Yesterday, PSFK hosted a two panel Good Ideas Salon at Soho House in New York. Moderated by George Parker, our veteran (or “Old Geezer”) panel consisted of Curvin O’Reilly, Tom Messner and John Garland; and the emerging talent (or “Younger Geezer”) panel consisted of Domenico Vitale, Gill Linton and Alain Sylvain. We think with the contrast of ‘been there done that’ with the ‘doing something new’ it went rather well. Videos to follow.

Good Ideas Salons

PSFK is hosting a Good Ideas Salon on the morning of August 20 at Soho House with special guest George Parker. Good Ideas Salons are designed to bring likeminds together to share ideas and positivity around certain subjects.
For this salon, the topic is Good Ideas in Advertising and PSFK will invite two panels to debate how New York (and America’s) advertising industry needs to retool itself to become relevant and important again in business for the 21st century. The first panels will consist of industry veterans and this will be followed by new leaders from emerging creative agencies.

Panel 1 Speakers

George [...]

PSFK is proud to announce news that we will host a Good Ideas Salon with YouTube next month. On 6th August 2009, PSFK and YouTube will host a Good Ideas Salon in the Bay Area. For the event, Mia Quagliarello (Product Marketing Manager – Community YouTube) will moderate a panel of community experts — Jen Burton (Senior Community Manager, Digg), Heather Champ (Director of Community, Flickr) and Matthew Stinchcomb (VP – Community, Etsy) — to discuss what can be learned from the passionate people who visit these sites, how relationships are fostered at scale, ways to engage with users, and [...]

For those who made it on Monday 22nd, thanks again for coming by and contributing to the discussion about PSFK’s next major event. The notes below are a a summary take-away I took from the meeting on .
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Event: PSFK Conference San Francisco (or a Good Ideas type event)
The event is designed to create solution and a plan/template to challenges that come out of key trends that PSFK presents at the start of the day (and maybe online before hand).
One or several cross-discipline, multi-age teams will work together to get to these solutions. They will be assisted by an online audience [...]

Since we held our PSFK Conference San Francisco in July 2008 things have changed. Of course, we all have economic challenges but in this environment we also have the need and, some would argue, duty to support the progress of ideas that overcome social and green issues.
This year I want to create an event that revolves around the concept of participation. Yes, there will be elements of learning and knowledge sharing but I would also like to create an event where we imagine and solve. I want us to spend a day together to identify issues and overcome them.
To [...]

Good Ideas Salons are small events held to spread ideas. Normally held around a theme the talks are videoed and added to our website so that people can view and share discussions around the world. PSFK has now held over 10 events and our friends are beginning to run these Salons in their cities.
We’d like for our readers to host a Good Ideas Salon in their city to bring together likeminded communities and share ideas that inspire much needed positivity.
Recent events include Good Ideas In Collaboration in NYC and Good Ideas In Media in Toronto. Next week Brett MacFarlane and [...]

Our roving photographer Dave Pinter caught a lot of the action at our recent Good Ideas Salon as we mixed entrepreneurs and freelance creative professionals in a room together.
The gallery is on Flickr.
Thanks to everyone who attended. And if you’d like to host your own Good Ideas Salon, drop Hedyeh Parsia a line at hedyeh@psfk.com for more details.
Good Ideas Salons

The videos from PSFK Conference New York are now available (and embeddable) for your inspiration:
When Ideas Create Good
Open To Change
New York New Media
City As Canvas
Reconnect
Building Healthy Brands With Heart
Ghost In The Machine: Digital Multiculture
New Idea Agencies
This Platform Called Everyday Life
If you’ved missed our other conferences, you can always find our videos on our conference event page.

At our 2009 New York conference, a panel led by Florian Peter (CScout) discussed how creators and the community openly come together to develop new thinking and make ideas happen. John Geraci (Outside.in), Scott Heiferman (Meetup), Avner Ronen (boxee) and Domenico Vitale (PI&C) explain how they leverage open communities to develop new products, services and experiences for the benefit of everybody concerned.

At PSFK Conference NYC, I had the opportunity to sit down with Edward Felsenthal, Executive Editor of The Daily Beast, to discuss his new online publication and the changes he’s seeing in the rapidly evolving world of publishing. The Daily Beast, launched in October of 2008, is a curated online news site created by Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker. Felsenthal, who served as Deputy Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal prior to taking the helm at The Daily Beast, shared his insights on launching a new brand in the ever-expanding digital news [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC, moderator David Pinter (PSFK) along with Sarah Beatty (Green Depot), Simon Collins (Parsons), Ryan Jacoby (IDEO), and Matthew Lusk (Hecho Inc.) discussed the meaning of “sustainability” today, and how economic and social conscience are driving the design of new products and services. Sustainability, explained Simon, is not just about creating eco-friendly products; it’s also about making thoughtful choices as a consumer, too (buying blue jeans that last, for example). Sarah expanded on that idea, explaining that focusing on sustainability means seeking out high-quality products and services – things that maintain value and meaning over time.
The panel [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC, Colin Nagy (PSFK/Attention) led a discussion with Help Remedies‘ founder Richard Fine and Hello Health’s Dr. Jay Parkinson and Dr. Sean Khozin about “Building Healthy Brands With Heart”. The panel touched upon the different ways their ventures were setting out to innovate an industry resistant to change. Richard Fine talked about how Help Remedies is attempting to change the way we think about medicine and first aid. Richard’s aim with creating Help was to simplify medication, from packaging to ingredients. His range stands apart from the myriad “dual-action”/”24-hr relief”/”fast-acting” products on the market – most recognizably, [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC, Celestine Arnold gave an eye-opening talk on the “Ghost in the Machine: Digital Multiculture.” Celestine discussed the role of race and culture in video games – and the gaming industry’s failure to address (and successfully market towards) it. While minorities make up a disproportionately large percentage of the gaming community, most games cater to an assumed mainstream (white, male) player….

At PSFK Conference NYC, Kevin Slavin gave a captivating presentation on “This Platform Called Everyday Life”, in which he discussed the evolving nature of the objects surrounding us. Kevin, Managing Director and co-founder of Area/Code, explained how pervasive technologies are changing the way we relate to our physical environment and everything in it – from playground balls, to houseplants to sneakers.

Kevin opened his talk with a story about a fascinatingly bizarre woman who had such intense feelings for the Berlin Wall that she married it. Through his talk, Kevin demonstrated how the woman’s relationship with the Wall, while extreme, parallels [...]

At PSFK Conference NYC, Danielle Sacks (Fast Company) led a thought-provoking discussion about the rise of the “New Idea Agencies” – companies that are thinking outside of the traditional client-agency model and creating their own products, brands, and intellectual property to launch direct to market. The panel, featuring Robbie Vitrano (Trumpet), Carl Johnson (Anomaly), Bart Haney (fuseproject), and Ben Malbon (BBH Labs), explained how their companies’ unique business models evolved and the struggles (and benefits) of agencies becoming their own clients.
Developing IP rather than just messaging is clearly an attractive idea. Why build brands that, ultimately, you have no stake [...]