Keeping inspired

What I'm hearing in meetings lately is a reminder that lots of us want to get outside our bubbles every now and then to look at things with fresh eyes. 

Which explains why I've become an avid reader of BoF/Business of Fashion. I'm finding this New York-based online mag just way more interesting for marketing, digital and brand strategy news and insights than any of the business, tech or marketing publications I follow. Though the news coverage is focused on fashion brands, I think that because fashion – especially the luxury brands, well even mass brands – was so late to digital, exciting things are happening in the space. Probably not coincidentally, same with the New York technology and marketing scenes. 

Jenna Wortham's piece in the New York Times on mindfulness and unplugging is one of many pieces circulating that shows we're starting to mature with respect to the social effects of technology on our lives; worth a read.

I chatted with someone who knows what he's talking about last week who was questioning big brands' purpose on social media and whether it really was the job of (big) brands to be part of consumers' lives; community managers are hired to do that but to what end? The answer's not as obvious as it seemed at first and deserves a nuanced post.

One of my streams has been bumping into documentary filmmaking. intersecting film and startups, a friend forwarded me this link to an article on Startup Kitchen, an interesting film project in Atlantic Canada that started as a series of founder interviews and has grown to a reality series.

Speaking of kitchens, I'm constantly inspired by Food52, an editorially-driven and community-focused site for cooks which has expanded twice this year with two big media investment rounds; first a $2M chunk in March which allowed them to launch an e-commerce platform which fit well with products they'd been promoting editorially and in September, a $6M round that includes the Food Network's parent company and Gary Vaynerchuk. Food52 won the James Beard Award for Best Culinary Website in 2012, a reflection of the great photography, writing, art direction and design that got people behind it.