Random thoughts at a marketing conference

I had a blast at a recent marketing conference in Boston. Why? I love going into the city. I love learning new things, especially about one of my passions, marketing.

The thoughts were streaming through my mind the whole day. I thought you all would enjoy seeing how I think.

As I’m walking through downtown Boston, I can’t help but think about my working days in New York. I miss them. I miss feeling completely independent and in charge of my destiny. I worked in New York right after business school and I loved thinking my whole life was ahead of me.

So I get to the hotel, it’s a fancy one in the Back Bay area of Boston. The event will be held in a giant ball room. First thing, where do I sit? I want a good vantage point, but I also want to be able to get up and get the restroom without having to walk by a lot of people.

Oh no, I have to make small talk. I hate making small talk. What do I say? How long do I have to talk to this person.

I look around the room and it seemed to be filled with college kids. In reality, these are mostly people in their 20’s and 30’s, but to me they all look very young.

The sponsor of this conference is based in Colorado. as the conference organizer starts talking about the day, I start thinking about how much I love Colorado and wouldn’t mind living out there. There are so many outdoor activities you can do in Colorado. Oh wait, I’m not too keen on the cold weather though, so scratch that.

Everyone has a smart phone and an ipad. They seem to look at both simultaneously. I try to surreptitiously look to see what could be so engrossing. Most people seem to be surfing the web. There is one guy who looks to be writing with a stylus on his ipad. That looks cool.

I want to check on my Mom, so I hide in the corner to pull out my little TracFone to call her. Most of these folks probably wouldn’t recognize this as a phone, they’re so used to smart phones.

We break for lunch. Oh no, where should I sit. This reminds me of being the new kid at school and not knowing where to sit. Lunch contains a healthy sandwich. Okay. Even better there is monster size chocolate chip cookie. I say to myself, I’ll just take a taste of it. Before I know it, the entire cookie is consumed and I have a small stomach ache. Oops.

I can’t help but overhear several conversations. Most people seem to be talking about the fact that they hate their job and want to make a change. Mmm, interesting. The grass isn’t always greener.

By the way, I did learn a lot at this conference. Maybe I’ll write a blog post about what I learned. The premise of the conference was all about creating successful content that will move buyers down the sales funnel. Gone are the days of hard sell and being in your customers’ faces. Okay, enough of marketing speak for now. 🙂

Creating great content also means you need to be real so you can build trust. I’m learning to be more authentic in my work and this sharing my thoughts is one way for me to do so.

How are you being authentic?