Only when your mind is open will inspiration to innovate come to you. With that in mind, this past week I spent a few days with the creme of wedding planners, dress designers, stylists, bloggers.. and the “Michelangelo of Wedding Cakes” (the incomparable Ms Sylvia Weinstock!) at Engage10, the latest in a series of “Luxury Wedding Summits” of top international wedding industry professionals, held right here in the Cayman Islands. Whilst I have some degree of knowledge of the fast-growing Destination Wedding business through my work with travel and tourism marketing, as well as clients in the creative industries, this was clearly something “at a tangent” for me.
“Engage” is an innovative event, raising the bar for itself every time. Rebecca Grinnals and Engaging Concepts (including Kathryn Arce, holder of the all time best job title, “Director of Awesome” !), continually challenge themselves to improve. The results are clear to see !
Such an environment of smart, innovative and enthused people is always great for ideas and inspiration. From the wedding industry, having “superstars” like Sylvia Weinstock, Marcy Blum, Randy Fenoli and many more gave the event a certain “rock star” quality for the attendees. Beyond that though, the organisers went beyond their niche to bring in other world class talent. To pick out just two :
- Cindy Novotny, a pocket rocket of energy, and, in this social media age, one of the most powerful “face to face” presences I’ve ever seen. No wonder she travels 50 weeks of the year ! You can get a good sense from her blog, but boy, like Springsteen, she’s “better live” !
- Todd Avery Lenahan was a revelation. An internationally prominent interior designer, his ideas and clarity of expression on business branding, positioning and marketing were top notch.
I didn’t take away lots of specific nuggets of advice, but the freedom to be at an event where I was seeking only to be inspired was a powerful thing, helping me develop and adjust some core concepts I take with me to whichever industry I am working with.
My strongest over-riding thought was that, simply, “business is business”, and the keys to success are the same. Have passion for your business, work hard, be a good leader, talk to your customers, always be working to improve yourself and your business.
I would be remiss though, to not focus more on Todd Avery Lenahan, whose handout at his sessions, called “Style Defined”, laid out seven keys :
- Style is an admirable point of view
- Style is a re-assuring confidence
- Style is a compelling voice
- Style is consistency
- Style is authenticity
- Style is a sense of accomplishment
- Style is effortlessness
Within each point he had a number of detailed questions ? I won’t repeat them here, these are not my intellectual property, but they were absolute gold, every single one, so I’m going to ask Todd separately if he can put these up somewhere.
Whilst Todd shared the floor in his sessions with Randy Fenoli, who gave some wonderful personal fashion and style “don’ts”, I asked Todd “this is a very powerful set of branding and positioning keys, how do you differentiate between style and branding ?”. His answer ? “Style and Brand are one and the same, you can’t separate them.“
So…this afternoon I found myself at a family oriented luncheon (for a swim club). As His Excellency the Governor of the Cayman Islands was there, the organisers had asked people to dress appropriately smartly. With some kids still running around looking like badly dressed mini drug dealers in baggy shorts, my boys asked “Dad, why are we wearing long trousers when it is so hot ?”. I didn’t say “Todd and Randy taught me there is no time your style shouldn’t represent you”, but you know I was thinking it 
{ 4 trackbacks }
{ 0 comments… add one now }