The Big Rethink - Speakers

THE CHAIR: Robert Lane Greene,  Journalist and Correspondent, The Economist
Robert is a business correspondent for The Economist, covering law, accounting and other professional services, and he writes for the language blog, Johnson. His book on the politics of language around the world, "You Are What You Speak", was published by Random House in Spring 2011. Robert moderated a session with The Writer at last year’s Big Rethink.

Chris Clark, Head of Marketing, HSBC
Chris, who has been head of customer experience at HSBC, will share with us the challenges of understanding and engaging with such a diverse customer base in the markets where "the world's local bank" operates.

Simon Morris, Chief Marketing Officer, LOVEFILM and Non-Executive Director, graze.com
Simon has been with LOVEFILM since its early days as a VC-backed startup and is now a non-executive director of graze.com - a small but growing company. Therefore he's supremely qualified to talk about the opportunities that small and agile organisations have to engage with their customers in creative ways.

James Harkin, Social forecaster and Author of Niche 
James will talk about how we identify ourselves and our values through particular objects like Moleskine diaries and Madmen, and what this tells us about consumer values and the ways that they are shaped.

Anne Lise Kjaer, Futurist, Kjaer Global
How can we understand the people of tomorrow?  What values will these people have?  Anne believes that people will pride themselves not on how much they buy, but on how little they buy. Will people in future want to be regarded as consumers? If they don’t, then how can companies turn less materialistic values into business models.

Sue Daun, Worldwide Head of Brand Experience and  JR Little, Senior Strategist,
The Brand Union 
Sue and JR believe that the fast-paced and transparent nature of social media, open sourcing, and digital developments mean businesses must now be prepared to adapt their brands in real time. They will  challenge the audience to rethink how they look at their brand management for this new environment, and share insights from their observations of today’s consumers.

Dr Alex Gordon, Chief Executive Officer, Sign Salad
Alex is a semiotician.  Semiotics is an investigation into how meaning is created and communicated. Its origins lie in the academic study of how signs and symbols (visual and linguistic) create meaning.  It is a way of understanding how the landscape and culture in which we live has a massive impact on all of us unconsciously.  Alex will talk about what semiotics can teach us about future consumers and how companies should interact with them. 

Nader Tavassoli, Professor, London Business School; Non-executive Chairman, The Brand Inside
Nader will prove that you haven't heard it all before when it comes to consumer cognition and orientating your business around customers. Our insights and forecasts will be graphically recorded.

Jonathan Salem Baskin, President, Baskin Associates
Jonathan and Sue believe that advertising isn't broken as a tool, but rather misused.  They propose a new approach to truth that brings new life and relevance to every medium and channel.  They will back up their thinking with 100% copy-able large company case studies.  

Sue Unerman, Chief Strategy Officer, MediaCom
Sue and Jonathan believe that advertising isn't broken as a tool, but rather misused.  They propose a new approach to truth that brings new life and relevance to every medium and channel.  They will back up their thinking with 100% copy-able large company case studies.

Jeff Dodds, Executive Director, Brand and Marketing, Virgin Media
Jeff leads Virgin Media’s newly established Customer Marketing Division, and will tell us how Virgin Media is tackling tomorrow’s customers.

Rory Sutherland, Executive Creative Director and Vice-chairman, OgilvyOne London and Vice-chairman, Ogilvy Group UK  
Rory will talk about the power of creativity and imagination when engaging consumers.

Nick Parker and Neil Taylor, Writers, The Writer
Most people take notes at conferences. But how often do we ever look at them again? Nick Parker and Neil Taylor from The Writer will get us rethinking our words so we take home something more memorable this time.

John Mitchinson, Co-founder and Publisher, Unbound
John is the man who researches questions for QI.  He is also the founder of Unbound, a publishing company that works differently to any other because they think readers should decide which books get published. The team at Unbound are cultural optimists – they believe the democracy of content will lead to better debates on important issues.

Julia Woodham-Smith, Partner, Halls and Partner
Julia helps companies to understand their customers, and advises them on how to use this information in ways that benefit the business. She will talk about how companies should respond to the preferences and behaviour of their customers.

Simon Roberts, Anthropologist, ReD Associates
Simon is a business anthropologist at ReD Associates, a social science led strategy and innovation consultancy. He will offer the audience a provocation on the framing of business problems and the limitations of listening to consumers when solving such problems. 

Akapol Sorasuchart, President, Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau
Mr Akapol spent 10 years in senior marketing roles in the private sector and has since held several senior political positions as an elected member of parliament in Thailand.  His career has given him insight into the attitudes of Asian consumers and citizens, and how these may differ from those in the West.