It’s getting near end of term at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. To provide new ideas to her students, Professor Tracie Frost invited me to speak to her students. The class is a masters-level accounting course. I specialise in reputation and brand.

What to talk about?

My son is in university, so it’s natural I empathise with Gen Z. I wanted to use my experience to provide “news you can use” for the under 25 set.

Honed in on a topic – “Earning Trust in the Attention Economy.” As we’re looking forward, I invited world renowned futurist Diana Wu David to join.

Some 30+ students in the auditorium listened – and engaged! – over 90 minutes.

Started with an overview of Trust – why it matters, and the state of the industry. I urge you to read The Edelman Trust Baromoter – available here: https://lnkd.in/g8vghNGx

Also talked about the “Attention Economy” and how an excess of information is devaluing trust in social and traditonal media.

We then turned our attention to the students – and talked about their reputation, positive brand attributes, and importantly what they are NOT. What’s on brand? What’s off?

Will say I sweated the details, and was possibly over-prepared. But it was really, really enjoyable to speak with students and provide insights and lessons.

We’re at “Peak Attention Economy” and I don’t see that diminishing soon…

Thank you Diana for introducing yourself to every student. Thank you Tracie for inviting us. And to all the students today – thank you for being so warm, welcoming and engaged. That made it fun!