Leave it to Bill. The whole scene is so Korean.

We are apparently keeping track.

For the past several months a lot of my time has been devoted to curating, planning and organizing the 99% conference and it’s finally all happening this Thursday and Friday, 16 and 17 April.

A different approach to the conference scene, we joined forces with Behance, the organizational gurus of the creative class, to look at how the inspiring art, design and culture that Cool Hunting features comes to be. We’ve assembled a diverse cast of speakers to present on the successful execution of creative ideas. Each will attest to their own unique take on productivity, offering a behind-the-scenes look at their process and how their ideas come to life.

As equally inspiring perhaps as the speakers and their ideas themselves, the two-day event will be held in Renzo Piano’s new stunning NY Times Center and we’ve got a few other surprises up our sleeve.

More info is available at The 99 Percent Conference site. We’re almost sold out!

The 99% Conference
16-17 April 2009
NYTimes Center
242 West 41st Street
New York, NY 10036 map

While in DC it seemed like everywhere I went was the “Official Inauguration Headquarters” (sorta like in NY how every Ray’s Pizza is the “original.”) Granted there was plenty of Obama-inspired advertising but none was as big as Ikea’s Embrace Change or Pepsi’s Refresh Everything campaigns. They were both plastered everywhere.

I’m a bit weary of the cultish attitude but I like both campaigns. I love the idea of building my own oval office and Pepsi’s site has some good content. More importantly both are in support of change and that’s definitely something I can get with.

The NYtimes has an informative video on skateboarding in Afghanistan and an Aussie who’s established the first skate school in Kabul. A girl comments, “We skate because we want to lose our fear and to get courage and to be healthy.”

Check it out on NYtimes Video page.

“He was joking on the starting blocks.
He reacted last to the gun.
He ran against the wind.
He didn’t tie his PUMAs.
He jogged over the finish line.
He broke the world record.
And then he danced.
And reminded us that
Being the best should be fun.”

I love this ad. It’s well done, but I most like the point it makes that “being the best should be fun.” After he broke the world record and won the gold in Beijing the media gave the Jamaican such a hard time for his extended celebration. So he danced around, pointed at his shoes and savored the moment. What’s wrong with that? In my opinion it was not disrespectful in the least. At worst, he improved the Olympic’s ratings on television and was the only interesting portion of an otherwise dull track and field event. 

And seriously, he didn’t tie his shoes and ran 28mph? You can’t front.