Hi ,Happy St Patrick's Day!I can't believe I haven't sent any email newsletters in pretty much a year, my last one was April 2018. That was before the European GDPR laws kicked in, and I might be breaking a few rules just by sending this email.You haven't heard from me in a while, and of course if you'd rather not the unsubscribe link is at the bottom of the email, and I'll have a look at what else I need to do to comply with any new laws. Most of you are friends and business acquaintances so hopefully you'll forgive me the absence.Lots happened in a year's time of course! I still live in Chicago (for now), no longer working at BBDO since last summer, have been freelancing and am looking for new work or projects right now (keep in touch if you need strategery, I can travel and relocate if needed), I went on an awesome 6 weeks long ski trip in Canada, and have been working on getting back to speed with my website, podcast, and now the newsletter.On the topic of my ski trip, I wrote about it and shared some interesting stories in a guest edition of Faris & Rosie Yakob's always excellent Strands of Genius email newsletter, check it out over here. I recently updated my website, and published a statement, or manifesto, and a podcast episode formulating what Ice Cream for Everyone is all about (if you'd rather listen to the podcast. Here it is, I'd love to hear what you think, just hit reply!

Ice Cream for Everyone is a Playful Strategy Consultancy. Ice Cream is often associated with happy thoughts and memories, perhaps of childhood, simpler times. Ice Cream is also surprisingly complex chemically, technically an emulsion, a combination of two or more liquids that don’t normally mix together. Ice Cream exists in a seemingly contradictory and ephemeral state, creating a delicious combination as a result. Ice cream requires the right ingredients, methodology, and temperature to go from complex chemistry to a simple desert. Similarly, we use creativity, play, and communication to go from complex situations to simple solutions with our clients. We believe play, communication, and creativity are powerful assets for the development of businesses, brands, and everyone. We believe dogma, bigotry, and blandness, are a hindrance to the development of businesses, brands, and everyone. Playful strategy is the application and use of structured play, and sometimes games, to define and solve challenges in a business environment. Playful strategy provides a recreational oriented state of mind fostering high levels of reasoning, insightful problem solving, and empathy for participants. We play with elements that don’t seem to normally mix together and combine them into powerful ideas with our clients. In our writing and podcast conversations we discuss questions such as:

• What is play and why is it usually opposed to work?

• Why isn’t creativity and play as valued for teenagers and adults as it is for children (where it is)?

• Why don’t brands and businesses seem to value creativity and play more? 

A few words to qualify Ice Cream for Everyone; along with short dictionary definitions:PLAYFUL

1. Fond of games and amusement; light-hearted.

2. Giving or expressing pleasure and amusement.

WHIMSICAL

1. Playfully quaint or fanciful, especially in an appealing or amusing way.

(Synonyms: fanciful, playful, mischievous, quizzical, curious, droll; fantastical) THOUGHT-PROVOKING

1. Stimulating careful consideration or attention.

(Synonyms: interesting, provocative, intriguing, stimulating; inspiring) GENEROUS

1. Showing a readiness to give more of something, as money or time, than is strictly necessary or expected.

2. Showing kindness towards others.

(Synonyms: giving, lavish, magnanimous, free-handed, bountiful, openhanded)

That’s what I want to leave you with, who read, listen to, work with me and with Ice Cream for Everyone, if ever it becomes more than me at any point.

I think this is long enough, more news next Sunday!Thanks!Willem

Chicago's River dyed green for St Patrick's Day celebrations!

 Weekly Combo Two or three flavours, interesting separately, fascinating together 

The Tinder Swindler (VG, 20-25 min read/watch)This story is absolutely nuts! I shared it online already and it seems to have done the rounds so you might have seen it already - if not I highly recommend it! The format is really engaging and the story is riveting. VG is apparently kind of tabloid paper in Norway but they've done a fabulous job of mixing video and text to bring the story to life in a modern way. It works particularly well on mobile, though laptop is fine too. The dude is despicable, preying on women, their feelings of loneliness, and wanting to be in a loving relationship. What do the 90-Somethings Regret Most? (Medium, 7 min read)