The national body for Marketing in Sri Lanka, SLIM proudly presents James Taylor, winner of ‘The Icon of the Year Award’ presented by the United Nations Foundation towards fashioning super creative organizations. SLIM is conducting this workshop with the belief that super creativity and innovation will elevate the positive mindset of the Marketing fraternity of Sri Lanka which was affected by the 21/4 tragedy. To build a better tomorrow, the much sought after keynote speaker, James Taylor, will conduct the workshop on ‘Creativity in Business, Innovation, and Artificial Intelligence’ titled, ‘How to survive & thrive in the age of Artificial Intelligence’ on the 6th of November at Waters Edge, Colombo. The Marketers Summit will be held on the following day; the 7th of November 2019, where 6 local and international speakers will present their success stories on “Driving business through creativity & innovation” at Waters Edge. The SLIM Brand week, a five-day brand-marketing symposium will be held from the 4th to the 8th of November 2019 at the BMICH. SLIM organizes this comprehensive knowledge week with 3 main programs, including James Taylor in Sri Lanka, the Marketers Summit and Brand Week to ignite the Marketing fraternity with knowledge.

With the rapid development of the business world, organizations now cannot survive without adapting to the latest cutting edge technology available in the market. One such modern invention is Artificial Intelligence (AI), an amplification of the human intelligence, which has now become the backbone of many modern corporates and industries.  James Taylor is on a mission to help people and organizations maximize, market and monetize their creativity through Artificial Intelligence. This workshop will be a knowledge sharing session about Artificial Intelligence, and will focus on surviving and thriving in the age of AI. 

James Taylor started his professional journey managing high profile rock stars and soon became an in-demand keynote speaker, and internationally recognized leader in business creativity and innovation. For more than 20 years, he has been providing his counsel and guidance to CEO’s, entrepreneurs, educators, governments and leaders from Silicon Valley to Singapore. He has provided his expertise about creativity and innovation through his online courses, videos, media interviews and keynote speeches, to thousands of people in over 120 countries. James is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts (F.R.S.A.) whose Fellows have included global innovators and leaders including President Benjamin Franklin, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Bob Dylan, Adam Smith, Nelson Mandela and Professor Stephen Hawking. As the founder of C. SCHOOL™ and recipient of the Modern ONTRApreneur Award and the S.D. Southern Award, James is recognized as a worldwide authority on creativity, innovation and marketing.

Sharing his thoughts on the workshop, Suranjith Swaris, the President of SLIM, stated, “The rapidly changing world is giving rise to many new technological and educational innovations that depict the present and future of organizations and industries. Artificial Intelligence, which has emerged as the latest innovation, is proving to be both a benefit as well as a challenge to organizations. While AI is threatening to take over human job roles, creativity has opted to be the solution for this dilemma.  With creativity being an evident gap in Sri Lanka, we believe that James Taylor’s insight on AI will be of immense aid to the Marketing fraternity in Sri Lanka”.

Charaka Perera, Executive Member and the Project Chair for National Initiatives of SLIM commented on the MAD (Marketing Academics & Data) campaign that was launched in support of James Taylor Live in Sri Lanka, Brand Week and the Marketers Summit.  This campaign fits into the national vision of SLIM in driving a national theme of building a knowledge destination in Sri Lanka. “As the national body for Marketing, SLIM has an integral responsibility to add value to the nation’s ambitious development agenda. SLIM continuously strives to impart global knowledge and experience to the local business fraternity, featuring exceptional global personalities in Sri Lanka, which is one of the main strategies in realizing this vision in achieving the goal of Sri Lanka being recognized as a knowledge destination. Thus, during this year we believe that bringing down the best international personalities in the calibre of James Taylor to Sri Lanka will certainly unlock business creativity and will accelerate innovations in the age of AI for many business heads globally. The MAD campaign will take responsibility in driving this change with the tagline - “We are for tomorrow”. Further, the MAD campaign will build marketer mind sets for tomorrow’s business needs by building the consumer franchise with investments in R&D. The world today is driven by marketers who are academically savvy in affecting a much needed change through technology. The MAD campaign will run in collaboration with Positive Sri Lanka from the 4th to the 8th of November at Water’s Edge with award winning guest speaker James Taylor being the limelight along with SLIM Brand Week and the Marketers’ Summit exploring the craziest. Ideas. Ever. Call Prageeth at SLIM on 0703 069 031 for more details.”

SLIM has declared the 4th to the 8th of November as Knowledge Week and will be holding 3 events; James Taylor Live in SL – 6th Nov (9 am to 5 pm), the Marketers Summit – 7th Nov (9 am to 5 pm) and Brands Week – 4th to 8th Nov (6 pm to 8 pm), to enhance the Marketing fraternity in Sri Lanka. 

Sanath Senanayake, CEO/Executive Director of SLIM, added “The Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing is privileged to present James Taylor, an in-demand creativity expert, in Sri Lanka. This workshop with James Taylor will provide an opportunity for the Sri Lankan Marketing fraternity to incorporate new strategies and enhance their businesses. SLIM is committed to impart global knowledge and experience, and therefore we are continuously in the process of featuring exceptional global personalities for the benefit of the business fraternity of Sri Lanka.”