#Nudgestock2021 - 3 highlights that will linger in the memory
Nudgestock just gets bigger and better every year. Yesterday’s 12-hour extravaganza seemed to fly by in a flash.
It is quite amazing that Behavioural Science fans around the world can listen in on the giants of this field having bants with Rory Sutherland… for free.
Plus, thanks to Ogilvy, for the delectation of the online masses, the event always pops up such interesting new peeps doing fascinating work.
After watching about 11 of the 12 hours on offer, it’s hard (and probably unfair) to pick out just 3 moments to indulge yourself in… but let’s call it a nudge into a gateway to enjoying the whole magnificent Nudgestock. :)
Tara Austin - Host
Can we call Tara Austin the breakthrough star of Nudgestock 2021?
We can and we will :)
Tara Austin, displaying obligatory Nudgestock sartorial flair in a Hawaiian shirt
To go from the day job as a Behavioural Science practitioner, to emerge butterfly-like as a TV host with a skillset worthy of a seasoned The One Show presenter, was a marvel to watch and the Youtube chat was certainly appreciative of Tara’s elan.
One of the many Tara highlights was her off-the-cuff presentation to fill in for Professor David Nutt’s super interesting speech on Psychopharmacology, when his internet went wonky.
I’ll admit that I’m biased - Tara gave some marvellous shout outs for 42courses new course launched yesterday: Applied Behavioural Science with Rory Sutherland.
OK, we were sponsoring Nudgestock for the second year running and the Official Learning Partner, so you could say the recommendations were deserved.
But the ‘Tara bump’ caused such a tsunami of traffic into 42courses.com that all those Nudgestockers crashed the website!
To be clear, I’m not saying that Sam Tatam, Head of Behavioural Science at Ogilvy, wasn’t a great host. He was.
And he did a very professional speech himself, winning tons of plaudits from the YT live chat.
It’s just that Tara needs her own Netflix special very soon… working title: ‘TARA!’
2. Rob Stephenson - Mental Health
In Rob’s Nudgestock Speakers profile it says: In his keynote talks, Rob inspires audiences to think differently about mental health and wellbeing.
He did this, and then some!
Rob Stephenson with interactive heat map of How people are feeling right now
The Nudgestock YouTube chat was on fire when Rob, founder of InsideOut and CEO of FormScore spoke so openly, candidly and with huge empathy. It was possibly the highest active audience engagement for any speech during the day.
As Rob told us the story of his own mental health, it would have been a very hardened soul to not be caught up in the emotions of this endearing honesty.
Everyone should hear what Rob had to say… (Rob’s talk begins at 3:50:00)
Rob was one of the very few speakers that included audience interactivity.
In a conference of Behavioural Science practitioners, it’s interesting that almost all presented in the same traditional format.
Perhaps Rob Stephenson was applying a touch of the Von Restorff effect to enhance audience engagement!
Bravo, Rob!
3. John Cleese - Allow time for creativity
The legendary John Cleese gave us the invaluable insight that the best creative moments come from allocating yourself lots of time.
John Cleese banter with Rory Sutherland
In the ever increasingly time pressured world, it was lovely to be reminded of the necessity to insist on the inclusion of time to make your creative output smarter, clearer, and in his case, funnier.
Taking a shower, taking the dog for a walk, sleeping on it, losing your first draft and then later rewriting from memory - all recommended by Cleese.
It sounds so simple, but the way John pleaded for us to build barriers to create space, un-busy your mind and avoid interruptions, was wonderfully inspirational… which was the consensus of the live chat
Some wise words from Cleese:
Sit there like a cloudy glass of water and let the cloud settle.
Some days things flow and other days they don’t - and that’s OK.
It’s not about sitting there with a furrowed brow, beating your brain.
Let’s sleep on that.
When you’re being creative, there’s no such thing as a mistake.
Play!
Oh, and there were also talks from monsters of Behavioural Science, Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely and Rory Sutherland… just saying.
