried about the Fear of Finding Out (FOFO) versus the Fear of Missing Out (FOMO).

Further Reading:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-donahue-460b425/

https://www.mediavillage.com/article/2023-the-year-to-get-back-to-basics-turning-common-sense-ideas-into-common-business-practices/print/

https://www.mediavillage.com/article/two-way-mentoring/

https://www.mediavillage.com/article/marketers-need-to-connect-the-dots-developers-of-transformation-successes/

https://www.mediavillage.com/article/why-and-how-marketers-need-to-lean-in-hard-on-millennials-and-generation-z/

James Rosewell is the founder of https://movementforanopenweb.com/ In this episode, he restates the case for the original vision of the internet as the Open Web. He discusses the increasing influence of the key digital platforms on the shape of the internet and why recent discussions about GDPR, consumer privacy, and the death of the 3rd party cookie are more nuanced than they might appear.

Further Reading Links:

James Rosewell Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rosewell/
https://twitter.com/jwrosewell
https://movementforanopenweb.com/#join
https://movementforanopenweb.com/mows-mission-opening-the-web-for-everyone/

Topic further reading links:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/toothless-digital-watchdog-is-all-bark-claim-critics-w0qz76mt7

https://digiday.com/marketing/googles-privacy-sandbox-updates-are-met-with-both-skepticism-and-a-little-more-optimism/