No matter what’s going on around the office, our team makes the trip each year to The Special Event (TSE) Conference. Along with exciting new places, luxurious hotel beds, and Instagram-able meals, we always know we’ll get exceptional content that not only inspires us personally, but drives our industry forward. This year, our key takeaways from this annual pilgrimage can be summed up in three little words:
“Authenticity”
From Baby Boomers to Millennials, we’re all over-exposed these days. From social media algorithms to mobile pop-ups to digital billboards, we’ve responded to advertising overload by developing built-in detectors for phony, inauthentic messaging. Multiple TSE 2017 speakers touched on this phenomenon, and we came away reminded that whether in our face-to-face relationships, or as companies and brands, it’s so important to communicate from a real and genuine place, if we want to cut through all the noise.
“Vulnerability”
Wherever we heard the word “authenticity,” we almost always heard “vulnerability” as a key follow-up discussion. Being vulnerable can translate to transparency with our coworkers or clients, to sharing our own experiences and relating to the experiences of our peers, or even to being bold and open in our content sharing. If we aspire to be seen as truly authentic, we need to be open to being vulnerable from time to time.
“Agility”
One of our favourite quotes from VOK DAMS’ presentation on Agile Event Management was, “Uber yourself, before you get Kodaked.” Trends and technologies change every day; timelines are shortening, and accessibility to content and services are increasing. To navigate through such a dynamic industry, we need to adapt, learn, and change, both as an industry, but also as businesses and individuals day-to-day. To us, this means staying current in our ideas and inspirations, being flexible and efficient for our clients, and above all, being collaborative within our industry. If we embrace an agile mindset in our daily business, we’ll naturally impact, and even redesign, the larger event industry – now how’s that for a takeaway?
Were you at TSE? We’d love to hear your thoughts on these topics, or any other takeaways, in the comments below.
