On Tuesday 27 October, we brought marketers together at The Oriana on Sydney Harbour for an afternoon with kikki.K founder Kristina Karlsson, in conversation with our CEO, Andrew Everingham. Here's what we took away.
On the ferry over, Kristina asked herself one question: if the room only remembered one thing, what should it be?
Her answer: "Dream so big, even if you have no idea how to make it happen."
From a farm in Sweden to building kikki.K into a global brand, losing it, and starting again, it's a story best told in her own words (and if you get the chance to hear it, take it). But there were a few lessons we've been thinking about ever since.
Dream first, then plan
Kristina knew her audience. "I'm going to assume you guys are really good at planning," she said. But she believes most of us skip a step: we're simply not dreaming big enough. So before the plan, she asks two questions:
What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?
What would you do if you had all the money, skills, resources and time you needed?
"When we actually remove those kinds of restrictions, we think so much more outside the square."
Your team's best ideas aren't making the brief
When teams go straight to strategy, Kristina sees the same thing again and again: "most people only share what they think they are capable of doing, and also what they think fits within the budget and the timeframe."
Dream first, and the ideas you'd never have heard come out. Next time you're planning a campaign or event, start with the dream, then bring in the budget.
Think big, start small
"I love thinking really crazy big but starting really small," Kristina said. Big dreams only move when they meet small, consistent action. And the hard part is that small actions are easy to skip: "The things that are really easy to do are also really easy not to do."
The more AI we use, the more the real thing matters
In a room of marketers, AI was always going to come up. Kristina's answer surprised a few people: she's all in, with more AI "employees" than human ones. And, she's also, proudly, a paper person who journals every day and still writes cards by hand.
She sees the two as connected. "Out of every new technology that comes, there is always the opposite." For those of us in events and marketing, she said, "it's the perfect time to come back to the real, in-person things."
That's exactly what the afternoon felt like: phones away, a room of connection and big dreams being shared over a drink.
So, what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? Write it down.
Thank you to Kristina Karlsson for an unforgettable afternoon, and to everyone who joined us. To bring Kristina's story to your team, visit yourdreamlifestartshere.com.
Dreaming up your next event? We'd love to help. Get in touch.
