THE (Amazing) ConferenceSeth Godin always wears mis-matched socks - who knew?! It's his own personal version of a purple cow --- something that people can remark on. In fact, that was the theme of his talk at THE Conference on Marketing earlier this month. Be remarkable. The product, the service, the price - None of it matters unless it comes with a good story - an observation or conversation-starter that people want to pass along.
As this year's Chair of THE Conference, I got to introduce some "remarkable" people - real marketing icons. There was Seth, of course - pretty much a marketing god. And Malcolm Gladwell, who looks a little like a shy street musician who forgot his guitar. Then he opens his mouth and instead of a song, out comes this amazing essay on two kinds of innovation: the Picasso kind, and the Cezanne kind. The Picasso types light fast and burn hard. Early in their careers there's an explosive Aha! and in an instant they transform the field they occupy. The Cezanne types start as a small spark, kindle a little flame, and with much nurturing and careful work, evolve themselves into a blazing bonfire. His point was that in today's world, people have no patience, so only the Picassos get our support. If Cezanne's potential had been judged on what he produced in his 20s, the world would have been deprived of many great masterpieces. A mistake, perhaps; and Malcolm cautioned us against making it. (Very reassuring for us late bloomers!)
Andrew Zolli, the futurist, frightened us half to death with his demographics of the next 20 years, all the while interspersing his scary statistics with hilarious Tony Soprano sound-alike wisecracks, "Know'um sayin'?" The world is moving in some very unfamiliar directions, folks, and it's not at all clear that marketing or even western business is going to be high on the radar screen as soon as 10 years from now when Lagos, Nigeria and Dhakha, Bangladesh are the third and fifth largest cities in the world. Better get out your looking glass and look past your quarterly numbers if you want to survive.
My personal favorite, though, had to be Arianna Huffington. Can you imagine hearing the editor of The Huffington Post speak the day after Super Tuesday?? I knew the Post, of course, and had seen her a few times on Real Time with Bill Maher; but until I dug into her background for the introduction, I never realized what an extraordinarily accomplished person she is. Yes, indeed, she has written four or five political books with fiery titles like Fanatics and Fools: A Game Plan for Winning Back America. But she's also written a book on The Gods of Greece, and biographies of both Maria Callas and Picasso. (The latter was made into the movie starring Anthony Hopkins.) Not to mention The Female Woman, a 1970s diatribe on "women's libbers" that pre-saged today's views that the goal should not be to bully society into allowing women to adopt the ways and means of men; but rather to teach society to value the distinctly different strengths of women. Had I been aware of this book back when it was published, I would have been outraged and appalled. And now here I am, adamantly espousing that very point of view. Go figure.
Other luminaries at THE Conference included Andy Stefanovich, who kicked off the conference exhorting us to become Inspired. Keith Ferrazzi gave us guidance on getting connected with our fellow marketing enthusiasts. Judy Hu, Global Executive Director, GE, dazzled us with the worldwide brilliant branding of that immense company. And Jeff Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak, blew us away with his vision of the future - technologically marvellous and transformational.
Ya gotta love this conference. Where else do you get to see this roster of headliners under one roof? There is the CMO Summit day, two Symposia (Social Media and Research & Trends) and four tracks focused on The People, The Brand Experience, The Mix and The Proof? And the capper? The Seth and Malcolm free-form marketing riff - never together on a public platform before THE Conference.
Full disclosure: I had absolutely nothing to do with putting this conference together. I can take no credit for its spectacular success - That goes to Krista Vasquez and the rest of the IIR producer posse. Yes, I'm an evangelist - because I love to attend! I want more people to show up every year, so Krista and the crew can continue producing what I think is the best use of three days in the whole year: THE Conference on Marketing.
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