Looking Forward to the 2018 Fast Company Innovation Festival
The Fast Company Innovation Festival, one of the top innovation conferences of the year, is about to kick off in New York City. Different than your typical industry conference, The Fast Company Innovation Festival is known for its 100 innovative “fast tracks”—essentially field trips inside some of the hottest companies like Barre3, Bleacher Report, Lemonade, Nike and more.
Seed’s Lauren Selman and Eric Scheer are excited to be among those in attendance. We sat down with Lauren prior to her trip to get her thoughts about the festival.
What are you most excited about, heading into the event?
The Fast Company Innovation Festival always surprises and delights with their fast tracks. This year, the list is almost too good. I had such a difficult time deciding which ones to attend, which means I know I’m in for a treat this year. Plus, with Eric attending, we can divide and conquer, getting access to more awesome tracks.
How will going to the festival benefit Seed and our clients?
Being there will allow us to check out all of the relevant brand conversations taking place. Our clients span many different industries and it’s important to report back, not only on what’s happening with competitive brands, but also in adjacent—and sometimes totally unrelated—categories. That’s often where the most groundbreaking strategic insights come from.
We’ll also be able to get an up-close-and-personal view of the emerging tools and approaches in our industry. Seeing how other agencies and brands approach their own challenges, as well as the methodologies they used to overcome them, provides unique and inspirational perspective.
Is there anything else you are looking forward to?
I’m a millennial, and in case you haven’t noticed, a woman. (Ha!) So it’s no surprise that I’m looking forward to hearing what the target-specific tracks have to share. Millennials continue to be a hot topic even though our industry often makes it feel like they’re old news. It will be interesting to see what companies are doing to attract Millennials and––more importantly––keep their attention. I’m also an advocate for women in business and have been devoting a lot of attention to our SheQ™ initiative, so I’m going to participate in a few female leadership and insight tracks. The time couldn’t be more right for this kind of learning.
Going to the Fast Company Innovation Festival? Lauren would love to connect with you there. Feel free to reach out via email or LinkedIn.
And don’t forget to follow Seed Strategy on our LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages for updates on Lauren and Eric’s time in NYC.
Adam Siegel is Editor of The Accelerator and a Creative Director at Seed Strategy where he draws upon his diverse experience in advertising, research and innovation to craft breakthrough creative and winning concept copy.
