Last Thursday, I had the privilege of attending the Creative3 Awards. It was my first time going to the Awards. But I did get to the Creative3 Dinner last year. Indeed, I believe the Creative3 Awards replaced the Dinners because the Creative3 teams like to keep things fresh by mixing things up. The event was extra special because the team was celebrating ten years of Creative3!

I always enjoy activities organised by QUT CEA because they bring the most interesting speakers. But before we get to the four speakers, here are the four winners from the afternoon:

The Rising Star, Creative Tech: Creatively Squared
The Innovator, Creative Tech: Toast VR
The Rising Star, Fashion: Buluuy Mirrii
The Creative Trailblazer: Monica Davidson

Congratulations to all the winners! They were a great cross-section of the creative industries sector of Australia. But now, on to the speaker!

The first speaker was Carolyn Miller, the founding director of communications consultancy: The Honeycomb Effect. She gave a fascinating talk about brands and how important and emotive it can be. She also touched on how we often define ourselves by NOT following brands, but that still involves acknowledging brands. As I was sitting there, I was thinking about how I consider myself an Android person and partly define myself by not buying Apple products. I enjoyed her talk that’s partially captured in the article “There Are No Boring Brands, Just Boring Marketers“.

The next speaker was Nick Rakis, who is a business designer and founding Partner of Accelio. He is one of the mastermind CSIRO’s ON PRIME program. His talk focused on the fall of Blackberry, and now Microsoft was heading that way after losing the mobile wars to Google and Apple. But he pointed out that Microsoft had quietly bounced back, overtaking Google and Amazon in market cap during our current cloud and AI wars. He talked about how the current CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, hand changed the culture of Microsoft so that it could better tackle current and future challenges. The central message of listening to customers is one I have heard before. Still, unfortunately, it is a message that businesses just don’t seem to do! After his talk, I added Satya Nadella’s book, Hit Refresh, to my wish list.

Now for a fashion interlude! — And now: A fashion interlude!

(I swear the audience missed it’s cue to clap on the day but that’s another story!)

After a short break and a short fashion show, we were back with Mareile Osthus, who is the Chief Category Management Officer, The Iconic! Her talk focused on “new retail” now that we are no longer bound the old limits of geography. She talked about how, when she was growing up in a small town in Europe, she could tell a classmate who was wearing a particular brand had most likely been to the US recently. You can’t do that anymore. I mean, obviously there are still places where Amazon does deliver or the Iconic is not available. But for the most part, brands are not geographically bound and we can shop any brand, any style and at the price point of our choice. So what becomes the differentiator? Mareile suggested it will be around values, customer experience and aspirations. I agree and I think new retail will be exciting!

Finally, the last talk of the night was delivered by Adam Elliot, the Oscar Award-winning independent stop-motion animation writer and director. Unlike the others, he’s talk was more motivational and less educational. But it was a great way to end the afternoon. I enjoyed all the talks, and I look forward to seeing what Creative3 does next year!