10 Key Things from the Marquette University Digital Media Summit.
1. Conferences = networking opportunity
Hundreds of students and professionals rubbed elbows at the Digital Summit, including participants from Laughlin Constable, Spotify, Google, Microsoft and more. Some Marquette students had the opportunity to get up close with speakers as student ambassadors by greeting them and introducing them. But anyone has the opportunity to network at a conference like the Digital Summit by sitting at a lunch table where you don’t know anyone, exchanging business cards and then following up with a LinkedIn connection or an email. You never know where it might lead.
(FYI: these first two key points were taken from here)
2. Keep personality and character in brands
Laughlin Constable practices what they preach by keeping personality in brands. For example, they personalized the face of cancer in a campaign for Aurora, they’re proud of their local roots by transforming a concession stand into a mock super club, they’re unafraid to tell it like it is when it comes to beer, socializing and college student.
3. Sometimes things dont go as planned — use it to your advantage.
When presenters from Google were unable to make it to the conference due to cancelled flights, they had to make a quick decision to live stream their presentation from their location. Their lecture turned into a real life advertisement for Google Hang Outs, which may have turned out even better than the original plan. The audience still received powerful messages from speakers and even got to watch an informative video on how to take a good selfie.
4. Almost everyone sings in the shower
Spotify is a popular program that allows for unlimited streaming of music. By monitering listeners playlists and usage, it’s changed the way we listen to music. Over 40,000 playlists exist merely for taking a shower. Students used this presentation as a way to publish their own playlists.
5. Find a note-taking strategy that works best for you.
Jen Adamski-Torres is known for her #sketchnotes during conferences like the Digital Summit. Not only does her digital note taking work for her, they have earned her over 1,000 twitter followers. Check out her twitter here.
6.Your brand has to earn trust.
Augie Ray spoke about his pyramid model for Customer Experience (CX). Without trust, a consumer will not feel safe with, or loyal to a brand. Companies should focus on different levels of this pyramid, depending on their customers needs.
7. GIFS. So, so relevant.
Audience members like Tim Larose and Natasha Mraz wholeheartedly embraced this current social media trend. Having a stash of relevent, appropriate GIF’s to use in your tweets can dramatically improve the liveliness of your twitter feed, esepcially during live conference events like this.
8. Feedback is important.
Though this wasn’t a part of the Marquette Digital Summit, it’s still an important thing to remember. A good conference takes work, good work takes honest feedback, and honest feedback means seeking honest opinions. If you attended the summit, you can take the survey here!
9. Free stuff is always a good way to win an audience over.
Some of the most successful presenters of the day were the ones that handed out swag, either during their speaker or while tabling the event.
10. Success takes a team effort.
Lastly, of course the success of this conference is largely due to the popularity of speakers. But, a team of 18 student ambassadors and countless volunteers are what really made this day so valuable. Without these people and all the hours of behind the scenes work, there would be no #MUISS.