Five things on Friday #384: The Perth Edition
Spiritually nourishing and intellectually stimulating.
#384: THE PERTH EDITION
INTRO
Hello friends,
As I start this newsletter to you, it's 0345am on Wednesday morning in Perth, Western Australia. Jet lag is keeping this tired/wired Brit wide-awake and, while I play a game of Schrodinger’s cat with my sleep pattern, I figured I may as well start writing while I wait for breakfast to start serving.
Time travel does weird things the brain.
I don't know what I was meant to do or how I was meant to do it. I should’ve researched it. I didn’t. I thought maybe if I just sleep when I’m tired and push through the daytime hours when I’m awake - that’ll work. 'I'll just figure it out on the way', I thought.
Pro tip: relying on your [normally quite smart/self-aware] brain to just figure it out on the way when that exact same brain is ALSO experiencing time displacement is not optimal. So if you’re ever coming to Perth (and you should, more on that later), do the pre-planning, yeah? (eg: download an app called Timeshifter - I’m going to try and use it on the way home, let’s see how we go). Obvious I know but the best strategies sometimes really are the simplest.
What else can I tell you?
Oh yeah, HELLO FROM STATE OF SOCIAL 2024.
It's been an incredible week. I left home at lunchtime on Saturday last weekend and arrived into Perth (via Doha) on Sunday evening local time.
And look, I really don't say this lightly:
In my 16 years of corporate public speaking, State of Social might be the cleanest and smoothest speaker experience I think I've ever had.
Everything has been thought about, planned for, and taken care of. Meg and her team make it look easy (and it definitely isn’t). I’m a bit overwhelmed by it all.
Hang on, Meg who?
STOP. FREEZE FRAME. REWIND.
Let’s go back a minute.
Back in March, in FToF #364 to be precise (see Thing 2, here), I was laying out what my plans were for the year. I invoked Amanda Mackenzie’s personal brand vision of ‘Adventures with my friends’ and, literally 15 minutes after hitting send, I had a reply from the infectiously positive (and determined) Meg Coffey saying ‘Is 2024 the year we make this happen?’
‘This’ being ‘James speaking at Meg’s conference, State of Social’. Meg has been asking me for the few couple of years to come and speak but for a combination of work/life reasons, I’ve never been able to make it work.
This year however, with no Gamescom plans, a delayed OREO party, and no surprise trips to Disneyland (IYKYK), I was like: ‘OK, I’m in. What happens now?’ - five minutes after that Meg and I were on a Google Meet chatting everything through and, well, here we are.
And by ‘here’, I mean, well, remember that smooth speaker experience I mentioned? I’ve been put up at a place that Forbes Travel Guide describes as ‘the pinnacle of Perth luxury’, Crown Towers Perth.
It is L U S H.
I literally saw the Man City women’s team walking out of reception this morning - if that gives you any indication of how great it is and, best of all, it’s only a stone’s throw from the conference venue (the equally stunning Optus Stadium (I’m not kidding)). I can’t recommend it enough.
Basically, when (not if) you come to Perth, stay at the Crown Towers.
I promise we will get to the actual things in a second but I really can't do any of that without talking about just how mental it is to be speaking IN A STADIUM.
Because things like this happen:
My actual face on a JUMBOTRON (and don’t get me started on THE MURAL). Madness.
I came out here thinking I would write about the conference in a single section of Five things on Friday. But I’ve seen and experienced so much that this week's edition is officially ‘THE PERTH EDITION’ and will cover a bunch of THINGS I HAVE SEEN/HEARD/LEARNED while being dahn uhnder.
So stick around, you might learn something.
Shall we? Let’s.
It’s now 830pm on Friday 30th of August. I’m in transit at Singapore airport and I’ve got 90mins to get this thing done and out. Wish me luck.
—
TO THE THINGS!
THING 1. WELCOME TO COUNTRY
So I want to talk about this first. Because a) I didn’t know what it was and b) the more I asked about it the more I learned and the more I wanted to share it with you.
This is Welcome to Country.
‘Country’ is the term used by Aboriginal peoples to identify, locate and connect themselves and each other to a particular language group and place (the land or sea) they identify with, belong to and have cultural obligations to.
Traditionally, people crossing from one ‘country’ to another will participate in an exchange of rituals and protocols to:
Ensure safe crossing and/or successful business
Honour the spirits and ancestral beings of the place
Appropriately address Elders and senior men, senior women and those with influence and high regard in the community.
At the start of State of Social (and at the start of a few presentations), we had a ‘Welcome to Country’. The opening one, pictured, was given by Deputy Mayor Barry Winmar (here he is doing another one).
A couple of times throughout the conference, a couple of other speakers did the same or similar; recognising where we stood and acknowledging all those that came before us.
It felt grounded.
It felt right.
It felt welcome.
Speaking to some other attendees after the conference finished, I dug around into this and it’s a relatively new thing in Australia. The Australian country is on a journey. A path of acknowledgement of history and reconciliation of the past. Welcome to country feels significant. And for this visitor, respectful inclusivity done right and well.
Give the UK’s own colonial past, we could learn a lot from this.
Something to read up and reflect on.
THING 2. STATE OF SOCIAL HIGHLIGHTS
So, now we’re IN to the conference (you can read the full program here), and I want to share some of my highlighted sessions from across the two day event.
People to find, follow, and connect with.
MICHAEL CORCORAN
Be on Social Without Being on Social
I’ve known of Michael’s work as the ex head of social for Ryanair for YEARS. Google ‘Prince William Ryanair’ and you’ll know the kind of work he and his team are famous for. What a way to kick off the show. Smart, on point, and the very epitome of ‘strategy is sacrifice’, Michael’s talk not only set the tone for the day but also inspired the whole room to look deeper into the brands they look after to find the right social strategy for them.
PAULA BLOODWORTH
Why the Smartest Thing We Can All Do Is Be Stupid
My favourite talk from Day One, Paula took us through an understated whirlwind tour of how sometimes it’s really hard to do the stupid thing but often, it’s always the smartest thing.
TOM GOODWIN
All we have is now
I thoroughly enjoyed Tom’s contrarian take on binary approaches to upcoming and new technology innovations (eg: it doesn’t have to kill us, and it may not be the best thing ever, things might just be useful).
LIA HABERMAN
A ‘Social First’ State of Mind
I was so pleased to see Lia’s talk! I’ve been reading her stuff on linkedin for a while now and her newsletter, ICYMI, is also excellent.
A talk so up to date that Lia rewrote her script that afternoon to make sure the most up to date headlines were right, Lia delivered a masterclass on the absolute latest trends and platform changes the audience needed to know.
A proper expert, demonstrating her deep knowledge and expertise.
GEORGIA TAPPY
What is old is new again: How to speak to Gen Z using organic social media.
One of the trends I noticed throughout the conference was how, thanks to the interest-graph superseding the social-graph (hi, tiktok etc), organic social media is back on the rise. Georgia’s talk explained neatly why that was important, who was driving it, and how brands can get involved. Bonus: Georgia is moving to the UK next month, so if you're in the UK and want an intro to a smart social media person, let me know.
RICHARD BERNEY
Playful is Powerful
So impressed with Richard. Just flew in from delivering 30 shows at the Edinburgh Fringe (search ‘My Greatest Period Ever’) and yet still managed to deliver a chill af session on how to best work with creative - people, agencies, and ideas. I overheard someone walking out say ‘I don’t know what just happened but I know I really enjoyed it’ - which I think is a perfect description of spending any amount of time with Richard.
DR. GEORGIA CARROLL
Universal Fan Engagement: Lessons from Fandom to Power Social Community Cultivation
Easily my favourite talk from day two - I learned so much!
To be clear, Georgia’s doctorate is literally in fandom - which easily makes her the leading voice on what fandoms are, why they exist, and how to get involved with them.
I’ve never heard fandoms discussed with such clarity and I made so many notes.
(and diagrams - you know you’re stanning on someone’s talk when you run up to them in the green room afterward and gush ‘Oh my god! I loved your talk! Please look at the charts you made me draw!’ - #nerd)
Between definitions and examples and every Taylor Swift pun inbetween, Dr Carroll actually explained the difference between fans and fandoms and made sure a) we all knew the difference and b) we called out the brands and consultants that just used the word without knowing what it really means.
Oh also: ‘There’s a difference between brandom and fandom - and you should know it’ (brands don’t and won’t have fandoms - e v e r - anyone that tells you otherwise has no idea what they’re talking about).
So impressive.
SCOTTY MCDONALD
Teach me something and be real with me
Where do I start with Scotty McDonald? His session was all about the TikTokification of social video (again, with that interest-graph approach) and made the case for making GOOD organic content for your brand. High energy, informative, and funny - an absolute highlight of day two.
Furthermore, Scotty and I broke bread together a couple of times and, as result, ended up in a few robust conversations on organic vs paid social (it’s both!) - at one point, I think he wanted to chuck his entire presentation in the bin - and I’m so glad he didn’t.
Great job, Scotty.
DAVE JORGENSON
Closing keynote and TikTok/content king at THE WASHINGTON POST (aka ‘The Washington Post Universe’), Dave’s talk about why the TikTok party is over and why that’s a good thing took us on a history tour of where and how the WaPo came to have a TikTok and how he manages to keep on top of everything with an amazing supportive team around him.
I managed to get some bonus hangs in with Dave in the trip and I’m pleased to report he is a GREAT GUY as well as a GREAT content creator and journalist.
Stuff I missed but heard good things about (and will catch up via online catchup access - tickets for digital access are available for only two more weeks):
Bec Smith on unlocking big ideas with small budgets
Josh Taylor on ‘The Blank Phone’ social media experiment
Julian Pace on self care, burn out and the busy mind.
Larah Kennedy on Managing the Social Media Outrage Economy
Josh Gurgiel on the rise and faux of FOOH.
Jeremy Burge on Tales from the Emoji Overlords
I’m sure I’m missing some more but even if you’re not in Australia I would recommend looking up the online access (especially if you’ve got £150 of training budget lying around).
The talks were great and I’m looking forward to going back and catching up on the ones I missed (and rewatching the ones I loved). And I don’t think I’ve ever said that about a conference ever.
PS. State of Social is billed as a two day conference but there’s a secret third day of content - that is created on the show floor throughout the conference. 'The Alchemists’ is now streaming on Spotify (and wherever you get your podcasts) and I’m sure YouTube won’t be far behind.
THING 3. THIS WEEK IN… WESTERN AUSTRALIA
After the show was over, the Linkedin deets exchanged, and one more beer for the road had at the bar (note: bars in Australia close early - it’s weird), Tourism Western Australia (TWA) stepped in to show us a bit more of what Perth has to offer.
So it came to pass that on the Thursday after the closing party, me, Michael Corcoran, and Dave Jorgenson (and the effortlessly charming Garrett Chappell from the TWA), stepped onto the tarmac at Jandakot Airport and boarded a Rottnest Air Taxi over to Rottnest Island.
Our mission? See a bit of the island, explore, and of course, see the quokkas.
But before we did that. Our host on the island, Pip Sabien, reminded us of what Welcome to Country meant to the island. The history of its prisons. The burial grounds that are there. And the journey of reconciliation that the island - and the country - continues on with.
She told us about how we some people greet the island in their own welcome to country.
The second paragraph in the above image states:
It is a Whadjuk Nyoongar custom to respectfully acknowledge the presence of the creative spirit, the waugal, when visiting any body of water, including here at Wadjemup. This is done by rubbing the hands under the armpits to gather one's personal scent, then taking a handful of sand and scattering it over the water, while announcing your presence and seeking the acceptance and protection of the waugal spirit.
Pip told us this - I think just to share local knowledge and history - but me, Dave, and Michael made eye contact and immediately started taking our shoes off to go and stand in the water and do just that.
It felt respectful.
It felt grounded.
It felt right.
After seeking acceptance and protection from the spirits, we went off in search of Quokkas.
There are over 10,000 of the little marsupials on Rottnest (nee: Rat Nest - geddit? They’re not rats tho) - known as well by its aboriginal name Wadjemup - and not only are they easy going af, they're also super friendly.
So if you sit or lay down near one (to be clear: you must not touch a quokka, nor feed one - but if you sit still for bit and mind your business), you might just get a quokka selfie.
Like this.
After we got some (OK, a LOT of) photos (and actual Dave Jorgenson from the Washington Post did a video - I'm in it btw), we headed off to the island’s absolutely stunning italian restaurant, Isola.
Quite nice to practice my Italian again on an island off the west coast of Perth (great place for a Professional Lunch, Marshall - you should try it).
After that, a quick jaunt up the light house before heading down to the harbour for a less than smooth ride home on the choppy waters separating the island from the mainland (it’s all part of the experience, promise).
So yeah. That was our day on Rottnest. Thank you so much to the team who made it happen, and to Garrett and Pip for accompanying us throughout the day.
Rottnest is great. Perth is pretty great too.
I reckon we’ll be back.
Need inspo? Ask the TWA.
PS. The new hotel, The Lodge Wadjemup, opens next year. Eyes up.
THING 4. HOW TO WRITE A KEYNOTE
‘James, you haven’t told us about your talk’
‘Yeah, you’re right. Let’s do a bit about that’
One of the questions I ask when interviewing strategists is 'How do you think?'. This is important.
(Sidenote: when hiring juniors, they might not know how they think - so task-based interviews help. Freelancers are a bit different, but we can save that for another day).
I want to know HOW you consume, parse and clarify data. Because if you know how you do it (and again, this requires a certain amount of self-awareness and introspection) then a) I know what you need to get the job done and b) can work with you in that work if I understand your process.
The 'How do you think?' question is often asked back of me. When I’m writing presentations, for example, I need to visualise what I want to do.
And to do that, I use post-it notes.
And then I take those post-it notes, and I turn them into something like this:
So I want to talk about how I get there, one idiot point, and a huge moment of personal crisis I had a week before the talk that I think you should all know about.
How I get there:
Post-it notes to me are about a story. And the questions that I ask myself in that story often start with this one: what are the chapter headings for the story you want to tell.
This is an old anecdote (I have written about it before) but from then until now, writing it out in this way - for me at least - is still a faultless way for me to clarify my thinking. Which is weird, because FToF is another way of clarifying my thinking (and it doesn’t draft up like this at all). Maybe it’s just a presentation thing.
What I’m trying to say is: there's a lot floating around up there and getting it down on paper is tricky unless you can see the whole thing. Which, when its in post-it format, you can.
The idiot point:
Scroll back up and look at the post-its again. See the green one that stands out, mid bottom right? You’ll know which one it is.
Found it?
No?
It’s this one:
It’s a note/joke to myself from this meme:
See. That post-it was my approach to telling myself how to write a particular section of my talk. Which, when you (I say ‘you’, let’s say your name is ‘Past James’ and you) are under time pressure to bash out the skeleton of a presentation, feels like a funny thing to do.
HOWEVER.
When you are the same person, let’s call him ‘Future James’ and you come to write up your deck skeleton, and you get to the ‘Draw the rest of the owl’ and you realise the central premise of your whole talk remains unwritten, well, you can kiss your evening goodbye. That one post-it note works out at around 60 slides of my presentation. RIP.
Rule 1: don’t be an idiot [to yourself].
The crisis:
So here’s a thing. Up until literally this week past, 100% of all the speaking gigs I’ve ever done, I’ve had a job somewhere. I’ve stood up and said ‘Hello, I’m James Whatley, [job title X] at [company Y], and today I want to tell you about [topic Z]…’
State of Social was the first conference where I’ve been a strategy consultant. So the thinking on show is all mine. No corporate slides to hide behind. No structured / proven thinking to elaborate on. No deck template to use.
And the moment I realised that, about a week or so before hitting send on the final version of the deck (which, by the way, to really add on the pressure, was a completely new presentation that I wrote especially for State of Social), I had a HUGE wobble and spent about 24hrs of hating literally everything I’d written.
What if it’s rubbish? What if no one likes anything I say? What if the central premise doesn’t work? What if they’ve seen all the case studies already and I’m not teaching them anything new? What if none of it works? It’s a long way to go to get it wrong… what if it’s all wrong?
Major. Panic.
So I did what the only sensible thing to do is at when you’re in that moment: I fessed up how I was feeling to my amazing friends and asked them to help.
And help they did.
Special mentions to Clare (design), Amy (confidence), Sara (clarity), and Olly (builds) for being very bloody effing brilliant. Each in your own way pushing and probing in exactly the right places. Thank you. I couldn’t have done it without you.
Point is: if you’re having a MAJOR PANIC about something you’ve written, made, created or whatever - tell your friends. They will help.
Always ask for help x
It takes a village, yeah?
THING 5. RANDOM THINGS ABOUT PERTH
This is brief because as I write to you now my laptop says it’s 5am on Saturday August 31st. I don’t think it is. I’m over Islamabad somewhere and on my way home.
Additional lovely things about Perth:
Catching up with old friends.
Leah and I worked together on the OREO UK account back in 2020/21 and she was also one of the creatives that helped Digitas win the European social and content brief for Beiersdorf. A super talented art director that moved home a couple of years ago - and IT WAS SO NICE TO CATCH UP.
One of the great things about our industry is the people you meet and the networks you make. Keep in touch when you can; this stuff matters.
People are super nice.
Everyone, and I mean everyone, I met was just so super nice - and couldn’t be more happy or friendly about the fact I was in Perth to visit and enjoy the place (as well as give a keynote, obvs). Everyone wanted to say hi, ask ‘how you’re going’ etc. I live in London y’see. It ain’t like that here 😅
I mean, I went into town to buy a charger for my fitbit and I spent ten minutes just chatting to the guy in the shop about where’s good to drink and go out. Just nice people!
Speaking of nice people.
On my first proper night there (Sunday doesn’t count), I had dinner with Paula, Bec, Andrés (aka ALV), and Michael and we all just fell into step together. Which helped immensely as Michael, Paula, and I were the following morning’s opening keynotes. Helped keep the supportive vibe together y’know. If you’re invited to speak somewhere and you’re able to spend time with the other speakers - do that yeah? It makes such a difference (see also: me, Michael and Dave on Rotto).
I also can’t get past talking about how lovely some of the local people were and are without giving a shout and a nod to:
Scotty (great conversations), Robbie (top MC bants), Edwin (socialite for life), Garrett (‘I laugh when I’m nervous’), Pip (queen of quokkas), Georgia (games games games), Georgie (swifties unite), Dave (good cease and desist chat), and so many others I’ve probably forgotten.
Oh, and that Meg Coffey woman.
She’s alright too.
😁
BONUS SECTION
NORMAL SERVICE RESUMES (if only briefly)
THIS IS THE BONUS SECTION. BONUS LINKS THAT BUMP US OVER FIVE THINGS BUT DUE TO TIMING AND SELF-IMPOSED WRITING RESTRICTIONS ARE LIMITED TO PITHY COMMENTARY ONLY.
I've spoken about Becca Farsace before. She is an Emmy-award winning content creator who, up until very recently, was one of the main tech reporters for The Verge. Becca's headed out on her own - and this is why.
Record labels forgot these songs existed. One man rescued them.
Anyone who listened to (or watched) my Google Firestarters talk the other week would've heard me talk about CONVERGENCE. Convergence of Entertainment media as gaming (and the money that can be made from telling those stories across multiple media) matures, so does Studio interest. Here's Remedy Games and Annapurna announcing a strategic partnership agreement for funding on the anticipated game, CONTROL 2, and at the same time, bringing the CONTROL universe to TV and Film via Annapurna’s film-making expertise. Convergence. Expect more of this.
On a related note, Dani Gibson over at Creative Salon has been getting nostalgic for branded-video-games gone by. The 90s were wild, man. 'Advergaming: How Brands Have Powered Up Through Video Games' is a fun read - and I’m in it too :)
Lia’s State of Social write up is pretty great (and you should subscribe to ICYMI).
Err.. I’m sorry, what. EVERY FRAME A PAINTING just suddenly reappears with a new video? About ‘The Sustained Two Shot’? IS IT CHRISTMAS? WHAT. I honestly thought they’d gone forever. I’m weeping with happiness.
MKBHD has been quiet lately. Turns out he’s ALSO in Team USA’s Ultimate Frisbee team and the championship is upon us. Here’s NBC with a great interview with Brownlee about that.
I can’t remember where I found this ‘SOCIAL MEDIA SIGNALS’ presentation. But it’s a) very good and b) worth your time. Good job, Matt Stasoff.
State of Social, Perth, is DICE CERTIFIED. If an 800 person conference in Western Australia can get DICE, what’s stopping you?
And finally.
Consider Sir John Hegarty. Founding partner of BBH. World-renowned creative. Source of some of the most memorable ads ever committed to celluloid.
Here he is writing for The Guardian in January 2005.
And here he is ‘writing’ about Surreal in 2024.
One reads like a man who knows creativity inside and out, the other like a gun for hire who wants to work their way through the LinkedIn mukbang content playbook and hopes no one will notice.
If I were Sir John, I'd consider a new copywriter.
Now look, I've ghost-written articles for CEOs and line managers more times than I care to mention. 100% of those times, however, it's only ever a first draft as the final word (and tone of voice check) goes to the person I'm ghost-writing for. It's very much a 'thanks for that, I'm going to tweak it a bit so it sounds more like me'.
Specifically to the copywriters reading this, what do you think? Am I barking up the wrong tree?
YOU ARE REACHING THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER. MIND THE GAP.
So look, thanks for indulging me for this is a special edition of Five things on Friday. It’s time to wrap this up. My laptop says it’s 06:38. My phone says it’s 23:38 and timeshifter is telling me to drink coffee.
I might land in the UK at some point.
One thing I should be clear about: writing this special edition of FToF is not part of my speaker contract. It’s not something I’m being paid to do and it’s not something Meg (or TWA) asked me for either.
In the spirit of transparency, State of Social paid me a nominal speaker fee, made a contribution to my flights and covered my accommodation. But there was nothing in any of that agreement that said I would commit god knows how many words to saying how great it was.
It was simply that good.
So yeah, this is me, wanting to express to all of you how much of an intellectually nourishing time I’ve had down under this week - and how, especially if you’re anywhere near the APAC region - you should try and get along to the next State of Social in August 2025 (its 8th year).
Thanks to Meg for taking a chance on bringing me over. I loved every minute of it.
Until next time,
Whatley out x
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