Contagious Summer Bootcamp 2019 /

Rory is the Vice Chairman of Ogilvy, an attractively vague job title which has allowed him to co-found a behavioral science practice within the agency. He works with a consulting practice of psychology graduates who look for ‘unseen opportunities’ in consumer behaviour - these are the very small contextual changes which can have enormous effects on the decisions people make - for instance tripling the sales rate of a call centre by adding just a few sentences to the script. Put another way, lots of agencies will talk about "bought, owned and earned" media: we also look for "invented media" and "discovered media": seeking out those unexpected (and inexpensive) contextual tweaks that transform the way that people think and act.

For over 20 years, Laura has brought her fresh and experimental approach to the creative industries. Combining technical exploration with passionate storytelling, she has won numerous awards for her commercial work and been recognised globally as an innovator and industry leader across communications and design. One of the world’s few female Chief Creative Officers, she is former president of D&AD, has been named one of Britain’s most influential people within the Debrett’s 500 annual list for the second year running, scooped up Individual of the Year at the Dadi Awards and been awarded an honorary doctorate for her services to graphic design from University of the Arts, London (Norwich). She was awarded the UNSW Alumni Award for Arts and Culture in 2018.

Andy began life as a planner in 1993, after gaining a First in Law from Edinburgh University. Fast forward a couple of decades and he's regularly named as one of the world's top strategists (he took the UK's top spot in 2019, for the second time). His career has spanned agencies including AMV, Rainey Kelly, Goodby Silverstein and MCBD (for whom he won a record 24 IPA Effectiveness Awards, including 3 Agency of the Year titles). But he's best known today for starting Lucky Generals in 2013. The agency is seen as one of the most successful startups of recent times with clients including Amazon, AB InBev, Yorkshire Tea and the Co-op. This year, it announced its first international office, in New York. Andy is not as much of a tosser as the above makes him sound and rarely, if ever, refers to himself in the third person.

Nils has spent over 20 years in the advertising and design industry working across the most recognised agencies in London. In his previous role as Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Grey LDN, Nils oversaw the most profitable and awarded years in the agency’s 52 years history and became one of the youngest agency chairmen in the world leading its brands globally. Nils was voted into the Ad Age creativity 50 and was named the No.1 creative person in advertising globally by Business insider, is on the board of trustees of D&AD and is listed as one of the Sunday Times 500 most influential people in the UK.

Chloe Markowicz is Editor of Contagious. She oversees the content featured on the Contagious Intelligence tool – an online inspiration resource, filled with best-in-class commercial creativity and the most important new technologies from across the world – and in the quarterly Contagious print magazine, which provides a curated, measured review of the most important developments driving marketing, technology and business creativity. She also regularly delivers tailored trend briefings and has spoken at Contagious events and marketing conferences around the world.

Katrina Stirton Dodd is Head of Trends at Contagious, a consultancy dedicated to helping brands and advertising agencies around the world understand and adapt to shifts in marketing, consumer culture and technology. Their quarterly magazine has become a global benchmark for creative excellence, with a longstanding reputation for separating the signal from the noise in a marketing landscape that gets louder and more cluttered every year. She was a founding member of the Contagious Advisory team and prior to that was launch editor of I/O, the company's insights and intelligence platform. Katrina has a long a history of writing about what happens when creativity and commerce collide, a fascination for innovation and an enduring love of music videos.