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Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto Part 2
Its been an interesting trip. I have to say that the entire trip was worth going to. The conference was great. Toronto was great. My hotel, was not great, but I wasn’t there much and was asleep when I was, so I guess I will survive. Before my next trip I’ll have to remember to check out Shel’s travel blog to find out where to stay.
In case you were not able to joins us, the conference was held in a nightclub. No hotel conference rooms for this shindig. The place was called the Guvernment and Kool Haus. Looking at http://www.theguvernment.com for the venue before leaving, I got these notions of how cool the conference was going to be. After spending two days there; however, the choice in location really only gave us one advantage over using a hotel conference room, and that was the sound system. We had no problem hearing the speakers.
Speaking of speakers, here is a tip to all you presenters out there…DON’T READ YOUR PRESENTAION!!! I have no problem with notes, but reading a presentation word for word is very frustrating to watch. Reading a presentation creates the impression that the speaker does not have a good knowledge of their chosen topic. All the presenters had valuable information to share, but let me just say this: If you ever have the opportunity to see any of the following people talk, don’t miss the opportunity: CC Chapman, David Weinberger, Brian Eisenberg, Mitch Joel or Joseph Jaffe. These guys all share the ability to speak well and engage an audience.
Here’s a tip to make you popular and build name recognition at a conference, Only go to conferences very far away from where you live, preferably in another country. I went to the Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto Ontario Canada from my home in Rio Rancho New Mexico USA. I heard about the conference on Six Pixels of Separation a little while back, and after reading the list of keynote speakers from the Canadian Marketing Associations website made arrangements to go. How could you not go and see the group previously above. I contacted Mitch, CC, and Joseph through email and skype to let them now I was coming, and the word spread. It was pretty strange; I’m not a really important person by any means. I haven’t cured cancer or ended poverty, but was greeted at the conference as “Oh, you’re the guy that came up from New Mexico!” This was also usually followed with “Where is New Mexico, anyway?” It was cool being a novelty for the day or two because it allowed me to talk to a lot of people that probably wouldn’t have sought me out otherwise.
A few of the committee members from the Canadian Marketing Association blogged about the conference, from the conference and posted it at http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/. This is a good collection of what was said by the presenters. Check it out and make sure to come next year.