No, really. I’m totally OK about it.
I wrote about being biffed from a conference I was due to speak at recently (LINK). I had been asked to talk about the Beanz on ‘bix tweet that was the Marketing Week Campaign of the Year last year (clang! - although I’m adamant it was only one execution rather than a campaign, but who’s complaining?). I’d been asked to do it whilst I was still employed by Weetabix, but now that I’m a freelance marketing gun for hire, I thought I should give the organisers my new email address to make the arrangements.
“Oh” they said. And went silent.
It transpires the "sponsorship department" didn’t like the idea of me talking and not only withdrew my speaking invite, they were now asking me to pay to attend the event.
Very generous.
I was (kinda) surprised at how transparent this was. At face value the event was aimed at clients – giving them case studies for a certain demographic. But I’d suggest the *real* reason for this particular conference was for these client-side marketers to be commoditised as a captive prospect list for the agency attendees.
At their worst (for clients) these conferences are like walking a gauntlet of cold calls. I certainly have never done business with an agency after a hard sell at one of these events.
So, I’d say I had a lucky escape.
However, I have met agencies at events like these who took time to get to know me, my business, and the challenges I’m facing*. And over time, we built trust to a point where we eventually worked together.
People like Joe Glover & James Sandbrook (The Marketing Meetup) and Matthew Knight (Leapers.co) are role models in how to build a community, where people help each other, get to know each other and good stuff happens for them and the communities they’ve built.
Sure, it takes longer than a flashy conference, but good things come to those who wait. Now that’d be a good end-line for someone…
Next conferences for us are the delayed CommsHero event next week and Performance Marketing World in December. If you're going, give me a shout as it's hideous floating around these events on your own.
* By taking time, I mean over a couple of months, not cornering me for an hour at the conference.
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