The “Think Different” Creative Director Is Coming To Sri Lanka

Open your calendars and set an appointment for July 24^th, folks! This will be the day Ken Segall, the former creative director of Apple’s famous ad agency, TBWA/Chiat/Day, will be visiting in Sri Lanka. At an event organized by SLASSCOM Sri Lanka, he’ll be delivering his keynote speech: Insanely Simple. At Cinnamon Lakeside.

Who exactly is Ken Segall?

Ken Segall started working with Apple alongside Steve Jobs in 1997. However this wasn’t the first time the two had worked together. A few years earlier, when Segall worked at Ammirati, he had worked with a company called NeXT Computers – a company founded by Steve Jobs after he was expelled from Apple in 1985.

Fast forward to 1997 and Steve Jobs returned to Apple. He returned to find a company that was 3 months away from bankruptcy. Apple was at death’s door and few expected it to win the battle.

It was during these troubling times that Ken Segall became famous. In 1997, he was part of the team that conceptualized the famous Think Different ads. A campaign so successful, it was Apple’s slogan for 5 years.

May 6^th 1998, Steve Jobs slashed Apple’s entire product line and announces 3 new computers. One of those computers was the original iMac G3 – a computer designed by a young Jonathan Ive and named by one Ken Segall. “I have written longer things than that but for some reason nobody remembers those things,” Segall joked referring to how he coined the name.

Segall has also worked with other companies, including tech giants such as Dell, Intel and IBM. It was after working with these other companies that Segall got the ideas for his book. As he himself once said in an interview with Macworld, “The inspiration to write my book wasn’t Apple. I thought that was a really exciting fun experience, but it was only when I worked with these other guys that I realised how much better Apple was at keeping things simple and therefore achieving better results.”

So why should I listen to him speak?

Ken Segall’s keynote, like his book is designed to teach you one important thing: simplicity. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a developer, a marketer, tech geek or just another Apple fan. By understanding simplicity, you can push yourself and your organization to unprecedented heights. After all simplicity is what made Apple the behemoth it is today. At least, that’s what we think the speech is going to be.

So make that appointment on your calendar and keep an eye on the event page for tickets. If there’s one event you shouldn’t miss, it’s this one.