david hieatt

The pursuit of better, not bigger.

After The Do Lectures last year, I had some help from an attendee in packing up mattresses into black bin bags. We got talking.

Her view on The Do Lectures was it was amazing. But she thought we would have problems with it. And those problems were how were we going to keep it small. Because it was so amazing. And he belief was one day, word would get out.

She had lots of ideas with what we could do with it. Mind you, as it I found out later, she had over 40 patents to her name, so having lots of ideas came easy to her.

And yes this year we are going to try her ideas out. Plus lots more. It will be no bigger than last year. We are limited by the size of the barn. And parking. Instead our efforts will be concentrated on making it more magical, have more surprises, more craziness, more magic.

But as it stands now it can’t get any bigger.

I take comfort from what Rene Redzepi has done over at Noma. It seats just 45 people. And yet it has a world-class reputation. And has changed how we view Denmark.

I have some regrets about The Do Lectures. When Mickey Smith spoke at the Do, I had an idea about covering the floor with seaweed so we would all get a sense of the sea. I got busy, and I didn’t follow though. Last year, I wanted to build a death slide. A waterslide that went down the field. But again, we ran out of time.

But this year, we have had time to dial up the craziness. We can’t fit more people in, but we can fit more magic in.

The Guardian put The Do Lectures in the top ten ideas festivals in the world. But being amongst the best is not good enough. We need push on ahead.

From the very edge of West Wales, we are dialing up crazy.

The Do Lectures. Remarkable stories from remarkable people.

Do Wales. June 4th-7th.

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My Book:

http://thedobook.co/products/do-purpose-why-brands-with-a-purpose-do-better-and-matter-more

Photo by Andrew Paynter.