Purple Beach. The 5th annual gathering. This time at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. Discreetly signposted by two purple balloons. And the 80 invited guests only would give nothing away to the virgins among us – save to say be open and expect nothing. And the C-suiters did just that.
Founder, Annemie Ress, all jumpsuit glamorous, delivered on her topic “Who needs balance when you can embrace extremes?”
With two keynote speakers and 9 maximisers – food, drinks, spa experiences – and a silent disco – this high-end networking event is surely the most sought after ticket in change management.
From Popstar to Priesthood: Richard Coles from The Communards and Bronski Beat amused us all with his correlations of the Church with corporate.
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It’s good to be in things when they begin, because there is a surge of creativity (on his time as a popstar)
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Pop culture was a means of accessing the masses for our activism
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The Church is a corporate endeavor, which is where it gets immensely rewarding & frustrating.
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I work in an organization that couldn’t be more hierarchical (on empathy with the C-suite audience)
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EBay premise is that people are essentially at good, at my organization we believe the opposite (lots of laughs)
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Start-ups offer charisma but no managerial depth. Corporates are never going to be as agile as them – they have a different place (on the Davos conversation) “The trick is how to combine these very different energies.” Also: “Novelty is fast and bright burning but not a steady luminescence.”
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Robots: we can either be threatened or see this as a way to embrace human relationships (on AI)
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There is a tentativeness about my willingness to embrace change as I am older
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The real constant is to be to be human
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All shall be well (on faith and well, everything).
And then the enigma of Colin MacLachlan – a former soldier of the British Army Royal Scots and SAS who was captured while in Iraq, and rescued before execution, enthralled us with his take on management and teams – it’s all relative after all.
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Put one foot in front of the other – no matter what you are doing (on challenges)
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Create an environment for relaxing (on conscious balance)
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Focus on the why and higher purpose (when things feel overwhelming)
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Scared is healthy. Removing scared means you are unaware (on boardroom challenges)
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Plan. Brief. Execute. Debrief (on teamwork) – saying that we often fail to capture all the learnings, “Communication is key to feed all the good and bad stuff back into the cycle.”
Some guests left at 8.30pm – spent with presence and inspiration – happy to wander the streets of London with a headful of ideas and a heart full of soul food.
Others stayed on – to maximize – silent dance – quietly network, debate, interrogate.
If this is Purple Beach then book me onto the island.
