7 Emerging Conferences Every Advertising Professional Should Know About

More than ever, today’s marketers are dependent on finding insight and inspiration from the world beyond their businesses to drive innovation and discover new meaning for their customers. While there’s no shortage of conferences and events that promise to deliver the perfect balance of each, deciding which warrant attention can be a daunting task. There will never be a substitute for tent-pole events like CES, Mobile World Congress, Cannes and SXSW. But a new class of events has emerged to capture our attention, ones that are highly curated, community based, built around experience and often purpose driven. I’ve found these experiences to be unbelievably valuable in my own work leading innovation strategy at MediaLink. One of my mandates is to seek out the best of these events—a tall order given the sophisticated and elaborate landscape of invite-only summits and membershipbased communities—and make sense of the topics discussed and distill those findings to our clients. Over the past decade, I’ve attended a lot of these events and in the course of those journeys, I’ve asked myself (and been asked by others) how I separate the valuable from the ordinary. Here’s the filter through which I vet emerging events, which I lovingly refer to as “The Illuminati.” I always ask, does it: 1. Attract a balanced audience of inventors and innovators? It’s important to distinguish between the two. Inventors are the scientists, technologists and artists deep in the experimentation or creative process, while innovators are those using the inventions and providing commercial value. 2. Prioritize human connection? It needs to represent more than simply putting people in a room. I look for events that focus on facilitating idea-generating dialogue, collaboration and memorable experiences that result in long-lasting relationships. I also look for events that cultivate a community that lives beyond the event itself. 3. Provide access to uncommon personalities and schools of thought? Personally, I don’t want to keep seeing the same programming experience at the major tent poles. Instead, I want to put myself in unconventional environments where otherwise uncharted conversations are facilitated. In fact, one of the tactics I employ when attending is to specifically seek out the off-the-beaten-path and uncommon sessions. 4. Include purpose-driven elements? The early days of SXSW were dedicated to how attendees could harness the internet to serve the greater good; similarly, I look for events where the gathering is about leveraging our skill sets and networks to solve larger socioeconomic issues. Allowing attendees to connect on larger, more personal issues will enable deeper, longer-lasting relationships. 5. Successfully extend the physical connection through digital? More than offering a template app to showcase programming, an event should have an underpinning of strong thought leadership and technology to help attendees connect fluidly pre-, during and post-experience. Here’s a sampling of the new events and experiences that have drawn my eye and attention:

Magazine

7 Emerging Conferences Every Advertising Professional Should Know About

Neil Carty

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Neil Carty