Tag Archives: seminars

Sep 29 2016
Leave a comment
Business, Digital Strategy, Marketing Strategy, Strategy

The Difference Between Start-up Event and Marketing Event

Last week I was in Slush Singapore and the event was awesome. It was also breath of fresh air from traditional industry events, where you usually end up when working in marketing. What was also refreshing that I had to really explain what I am doing for work as the majority of people were not familiar with the weird acronyms we have as our “brands”. Can you truly explain what you do?

When I was talking to start-ups, pretty much every single one of them was explaining how their product, innovation or service is making the world a better place. Of course everyone wants to be a unicorn and get big fat investing rounds, but that was not the first thing you heard from them. The sense of purpose was something that came across first. Therefore I had really interesting discussions there and exchanged way more cards than in typical marketing event.

When you go to advertising seminar, the dialogue goes like this:

AD WANKER #1: ME ME ME ME $$$$$$*

AD WANKER #2: ME ME ME ME GREAT WORK**

AD WANKER #1: ME ME ME ME GREAT WORK

AD WANKER #2: ME ME ME ME $$$$$$

AD WANKER #1: ME ME ME ME “INNOVATION”***

and this continues as long as there is free booze.

We are only talking about ourselves. We preach our clients how they should be consumer-centric and communicate that way, but we are not practicing what we preach. For masters of branding, we truly suck on it. To be able to make your client interesting, you have to be interesting as well.

Talking about the cobbler´s children are the worst shod.

So what is the main difference between start-up event and marketing event?

First ones are interesting and inspiring. Latter ones are just painful waste of time.

I love marketing, but our industry is standing on burning platform. The talk about changing our ways has been mostly just smoke and mirrors for majority of agencies. We have taken some buzzwords from start-up world and put it to our presentations and think that we are innovative.  Current advertising is only relevant to advertisers and agencies. Advertising is not shaping popular culture anymore. Some could almost argue that we are not even part of popular culture.

Marketing is more important than ever. This was also obvious when talking with start-ups. They need help on how to break through clutter: how to be noticed, how to create memorable brand and tell interesting stories. They are in desperate need of agency expertise, but bureaucratic processes and archaic ways of working make collaboration almost impossible. Agencies are slow, the most interesting future clients are not.

Luckily it is not only gloom and doom and there are some awesome initiatives towards right direction (and luckily in firm where I am working for). Evolution does not save us, we need revolution.

* Way less money than any start-up is getting on their financing rounds.

** And that great work is categorized by fellow ad guys not the general public

**** In reality just some scam project

Tagged , , , , , , ,
Jan 27 2016
Leave a comment
Business, Insight, Planning, Strategy

Three Tips for Better Productivity

Good strategy is more often not about deciding what to do, but deciding what not to do:

1. Do not go to seminars.
The speakers generally resemble something like this:

Speakers are only promoting themselves, their firm or both. The probability of getting surprising new insights or meeting interesting people is close to zero.
Instead: Exercise or go to a stand-up comedy gig.

2. Do not read business books.
Just by glancing the executive summary you will be able to recite enough nuggets to shine in your presentations. Especially avoid books that have started out as blogs (trust me I have written one).
Instead: Read Russian classics.

3. Avoid Networking events
If you need to attend networking event you are not probably a person people would want to network to begin with. As everyone is just trying to maximize the amount of shared business cards, the probability of having meaningful conversation is close to zero.
Instead: Try to go for lunch with interesting people.
Usually more interesting and deep conversations and better food as you can select the restaurant.

With these tips you will notice that your productivity will jump through the roof and you are living more balanced and meaningful life.

Tagged , , , , , ,
Oct 29 2014
Leave a comment
Business, Planning, Strategy

9 Tips On How To Be An Interesting Conference Speaker

I used to speak in quite a lot of seminars and conferences.
Nowadays I do it less, which means that I do not generally attend any conferences any more. I have some real work to do.
It is always nice to meet new people, but generally they are always the same people frequenting the seminars (those who have time for them). Other reason why I am avoiding the seminars is the quality of the presentations. Generally they are really boring. If I don´t get a new idea from every presentation, the time spent surfing web and watching cat videos would be time better spent.
Based on my experience in conference circuit, below are nine tips on how to outshine your competitors on the stage. If I would conclude it to one sentence, it would be about: “People are not interested about what you know, but what do you think and feel”. If you can convey that in your presentation, you are already quite far on making compelling presentation:

1. Have a point of view
This is the most important thing. When you are speaking at a conference, your main goal is to be interesting. You are not promoting your company; you are promoting your thinking.
What is the main idea you want to get across? If you do not have that clear idea with your presentation, you should get out of that stage. Now.
Having a point of view does not mean that you are smart or even close to the actually truth. The information is accessible to everyone, but only you can provide your own point-of-view. That is what makes you unique presenter. Don´t tell me stats I already know, but what is your take on those stats.

2. Don´t pitch your company, pitch yourself
I met my ex-colleague during lunch break of seminar he was attending. He mentioned that majority of the talks were just company pitches. This is like a plague especially in Singapore. I even attended Pecha Kucha here and majority of the talks were company pitches without no personality or point-of-view.
It was really downer.
I have gotten leads from every industry seminar I have spoken. I have usually mentioned firm I was working in the beginning and occasionally shown couple of case studies of what I have done (if relevant). That´s it. 99% of the presentation has been trying present compelling point-of-view about the state of world. Generally after the seminar, there has been a queue of people coming to talk more. There will be opportunities to handle your business cards and give your elevator pitch after your presentation. Would you rather talk with an interesting person with compelling views or desperate salesman who just sweats desperation?

3. Go against the grain
You have to make your audience feel something. If you are speaking in Social Media conference, have a title “Social Media is Dead” because every other presentation is praising the collective power of social media and using the same case studies. You don´t need to preach the idea of social media to already those already converted. You have to wake them up!
Generally people who attend seminars are more up-to-date with the world, so you can try provoking some thoughts from them. Also those who would need digital marketing education never attend the digital marketing seminars.

4. Good presentation asks questions, but does not provide answers
Usually length of a presentation in seminar is 45 minutes. It is quite a short time. If you can make people think and asking questions, your goal is accomplished. The idea is not showcase everything you know, but to showcase the highlights of what you know and think in interesting way.

5. Good presentation is entertainment, not education
In seminars you have a fierce competitor for the attention: the smartphone. Immediately you are sounding boring, people start to focus on their mobile devices.

6. Don´t Sweat The Technique
I have seen great presentations without any aids or props. I also have seen awesome presentations, which use all the technical bells and whistles you can imagine. If you have the compelling point-of-view, the technique can either amplify or weaken it. It is more about personal preferences and style you have when presenting. Prepare also that there are always technical difficulties: no Apple adapters, fonts missing, computer breaking down, timelines not met, and microphone on mute… Be professional with it and go through the worst-case scenario before your presentation. Be ready to present even without your precious slides.

7. Adjust to the audience
Smaller the audience, the more interactivity I try to have and vice versa. General rule-of-thumb is that bigger the audience you have the more idiotic the questions will be. That is because they are not questions anymore, but more about showing how smart the asker is. Usually they are also pitching their company. Save that stuff for after-seminar cocktails, please.

8. Don´t Say Sorry
I don´t care if you haven´t had time to prepare your slides. When you are in the stage, be proud and don´t apologize your existence. You should be there for a reason.

9. Dress snappily
If everything else fails, at least they remember that you had flair and mint sneakers.

Speaking of conferences, I don´t like sending my slides in advance either.

Tagged , , , , ,
%d bloggers like this: