BCG Design Studios · Creative AI · July 2026▲ Power-Up Week
The floor-raiser · monthly · from July
Power-Up Week —
scaled across the regions.
How the Lab's builds reach every creative in DS — planned and orchestrated as one system, run locally in every region.
3 regions
2 tracks
a week, not a day
monthly cadence
For the Creative Directors · Esteban Zapiola, Creative AI Lead
The move
We're not building more. We're getting what we already built into every creative's hands — and building the capability around it.
01 · The operating principle▲ Power-Up Week
Three rules the model hangs on
Set once at the centre, run locally in every region.
A week, not a day
One focused day, spread across five.Short daytime drop-ins plus one or two after-hours sessions. Each core module runs twice — so no one loses a billable day to attend.
Two tracks, in parallel
Raise the floor and push the ceiling.Studio Sessions bring the whole studio up; the Open AI Lab takes practitioners deeper. Both across the same week.
Layer-driven
Shaped once, delivered everywhere.Layer 1 (the Lab) shapes the content · Layer 2 (Regional Practice) delivers it · Layer 3 (all of DS) is the audience.
02 · The two tracks▲ Power-Up Week
Same week, two altitudes
Everyone finds their level — no one is left behind or held back.
GeneralStudio Sessions
The broad track. Here's a power-up we built, here's what it does, here's how to use it — designed to bring the whole studio up, whatever the starting point.
Hands-on: people leave having used the tool. Each session maps to a DS service offering, so the link to real work is obvious from minute one.
Focus
Breadth across power-ups, tied to day-to-day work.
Format
Daytime drop-ins across the week. No full-day commitment.
Who
All of DS — Layer 3 as the primary audience.
MasterclassOpen AI Lab
The deep track. For practitioners who want to go further into one tool, workflow or technique — taught, with room to question and explore.
Not just to explain a tool, but to expand what someone can see themselves doing with it. One power-up per session — go far into it.
Focus
Depth — methodology, edge cases, pushing the limits.
Format
One or two after-hours sessions a week — no clash with client work.
Who
Practitioners moving from "how to use it" to "how to push it."
03 · A model week▲ Power-Up Week
Light on any day, complete across five
Illustrative — each region sequences its own tools. The shape is what matters.
Mon
Studio · Storyboard Maker. Midday, ~90 min, hands-on.
Tue
Studio · HTML Builder. Midday + a short repeat, so both time zones catch it.
Wed
Open AI Lab · deep dive. After-hours, ~2 hrs, one tool to its edges.
Thu
Studio · PPT Wizard + Script Writer. Two quick power-ups, mapped to Pitch Studio.
Fri
Show & share. What people made — and the sharing habit, taught live. Feeds the Library's build queue.
Why twice-a-day matters. Running each core module at midday and after-hours means every region can attend inside its own working day — and nobody trades a billable hour for it.
04 · How a session runs▲ Power-Up Week
Ignite → Make → Share
One self-contained ~2-hour session, run twice the same day (midday + after-hours, identical). The Foundation's Jam-Session shape, gamified.
01 · Ignite
Show, don't tell
15–20 min
Live-demo the module's power-up on a real case. The "this couldn't exist without it" moment.
02 · Make
Hands on keys
75–85 min
Everyone runs the packaged workflow on their own live work — a real proposal, a real asset. No-install floor track.
03 · Share
What we made
15–20 min
A few people show their output; the pair captures what was missing → feeds the backlog & Library.
04 · Power-up
Level up + homework
5 min
Gamified recognition + a short "bring-it-home" brief to apply on real work before next month.
05 · Scattered across regions, run as one▲ Power-Up Week
Two deliveries cover three regions
Same content spine, local delivery. The two daily slots are timed so APAC & EMESA share the same sessions; AMR runs the mirror week and is the fallback — ~4 chances at every topic.
APAC + EMESA
Bangaluru hub · run together
One delivery covers both — sessions timed to the AP↔EMESA overlap. Pritish + Diwakar (APAC) & Jose + Paula (EMESA) co-host.
Anchor setBangaluru · APAC on-ramp to Hackathon 2
AMR
Costa Rica hub · mirror
Same week, same modules, its own friendlier hours. EMESA creatives who miss both AP/EMESA sittings fall back here. Led by Ave + Gema.
Anchor setCosta Rica · the fallback path
EMESA anchor
The one open decision
EMESA runs inside the shared AP/EMESA delivery — but its office anchor is still unnamed. It's the single decision blocking this region's calendar.
Needs a nameEMESA office
Northeast Asia — a separate workstream. Different language context and starting point. Not folded into the hub model; figured out independently. TBC.
06 · The cast — who I need▲ Power-Up Week
Three groups make it run
The Lab shapes it once; the regional pairs deliver it; the Stories-in-Motion coaches carry the deepest workflow line out to teams.
Layer 1 · shapes it once
The Lab
Esteban, Stephen, Bill, Fernando, Pritish — build each module once (content + run-sheet). Abhi owns the Library; Marcela (TBC) adds capacity.
What I need: focused build time to shape the kit — hands on keys, not advisory.
Layer 2 · delivers local
Regional pairs
Ave + Gema — AMR
Jose + Paula — EMESA
Pritish + Diwakar — APAC
What I need: two named people per region, time protected, shaping their week by end of July.
Layer 2 · coaches out
Stories in Motion
Daljeet, Diwakar, Gema, Jose, Jessica — take the Stories-in-Motion workflows and cascade them to their regions.
The first named coaching cohort — the build→coach→floor loop, running live.
07 · The ask▲ Power-Up Week
What I need from the Creative Directors
You are the long-term owners of Creative AI in your region. The partnership: you provide mandate and studio access; the pair provides the craft and the community energy.
Champion
Visibly back the work — make AI fluency part of how the studio defines quality.
Activate
Connect the practice to the studios; remove friction so it reaches every team.
Identify
Surface the real client problems that should steer what the Lab builds next.
Own the ladder
Track regional fluency; develop the Step 6–7 pipeline and future Lab talent.
Concretely, now
- Name & free up the two Power-Up leads per region — protect their time
- Return your proposed Layer-1 / Layer-2 names
- Commit to a monthly cadence and the fluency targets
And keep feeding it
- Feed the backlog with real regional needs — so the next sprint builds the right things
- Coordinate L&D — schedule sessions into studio rhythms, not against them
08 · What's on the shelf▲ Power-Up Week
The power-ups, mapped to the work
Sprint Zero's power-ups plus the two lead products componentised. Prioritisation sits with studio leads & CDs — sequencing over coverage. Not everything runs in July.
Power-ups
Storyboard MakerScript WriterHTML Builder
PPT WizardMagic Wand
Vid.io → componentisedAutoDemo → componentised
+ more TBC
Mapped to DS service offerings
Creative AdvisoryComm & Content
Stories in MotionPitch StudioExperience & Product
So each session connects to the work practitioners actually do — the tool never arrives context-free.
09 · Orchestration▲ Power-Up Week
The director's job
A week in three regions only works if it's run as one system. Here's what's held at the centre versus the region — and the loop that makes it self-feeding.
Shaped once (Layer 1)
The Lab builds each module once — content, run-sheet, the "push it" material. One source, so quality holds across every hub.
Delivered local (Layer 2)
Regional pairs run their own week and coach it outward — Stories in Motion carried out from Layer 2 first.
The demand loop
Friday's show & share tells the Library what to build next. The week is the demand engine that points the roadmap.
The self-running library
What people share drops into the two-shelf Library; an agent auto-evaluates & approves it. The sharing habit is taught inside the modules.
Cadence. Power-Up Week is monthly — the repeating floor-raiser that turns structure into culture. July is the first turn of the wheel; it's built to run every month after, business-as-usual throughout.
10 · Running alongside▲ Power-Up Week
Three global workstreams, in parallel
Power-Up Week raises the floor regionally. These run globally — open to anyone across DS, not tied to a region.
Masterclass Knowledge Series
Jul – Aug · global
Global calls across both months. Esteban leads the first on looping — ready to go. Then MCPs & APIs, token efficiency, and more.
LiveOwner TBC
Creative AI Roundtable
H2 2026 · global
A thinking format, not a training one. Generative UI is the first confirmed topic; an open call for nominations seeds the rest.
PlanningOwner TBC
Hackathons 2 & 3
Sept · Dec
Bangaluru in September, Costa Rica in December — the Prove → Productise → Platform arc. Planned in a separate session.
ScheduledH2 · H3
11 · The next two weeks▲ Power-Up Week
From plan to booked
Immediate next steps
- Reconnect call with all hackathon participants — within two weeks
- Agree tool prioritisation with studio leads & Regional CDs
- Book hub dates for July across the two deliveries
- Confirm week structure & session count per region
- Split tools: Open AI Lab vs Studio Sessions
- Brief Fernando, Ana Rivera & Videk on coordination
Open decisions
- Which tools are prioritised for July — not which are ready, but which matter most?
- Do regional weeks overlap, or run strictly sequentially?
- Dial-in for Studio Sessions — live, recorded, or both?
- Who owns the Open AI Lab content plan — Lab or Regional Leaders?
- Name the EMESA office anchor (AMR & APAC are set)
- What does "the week worked" actually look like?
The commitment
Monthly, from July. One system, run everywhere.
▲ BCG Design Studios · Creative AI · Creative Advantage by design.