This year Matt Desmier brought Silicon Beach in-land with some of the world’s most respected thinkers in tow. We’ve picked our most inspiring moments from these creators, doers and innovators to share with you.

10. There is no Magic Formula

We spend a lot of time trying to come up with a super solution for advertising; one ‘cure-all’ template. But unfortunately, there isn’t one. Different brands have different consumers who react in different ways. The only way to engage them is to be RELEVANT. Nishma Robb from Google shared a great example. A 2-minute Mountain Dew film was more engaging and got more brand recall than its shorter counterpart because of one simple reason. It made people laugh.

9. Hire Happy people

Pip Jamieson from The Dots, a creative talent network, told us of the tumultuous journey she had setting up her global network. When you’re starting a business, inevitably you’re going to face some tough times and you’ll need strong people around you, not people moaning about what’s going wrong. You cannot underestimate the power of optimism and a can do attitude from your employees.

8. Make Decisions, not Goals

Savannah Peterson, from Speck Design, gave an inspirational speech about the psychology of ‘goals’. She argued that by creating a goal, you are setting yourself up for failure. And it’s not the goals that you aim for, but the decisions that you make, right now, that ultimately affect your future.

7. There will never be Robot Creatives

Some of us worry that robots will take over our jobs, and the future will essentially be The Matrix. But creative types need not fear this dystopian end. The problem with machines is that they are programmed to follow rules. Creativity thrives by breaking them, says Pip Jamieson from The Dots.

6. Live TV is not on its deathbed

When Netflix and iPlayer took over, everyone looked to live TV. Is it dead? They asked. Lindsey Clay thinks not. She showed us an experiment she conducted, where people were asked to give up Live TV for a whole week. The results were somewhat hilarious. We saw footage of people mourning the loss of Saturday Night Live, staring blankly at their switched off TV sets and wondering what to do with their lives. Live TV is still part of so many lives and routines, it’s a difficult habit to break.

5.  You don’t own your Social channel

Your consumers do. Your social activity is hosted on a network outside of your brand, you are essentially renting this space, and it’s where your consumers, not your brand make the rules.

4. Talk to people who hate you

If you change their minds, they’ll become your strongest advocates.

3. Be a creative equal

Feminism has been a hot topic for a while now, but just because we’re talking about it, doesn’t mean that everything is OK. Only 11% of Creative Directors in the ad industry are women, and Ali Hanan wants to change that. She set up Creative Equals, a company that aims to get ad land to commit to 50/50 representation in its creative departments.

2. Enjoy making it

If you watch or see a bit of content, and you get the feeling that it was made with care, enjoyment and enthusiasm, you’ll enjoy it too. Creatives’ feelings translate into their work, so it’s important to stay happy and motivated.

1. Be more human
‘Digital convergence has turned consumers back into people’.  A lot of brands talk to consumers. But they don’t understand that they are having a one-way conversation. Brands are made by humans, for humans and we need to respect that by talking to people like one. No one can have a meaningful conversation with a robot.