To properly prepare for this visual feast, please download the Aurasma app onto your smartphone, get comfortable with it — and see what happens this week.

The New Moon (Chinese) – Famous for their chicken salad
Sugarfish (Japanese)
Bäco Mercat (Spanish, Sandwiches)
Mo-Chica (Peruvian)
Drago Centro (Italian)
Spice the Table (Singaporean, Vietnamese)
Lemonade (American) – Great for a healthy & quick lunch
Spring St. Coffee – Great coffee, though not necessarily a good meeting place
Bottega Louie (Italian, Bakeries) – Lively lunch / dinner spot, but loud atmosphere
Bar AMA (Tex Mex)
Wooden Spoon (Brazilian) – Casual lunch
Spring St. Bar – Drinks
Church & State (French) – Amazing food for dinner
Mignon (Tapas, Drinks)
Haru Ulala (Japanese) – Good for dinner
Wurstkuche – Casual sausage place; good for quick informal lunch

Plan Ahead…Which Sessions Are Worth Attending?

PromaxBDA is not to be missed. But deciding which panel, talk or discussion to attend requires tactical thinking, not to mention logistics and planning. Most of us don’t have the luxury of attending every panel (we certainly wish we could!) because there are meetings to take, lunches to host, and dinners and parties. Here is our strategy for squeezing it all into your busy schedule:

• Have the right perspective. Think of the many PromaxBDA panels in terms of your process every day. It comes down to numbers, process, people and you.

• The “State of the Industry” talk is never to be missed. Look for clues about industry changes and anticipate your place in the big picture.

• Panels about statistics or demographics are more than big data or numbers, they provide insight about audiences; what they like and care about.

• “How-To” talks focused on the process of generating creative content or design are usually useful for refining your personal creation techniques or learning from others.

• Talks about entrepreneurship or professional growth are motivating and valuable investments of your time. Take time to consciously pay attention to your passions and career path, are they aligned?

Conference Standards & “Should Sees”:

• Keynote: A Conversation with Larry Flynt (need we say more?)
• Headliners
• State of Design
• New Best Practices 2013, an annual favorite presented by Lee Hunt
• Measuring the Binge Viewer: Fad or Future?
• The Real Mad Men: Renegades of the Golden Age of Advertising
• Shaken, Not Stirred: 50 Years of Bond
• Beauty Is Embarrassing: Screening & Discussion
• Inventing Your Own Next Chapter: Lessons in Entrepreneurship, Risk-Taking & Going Out On Your Own
• Horror Stories: Nightmare Campaigns & How They Were Turned Around
• Whichever sessions your boss decides to attend
• Topics that are farthest removed from what you do

How To Crash A Party

• Act like you’re supposed to be there
• Sneak in with a crowd
• Borrow someone’s wristband
• Trade a kiss for a wristband
• Call “their” assistant
• Say you’re the owner of a high-profile European network
• Be friendly (or flirt) with the bouncer or whoever is managing the guest list
• Go in through the fire escape
• Use “Creative” in your title
• Say that you’re invited by Robert Gottlieb from FOX

Escape from PromaxBDA: What To See While In Town

• The Stanley Kubrick Exhibit @ LACMA
• California Science Center: Here’s your chance to see the new Space Shuttle Endeavor pavilion
• LA Live, Nokia Theater and Staples Center host many musical acts. Check their websites for a list of featured artists and schedules.

Getting Around

The Conference is located at LA Live, which is the entertainment center of Downtown LA. There are plenty of places to see and eat around here. Just keep in mind that Downtown is not particularly walking-friendly and the blocks are quite long, so be sure to wear comfortable shoes.

LA Live is also a touristy area, so there will be plenty of taxicabs available or you can catch the Metro Rail or public transportation: http://www.lalive.com/visitor-center/public-transportation

Better yet, keep your eyes peeled for the Oishii-branded van.

According to NYT writer Sariska Bansal, many investors look at failure as a positive when making decisions. “If you’re not failing… you’re not considered to be innovative enough…” We agree. So fail “out loud” and fail “forward!”

The Duryea Brothers

Over a hundred years ago this month, the Duryea brothers built one of the first one-cylinder automobiles. Charles & Frank Duryea were innovators and entrepreneurs, but like so many talented people, they were beat to the market by others. For most of their lives, the Duryea brothers came to resent their lack of fame compared to the veritable Henry Ford.

Amongst themselves, the brothers were also embroiled in a bitter legal battle over who had actually built the first car. The dispute ended only with older brother Charles’ death in 1938. Instead of wasting time and energy on fighting, harboring resentment, and continually defining themselves against their betters, what if they charted a new course, embracing their role as early adopters and finding new ways to apply their skills to new projects and possibilities? Imagine what their passion for innovation could have yielded then?

 The strategy and work session could always use more color.  Unleashed is the Oishii way of thinking about thinking. For us, Unleashed in a work session means using the mind productively, creating something tangible and useful. Unleashed means an open mind free from the clutter of judgements, cynicism and anger. Unleashed allows the shapes the unformed intuition and impulse into words. Go wild. Get unleashed…Where are you going?

For more #kidinspired and The Kid Unleashed: series at Tumblr

The day could have easily been an empty or celebratory party on the part of tech industry giant Google… but the announcements were riveting and valuable.

Some of the up-and-coming releases and educational presentations made at Google i/o included:

• •Exciting animation developments that occur right in the browser (no no app or video required) [via a demonstration of The Hobbits: Trollshaw Forest]
• •Really engaging multi-device gaming experiences, including tablets and iOS, see below.
• •Increasingly shared experiences between Google websites and apps on a variety of machines – desktop computers, mobile phones and tablets.
• •Powerful new features that can be accessed on the web, not just through Google’s browser, but on a variety of modern browsers.

Oishii Digital and Interactive producer, Al-Insan Lashley, at the recent Google i/O event in Los Angeles.

Al-Insan Lashley (Digital/Interactive Producer) and the KID were both present and accounted for at Google i/o Extended’s Keynote address, as well as in a wide variety of presentation sessions.  It offered deep technical content and a lot of geeky fun…

Need to invigorate your work routine? Try crashing the office lunch table.  Greg Lindsay (greglindsay.org) has written extensively on workplace productivity and noted recently that researchers at the MIT Human Dynamics Laboratory concluded that workers who had chance conversations, unintentional meetings and casual office conversations were more productive than those who worked alone. Informal communications, as opposed to structured meetings, allows conversations, thoughts and ideas to flourish. In turn, these conversations can have a replication effect throughout the workplace and can foster “serendipity,” moments where ideas become action.

Now get up, and find someone to talk to!

Psychologist Sonya Lyubomirsky, sonjalyubomirsky.com, has studied happiness and has discovered the many  downstream benefits of cultivating a smile and generous emotions for your  work mates.  For creatives, where “producing” content is critical, feelings play a role in the process of idea generation.  Postive feelings about ones self and others fosters empathy which in turn allows the mind to flourish and generate ideas. So, pick up the coffee and let the ideas flow…

The Oishii Kid was a labor of love. After a team conversation about our favorite DIY toys, Ish designed, produced and found distribution for the Kid, complete with iconic hair, belly and attitude. The toy was an inspiration project and a way to talk about creativity, idea generation and imagination. The Oishii kid is now out in the world and in the wild! Fans are now using social media, #kidinspired, to capture the kid’s travels and how he’s making their day a bit more inspired and interesting.