This section brings together essays and reflections on creativity, leadership, brand, and cultural change. Some pieces are strategic. Others are personal. All are written with the belief that thoughtful work – and thoughtful lives – require pause, pattern recognition, and honest inquiry.
Thought leadership and advisory work…
Innovating in Marketing, an interview with the team at GoFractional.com, 2025
Generational Health – a new framework for legacy, regeneration and & international wellbeing on Substack, 2025
Good People Doing Good Things newsletter on LinkedIn – Inspiring orgs making a positive impact in the world (and sometimes hiring), 2025
Welcome to the Polycene – everything, everywhere, happening all at once, 2025
How to Supper Club – and Why Breaking Bread with Strangers Still Matters, 2025
5 Key Strategies for Successful Event Brand Activations, 2025
Top 10 reasons to hire a Fractional CMO, 2025
COVID was the Rehearsal, Just a few years ago, philanthropy showed what it could be at its best: nimble, coordinated, unusually brave. This time, facing the sudden slashing of foreign aid, the cavalry is quieter, Standford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), 2025
Forest Carbon partnered with Rippleworks to define their organizational structure, 2023
YLabs partnered with Rippleworks to define a remote organization structure that helps their team grow, 2021
Creativity meets Technology. Now What?, #MarketingTO, Tech Toronto, 2018 –
- Video record of presentation at the event – Why Creativity will not become a Commodity
- Full presentation available here in google slides – Creativity vs Commodity
Keeping up with Innovation in Toronto, Ensemble Toronto, 2018 – Full podcast at betakit
Reflecting on some of the innovations in technology that have had the biggest impacts on consumers and marketers, as well as which innovations today could mean the most for the future, Dx3 Canada, 2018 – Dx3 Podcast
An interview with the provocative Hilton Barbour, 2018 – https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/culture-digital-transformation-building-makers-dreamers-barbour
CES 2018 – A Quick Update on CES 2018
FreshBooks Video Interview – An interview with the FreshBooks Content team – Mastering the Art of Brainstorming, 2016
Soundcloud podcast – A career retrospective in conversation with Creative Niche – Talent & Titans, episode 3, 2016
Media in Canada interview – “The world doesn’t need more advertising,” – CES 2015 Overview
DX3 Video Interview – Di Paola also says that Canadian entrepreneurs need not be ashamed of past failures. Instead, they should be worn as triumphant battle scars, signs of lessons learned out in the real world. This experience is what makes the next startup more enduring and successful. – The state of the Toronto start-up scene, DX3, 2013
Media in Canada Guest Blog – “Humanity Trumps Technology” – SXSW 2013
Media in Canada interview – “The rise of social TV, he said, offers brands new opportunities to engage in conversations with consumers around shows without the need to buy advertising, allowing them to gain insight on exactly what consumers are doing while they’re watching TV.” – The State of Social TV, 2013
Media in Canada Guest Blog – “Insight, desire and utility need to co-exist and get equal attention from all marketers. Ideas need to be strategic, insightful and relevant. And they still require great storytelling and an emotional connection with people. Also, they need to be useful and usable.” SXSW, 2012
Rogue Mischief 