On Thursday, I learned that the 2009 Account Planning Conference has been cancelled.  It seems we’ll miss this year’s installment of prognostication (and pontification) over the future of planning.

In recent years, the planning conference has seen a fair amount of design thinking infused into both philosophy and process — the “actions speak louder than words” era is upon us.  The Jay Chiat Awards call for entries was certainly evidence of this; two categories call for cases involving product design thinking.

It’s also interesting how traditional agencies are beginning to resemble design consultancies.  Just have a look at this PSFK panel discussion on agencies thinking outside the traditional agency-client relationship to build brands from the ground up:

I would hope that as a part of this shift, Account Planning will play a major role in bringing the principles of human-centered design to bear on IP.  Otherwise, agencies best leave it to the design minds at places like Continuum.  Their short film “Resonance” is a great introduction to design planning, offering some hints as to how agencies must change traditional organizational structures if they are to succeed at creating truly relevant IP: