Content Marketer’s Non-Geek Guide to Web Summit
Web Summit? You mean that herd of geeks and startup freaks marauding around the charming city of Lisbon for a few days in November? Yes, exactly that, but… not exactly. Web Summit is a perfect opportunity for content marketers to learn and get inspired in a one-of-a-kind environment. Let me share my impressions from the largest tech conference in the world, and bear in mind that I wasn’t even the geekiest person there.
Why go to Web Summit in the first place
Content marketing is strongly connected with education and in my case, the most valuable lessons come with human interactions. My goal at Web Summit was to learn from people who are smarter and a lot more experienced than myself, grab some knowledge and insights from those who see the same things from a different point of view. I admit, Web Summit is a huge and crowded event, which can be pretty overwhelming. Nevertheless, if you focus on learning and absorbing information, you won’t regret the cost and effort.
More than geeks
Believe it or not, Web Summit is not really a geeky event, and you can experience it in plenty of ways — just take a look at the agenda and the list of companies that were present.
Apart from the center stage, you could choose between twenty(!) tracks on different stages and I’m not even counting parties and entertainment events like Night Summit or UnBoxed. Themes varied from cryptocurrencies and robotics to music and fashion (in terms of technology, of course). Putting together an agenda of talks to attend took me about two weeks and the hardest part was to pick the priorities and cross out the ones that overlapped. I spent most of my Web Summit days listening to talks on:
- Panda Conf
- Creatiff
- ContentMakers
These three tracks focused on advertising, media and modern marketing with industry leaders taking part in discussions and sharing their expertise in individual presentations. Here’s one of the panels I liked most as it touches an extremely important element of marketers’ work — creativity.
The scope of topics I could heard about was huge, from filmmaking for teenagers to digitalizing newspaper content. Even though not all of them were exactly my cup of tea as a B2B marketing professional, I had a chance to experience a different perspective on what our job really is: connecting brands, businesses and people in a friendly dialogue.
Thanks, Sophia, but no thanks
It might seem counterintuitive, but I started avoiding the center stage after two interviews I saw with the famous Sophia the robot (and her less famous new friend Han) and Alexander Wang. Yes, it was pretty impressive to see globally known figures (both human and machine) within a short distance from you.
But while I was sitting there, I kept thinking of the talks I was missing on other stages. Or taking a short break in running from one hall to another. At Web Summit, you can switch between entertainment and education as much as you like. I chose the latter.
Meet the artists of speaking and presenting
Just as with every large, multi-track conference, the quality of presentations and talks varied from average to astonishing. Making a great public speech accompanied by an attention-grabbing presentation is an art. At Web Summit, you could see the people who have mastered this art and can be a real inspiration in different ways:
1. Synthesis of knowledge. The presentation of Sairah Ashman, “Designing the Brands of 2050”, caught my interest with the title — making forecasts over 30 years ahead is a bold thing to do in our industry. Also, hype topics may tempt the speaker to treat them too lightly and use too many gimmicks or generalizations. However, Sairah provided us with well-researched, concise and structured content with clear takeaways. Also, the presentation complemented her talk, not the other way round, which is a golden standard all of us should aspire to.
2. Self-expression with content. Per Pedersen, Chairman of Creative at Grey, proved that you can balance the bold and the minimal, leaving just enough space for creativity. In fact, his presentation corresponded with his personality and attitude. What can you expect from a renowned advertising expert who says: “Even if I make a living out of advertising, I hate advertising”? Certainly nothing ordinary. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to find a video with his talk, so I’ll leave you with a short excerpt from a tweet (and will update with a full video as soon as it comes online!).
3. Transparency and honesty. Larry Kim, the search marketing guru, impressed me with these two factors, which dominated his presentation. He actually included a screenshot from his first business plan, admitted it was delusional back then, but since it worked — he shared the secret behind hitting these goals. No fluff, just experience, insight and truth. The last slide of his presentation included a link to the whole deck, which proves he’s not afraid of sharing his work in a very straightforward manner. I wish there were more experts who are that transparent and eager to follow the rule “sharing is caring”.
Web Summit as a content marketing benchmark
In many ways, I was impressed with how well the Web Summit organizers handled their communication with participants. The main communication channels were the event mobile app and email. As a de facto customer, I had a very positive experience. No question was left unanswered, no stone left unturned. Why does it matter? As content marketers, we should always be on a lookout for references and good practices, and Web Summit is one of those organizations that can serve as an example. Here are a few things Web Summit handled perfectly:
- Email marketing with perfect timing and information distribution. While I was counting weeks and days to my flight to Lisbon, Web Summit kept sending me regular emails discussing different aspects of the event.
- Responding to issues in real time. When it was announced that Metro employees would go on strike during the time of the event, Web Summit reacted immediately and sent out a quick guide helping the participants to get to the venue without the necessity of using the underground.
- Looking beyond your conference interests. Apart from the regular conference or accommodation/transport information, the participants had access to all sorts of sightseeing tips and after-hours activities available in Lisbon. As one of the people I met at the startup alley said, “Web Summit takes you by the hand” and won’t let you go astray.
Wrapping up
I realize this post came later than many Web Summit reviews — in fact, I was thinking of writing it on the go, but I couldn’t resist the charm of Lisbon and wanted to make the most of my time after the Web Summit talks 🙂 However, my intention was to write a different article, focusing on my professional point of view. In a nutshell — if you’re a content marketer, even in a non-technological company, don’t hesitate and go to Web Summit whenever you have a chance. If you’re a woman, try to grab the Women in Tech discount tickets at the beginning of the year, it’s a great deal. See you next year in Lisbon, hopefully :)
