My (Un)official INBOUND Agenda

The speakers, sessions, and talk-tracks I’m looking to catch at INBOUND 2017.

HubSpot’s INBOUND event, 2015.

The mantra of INBOUND is to “fuel the movement”, and one of my favorite aspects of the event is that it’s only a “user conference” for those looking specifically for HubSpot content. Instead, it’s a week long marathon of industry learnings, actionable tactics, and inspirational messages from the brightest minds in marketing.

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now. As was requested by nobody, here’s what I currently (and tentatively) have as my own agenda for INBOUND 2017.

You’ll notice this year I’m focusing heavily on both emerging trends amongst familiar strategies (content, email, social) and agency growth hacks while also taking advantage of the high-profile keynotes and spotlights.

NOTE: for some blocks, I’ve posted two sessions. On my calendar, I double- (and triple-) booked a few speakers. I recommend having backup plans and 1a/1b rankings for certain sessions to help navigate around fully booked rooms and potential navigational complexities.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25TH

9:00am — 5:00pm: Partner Day @ INBOUND

An exclusive event for agencies in the HubSpot Partner program, this pre-INBOUND partner experience offers partners a full day of networking, training, and info sessions. Scheduled speakers range from Product Managers at HubSpot to Agency Partner business owners.

The full agenda to “Partner Day @ INBOUND” is found here.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26TH

9:00am — 10:00am: Piera Gelardi Keynote

Piera is recognized as one of the most creative people in the world of media and content. Whether you’re among Refinery29’s half billion global community-members or not, there’s a lot from Piera’s lessons on creativity that you’ll be able to apply to your own work and life.

10:30am — 11:15am: Stewart Butterfield Spotlight

Stewart Butterfield is the co-founder and CEO of Slack, and today, Slack is used by more than five million people every day, and its customers include Autodesk, IBM, Capital One, Conde Nast, eBay and EA. The Canadian-born entrepreneur also co-founded and led Flickr until its acquisition by Yahoo!. In his two decades working on the web, Stewart has been listed on Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and BusinessWeek’s Top 50 Leaders, and was named 2015 Technology Innovator of the Year by the Wall Street Journal.

11:45am — 12:30pm: “Building Brady Hysteria” by Johnny Cupcakes

With each new launch, the hysteria around the ‘Johnny Cupcakes’ brand continues to conquer the globe. The reaction goes from 10 block queues as anxious fans await for the shop to open to Cupcake tattoos, yes, permanent ones. In this awe-inducing presentation, Johnny will educate you on how you too can create a wave of loyalty and obsession around your products, your business and within your teams through the power of social media & experiential branding.

[#1] 1:00pm — 1:45pm: “Authentic Networking: How to Network Without Being a Jerk” by Strother Gaines

Do networking events make your palms sweat? Nervous about talking to people you don’t know? Scared of being judged by your title, income or background? Learn how to identify and utilize your unique personality and skills to immediately engage and connect in a meaningful way at networking events. Create and develop your personal story and don’t worry about “saying the right thing”. Learn how being yourself is not only enough, but the most effective way to maximize your networking efforts.

[#2] 1:00p — 1:45pm: “Top 10 Types of Video for Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey” by Jeremy Pryor

How do you make sure you’re producing and posting all the types of videos you need to really engage your audience from the top all the way through to the Buyers Journey? In this session, you’ll learn about the 10 essential types of videos you need to create to ensure your prospects turn into profitable customers — including The Demand Generator video, the Social Cyclone video, and when to implement a thought-leadership campaign, and the Tipping Point video that turns the curious into customers.

2:15pm — 3:45pm: Brian Halligan & Dharmesh Shah Keynote

No official abstract has been provided yet, but this is one of the can’t miss keynotes of INBOUND where HubSpot co-founders Brian and Dharmesh communicate the vision and direction of the inbound methodology.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 27TH

9:00am — 10:00am: Michelle Obama Keynote

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has been described as one of the greatest political communicators of our time, despite never running for elected office herself. During her time in the White House, Mrs. Obama approached the Office of the First Lady with a focus on connecting to the American public through digital and social platforms and she succeeded, not just in single-handedly making turnips cool again, but in becoming a cultural icon herself.

As a world-class communicator, advocate for global education, and example of leading with openness and inclusivity, we think Mrs. Obama is the perfect person to inspire the inbound movement.

10:30am — 11:15am: “Find Your Breakthrough: 5 Steps to Cut the Crap and Seriously Scale Your Agency” by Andrew Dymski

To scale your agency, you need an Agency Framework. It is the operating system the runs behind the scenes. It powers every decision and process. Think of it like iOS on your iPhone. It is the guide for your core team that brings unity and focus. It takes the guesswork out of tough decisions because everyone clearly sees and agrees on where the agency is going. Take these five steps and your team will have the vision, the action plan, and the operational structure you need to seriously scale.

11:45am — 12:30pm: “Content Hacking: Creating Content That Stands Out And Actually Builds An Audience” by Garrett Moon

Imagine going from zilch to 1.3 million monthly page views, 160,000 email subscribers, 8000+ customers in less 3 years. How? It all started with killer content. The secret to exponential growth comes from creating blue ocean content that differentiates AND drives 10x traffic. Different beats better. You’ll learn our proven and repeatable process for developing content that wins every time.

[#1] 1:00pm — 1:45pm: “Rethinking Email: It’s Not Dead, But It Is Different” by Marwa Greaves

How many of us have heard that email is a dying channel? Or that it will be dead in 5 years? Anyone that’s done the research knows this just isn’t true. Email isn’t going anywhere, but it is changing — and you will need to change with it in order to leverage the channel effectively. Learn how to create an innovative email program that both engages and provides value to your audience in a way that is most authentic to your business.

[#2] 1:00pm — 1:45pm: The 25th Hour: Clever Hacks to Add Time to Your Day” by Melissa d’Arabian

There are unlimited marketing ideas to pursue, yet we all have a limited amount of time. But what if we could increase that time? Melissa will share the secrets to do just that. Even the most cynical of time managers will be inspired and will find themselves taking notes of ideas to use during the conference. Key takeaways include the one life-changing daily habit you can implement tomorrow, a breakthrough timesaving tactic, and the best advice Melissa heard at Georgetown business school.

2:15pm — 3:15pm: Brit Marling and Issa Rae Spotlight

Whether you’re creating marketing campaigns or creating a hit TV show, you probably wear multiple hats at work. Brit understands the opportunities and challenges of that as well as anyone: she regularly approaches her projects as an actor, a writer, and a producer. Mostly recently, she created, co-wrote, produced, and starred in Netflix’s hit The OA. Issa is proof that YouTube didn’t kill the TV star–quite the opposite, in fact.

Based on the success of her YouTube web series Awkward Black Girl, Issa has gone on to co-create and star in HBO’s critically acclaimed series Insecure. If you’re a scrappy content creator with big dreams, prepare to meet a new role model in Issa.

[#1] 3:30pm — 4:15pm: “The Top 10 Facebook and Twitter Content Promotion Hacks of 2017” by Larry Kim

Learn unusual tips, strategies, and processes for getting 10–100x more value from paid ad campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Taboola, Pinterest and other networks, including how to drive exponentially more traffic to your content and convert 3–5x more of those clicks into leads and sales — for less than $50 per campaign. You’ll take away critical insights into how the algorithms of paid social media advertising really work, focusing on the best ad features, all released within the last 12 months.

[#2] 3:30pm — 4:15pm: “Stay on Target: Personalized Account-Based Marketing and Selling” by Angela Hicks

In this session, you’ll learn how to prepare high-impact messaging that is personalized and perfected targeted to your persona. Come hear about how to understand and target individuals using a contextual marketing methodology. If you’re looking to gain some strategic steps to personalize your content, this is the session for you!

4:45pm — 5:30pm: Andy Cohen Spotlight

Besides having the formula for truly addictive TV down to a science, Andy Cohen is known for his super authentic social media presence, which attracts millions of followers. Time and time again, Andy proves that he knows how to captivate an audience, whether it’s on Bravo or on Instagram.

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 28TH

10:30am — 11:15am: Rand Fishkin Spotlight

Rand Fishkin goes by the ludicrous title, Wizard of Moz. He’s founder and former CEO of SEO software startup Moz, host of Whiteboard Friday, co-author of a pair of books on SEO, co-founder of Inbound.org, and serves on the board of the presentation software firm, Haiku Deck. Rand’s currently writing a book for Penguin/Random House on the ups and downs of startup culture, due out in 2018.

11:45am — 12:45pm: “How to Win at B2B Facebook Marketing” by Michael Harf

B2B businesses often have the preconceived notion that Facebook Marketing is only effective when it comes to B2C industries. In this talk, I will give a step by step approach on how all B2B can start using Facebook effectively to generate leads and sales for their business.

1:00pm — 1:45pm: “How to Create a Content Style Guide for Your Business” by Liz Murphy

Have you ever stumbled across a website where it seems like a different person wrote every single page? Or unfocused content, with no clear insight into who the brand is? A content style guide helps you avoid these problems, so you attract and engage your audience across any piece of content you create. In this session, you’ll learn step-by-step how to develop your (or your client’s) voice (personality), tone (how you sound) and visual style (grammar, formatting, and syntax).

2:15pm — 3:15pm: John Cena Keynote

John Cena has taken his massive success as an actor and in the WWE and built upon it to become a marketing powerhouse and cultural icon. More importantly though, he’s used his privilege and fame for good: both through his charitable work with Make-A-Wish and many other causes, and also as a powerful advocate for acceptance and love that transcends identity lines. All of us have the opportunity to follow his example and use our positions as storytellers and business leaders for good.

Coming to INBOUND? Let’s make sure to connect. Ping me to find my whereabouts throughout the week or look by the Roxy’s Grilled Cheese food truck at lunch time.