KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- Marketing is changing all the time so it’s important to keep up. Attending industry events and networking opportunities is a great way to ensure you’re always up to date.
- It’s so important to be continuously learning. Whether it’s an online course, attending events or by following people who you feel you can learn from every day.
- People attend events for several different reasons. Whether it’s to learn something new, to make new connects or to network – there’s always someone who you’ll have something in common with.
- If you attend an event with a speaker that you want to learn more from, make the time to speak to them during the event. Even if you want to challenge something they’ve said, it’s important to have your say.
- Before an event, find out who the speakers are and connect with them on social media. Edit your profile before an event to include the event hashtag in your bio. That way, people can easily find you when they’re looking to see is attending!
- Try to attend all of the social events surrounding the events you are attending as it’s where people are more relaxed, and you can make the best connections.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
Networking at events as a business or entrepreneur is vital to your business’ growth. It’s important to continue learning every day and learning from industry leaders is one of the best ways to do this.
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS
- Introducing Paul – 05:06
- The Importance Of Attending Industry Events 13:00
- Why Do People Attend Events? 15:56
- How To Maximise An Event As An Attendee 28:16
- MarketEdLive 2019 37:00
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY'S EPISODE
Transcript below
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Social Media Marketing Made Simple Podcast. I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. How are you on this fine day? I hope things are going well for you and you're having a good day. This week I have been batch recording, and like I said to you before, I'm trying to do this more often so that I can get ahead and make sure that all the podcasts are recording in time, that I've done the interviews, that the team have been able to do all the stuff that they do, because as I've mentioned to you before, recording and producing a podcast is hard work. There's a lot of work that we need to do for it. So I want to make sure that I get ahead and get these episodes recorded for you.
I just have to say, I can't actually believe we're on episode 43. It seems to have gone so fast, and bearing in mind we've been doing it weekly, I can't believe we've been doing it for almost an entire year. I am loving the feedback. Thank you so much if you're listening, thank you so much for the people who reach out to me, I love hearing what you think, I love getting your responses, I love seeing you tag me in Insta Stories, and I love sharing those as well. So, if you are listening, then please do reach out and let me know. Let me share your posts on social media, because I love hearing from you, so thank you very much.
This week I've had the absolute pleasure to interview and present to you not only an amazing marketeer, but also a very good friend. This week I am interviewing the super lovely Paul Ince, otherwise known on social media as BizPaul. If you're in the UK and you follow football, you might know that there was a footballer called Paul Ince, and therefore, when he first started on social media he actually ended up having lots of people follow him or try and communicate with him because they thought he was the Paul Ince that they were looking for, hence why I think he changed it all to BizPaul.
Anyway, I met Paul quite a few years ago at a marketing event, it was actually Social Day, and it was a conference that we both attended, we both sat next to each other on the same table, and since then have developed this lovely relationship and become first friends. You know what? One of the things I love about having friends with people that are in my industry or people that are doing the same sort of thing as I'm doing, is the fact that they know what you're going through. They know what troubles, and trials, and tribulations that you might have in your business. So just the other day, something was bothering me, I was letting something get to me, I was having a bit of a problem with something, and I had a call with Paul and we were able to talk it through because he understood exactly what I was talking about. Having that kind of relationship, having someone that you can do that with is great.
One of the things that actually Paul and I discussed before we started the podcast was that in America, when I go out there, everyone seems to be willing to share everything with you. There's no worry about a competitor. I think everybody has confidence in their own stuff, that they're not sat there thinking, “Well I can't possibly show this to this person, I can't possibly let them see what I'm doing or how I'm doing it, because they might steal it.” There's not that at all, and actually it's such a lovely way to be.
Recently I was on a Zoom call with a lovely lady called Jen from America who does something very similar to what I do and she was sharing with me lots of her ideas, and thoughts, and processes, and it was brilliant. You know what? Neither one of us sat there thinking, “We can't tell you this because you're going to steal it.” It was a really open and honest conversation which actually benefited us both. Which leads me nicely into the kind of premise of where today's interview's coming from.
Now, Paul and I talk lots about the event he does called MarketEd Live, and we talk lots about why, if you're in any business, in any industry, you should be attending or trying to attend events, why you should sit with like-minded people, why you should network with people in your industry. So that's what we talk about today, it was great fun to interview him. Also, at the end of the interview, there's an announcement which is a world exclusive … Okay, I'm egging it up a little bit, granted, but it's not been put out here before, so I'm really excited to announce this on the podcast today. Make sure you listen to the end to hear what that is.
So, without further ado, here's the interview.
Introducing Paul
It gives me the greatest pleasure to welcome not only an amazing marketeer, but also my lovely friend, Paul Ince, to the podcast. Hello Paul.
Hello. Hello everyone.
That was a very excitable hello from me. How are you, Paul?
I'm really good thanks, Teresa. It's so wonderful to be on this great podcast which I've listened to right from the beginning and love listening to every week.
Aw, thank you. I said pretty much from the beginning, whether I said it to you I'm not entirely sure, but I did say to myself, if it wasn't to you, that I'm having you on. So it's so lovely to finally have you on. I was on your podcast for when you had that, because you did a season of it running up to your event, which we'll talk about. That was good fun. We were just laughing because when I went on Paul's podcast, he records his podcast and actually puts the video out there as well as audio recording. We recorded it and something happened, and the recording didn't happen. So we did an entire podcast and we had to do it again. We were real professionals and just literally, the minute we finished started again and did it again. It was hilarious. I've joked he's got to do this twice to get him back.
It was a great podcast. It was. It was. The fact that we did it all the way through when it wasn't recording … it was my fault, it was a storage issue. You know, one of these things that you learn in doing a [crosstalk 00:06:38]
Yeah. You'll never do it again.
… storage. It was fine the second time around, it was better.
Yeah, it was. Actually you said that I had said some things in the second time that I hadn't said in the first. So yeah, it was meant to be, obviously someone in the universe somewhere went, “That isn't good enough, I know you can do better than that, I'm not going to record this.” Anyway, that was just a bit of a giggle we were having.
I wanted to bring Paul on today because like I said, not only is he an awesome marketeer and social media person, he has also got this amazing event, which I just want to say to him and the world, if you have ever run an event or worked in events … Now, I used to do work for Land Rover, and one of the things we did was loads of events, big events, it is one of the hardest things to do ever. Well, in marketing words, obviously there's jobs that are much harder than that. But in the marketing world it is super difficult to run and organise an event, and then on top of that, to actually sell tickets for that event, that's almost like another added pressure. So my hat goes off to anybody who runs an event, and manages an event, and makes these things happen. They're amazing when you go to them, but I don't know if you've ever been part of it, that you realise how much hard work goes into it.
So I'm so excited to have Paul on to talk about the event, but Paul first, in case my audience haven't heard of you, it'd be really great if you could just give us a bit of a backstory about who you are and how you got to do what you're doing.
Well, I'm Paul, but to be honest you might as well forget that because everybody calls me BizPaul. That's my Twitter username, that's where I am everywhere if you want to find me. Even my kids call me BizPaul.
Brilliant.
We're totally on brand in my house.
Love it.
So birthday cards, Christmas cards, just generally shouting at me from upstairs, “Hey BizPaul, where's my breakfast?” All of that happens. So I'm BizPaul, you can find me everywhere there. I run, as you said Teresa, MarketEd Live, which is our annual marketing event in Nottingham every Autumn. My business is called LikeMind Media, we're essentially a digital marketing agency, although I'm not a huge fan of that term, because really we just work closely with clients and help them meet their business objectives, and we just take their marketing tasks and do what needs to be done. I have been running that for nearly four years. Before that I had a big background in tech, so we do a lot of tech marketing actually.
I think that's an area where marketing, from what it was to what it is now, has changed phenomenally. Have I just said that right?
That's it, we'll go with it.
Yeah, who cares?
A lot.
Yeah, it's changed a lot. It's changed so much. Back in the day, well one, there wasn't even tech when I started marketing because people still hadn't jumped on the whole website thing, but I think now as marketeers we've had to change, we've had to become more technical, and actually a couple of weeks ago I had Brian Fanzo on who came from a tech background and therefore has now come into marketing. So it's interesting that people are coming in from that direction.
What I really want to know, I'm fascinated by, because obviously having the agency … I do get what you mean, digital agency and kind of the connotations around that, but having the agency, what then made you think, “I know, I'm going to put on an event”? You're now wondering what made you think that, aren't you? You're like, “Why did I do that?”
Well sometimes yes. Sort of around the beginning of summer when there's a lull because people go on holiday, in terms of ticket sales. That's the moment when I always think, “Why am I doing this?” Happens every year. Essentially, I was having a drink with my good friend, Tim Elliott in a pub and we were just talking about-
Always the best decisions are made when you've had a drink.
Aren't they? Aren't they?
That's what I find.
So we'd had a couple of pints and we were talking about events that we go to, because we go to events, I go to a lot of events, I really feel passionately about education and getting as much education and keeping on top of all the changes, as you said, marketing changes a lot and very quickly, and if you don't keep up, you're in trouble really. We were talking about how we were having to travel. The area that we live in, the east Midlands of England, not a huge amount of stuff goes on. They have some great cities, but you have to travel. So Edinburgh, London, there's a lot of stuff that goes on in London. But London's expensive, and do you know what, we said there are lots of businesses in our region that all employ marketing people. There are lots of freelancers, lots of people like us. Why do we have to travel? Where is the gap? It's here, why don't we put on an event?
All that we really had to do we thought, was we had to convince speakers who have never heard of us to come to an event that they've never heard of that doesn't really exist at this point, and then convince people to travel to an area where they've never been, to also come and hear people who maybe they've never heard of or maybe they have heard of, where we've not even booked them as yet. I mean, how hard can it be? At the time after a couple of pints, think, you know, it's easy. That was the reason why we did it, because we just thought there's a gap there. We wanted to create something that was very specific towards marketing education. The whole purpose is to get people taking something away, where they feel they've learnt something and can actually apply it when they get back to the office the following day. So inspiration is good, but practicalities are important as well.
The Importance Of Attending Industry Events
I love that, and I think I've said before on the podcast, people know that my background's marketing and my degree's in marketing, but I will happily and honestly sit here and tell you that the stuff I learnt then, although I learnt some great foundational stuff, is not what I'm doing today. For me to be at the level I am today is down to the fact that I continuously learn. I'm always doing an online course, or an online programme. I'm going to events all the time. I'm following other people who do what we do, who write podcasts, and blogs, and whatever it might be, do videos. For me, that's how I feel, and I know you're the same, how I feel I can be at the level I am right now, because I do that continuously ongoing training and learning. I think to come at it from that point of view is such a great way, because actually the marketers in our industry, and social media, and the world how it is now and how technology is changing how we're marketing, we've got to keep up to date.
I know you and I, last year we were in San Diego together and we went to Social Media Marketing World, which was cool. It was the first time you'd been, wasn't it?
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:14:09]
It's an amazing event. So that's held in San Diego in March. We're both going again this year. I am still holding out that maybe they might ask me to speak, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Come on Social Media Examiner, do it.
[crosstalk 00:14:25]
Let's get Teresa on the stage.
Either way, I'm going to be there because it's an amazing event. We see the importance of going to those events and sitting and listening to different people. Often though, sometimes you think to yourself, “Oh, I do know a lot about that.” But inevitably, no matter what event I go to, even if it's one or two things in an entire talk, I think, “That was worth coming for.” They always give you something that you think, “Ah, I didn't think to do it that way,” or that's a different angle, or just gives you a different take.
Obviously we were at MarketEd Live this year, back in September. God, is it September it was in, yeah?
Yes, yeah. It was September.
[crosstalk 00:15:07] I lose track of time. It was a great day, we had great fun. For you, tell people the structure, how the day went, and some of the speakers that you had there and some of the key takeaways.
Well I just want to pick up on just something that you said about Social Media Marketing World actually, and you're right, it was my first time and it was great to be there, it was great to see you. I remember that we sat next to each other in one of the keynotes. We were just saying how good is it to be here, and what an investment it is, particularly when you're halfway around the world, [crosstalk 00:15:44]
Financial and time.
Why Do People Attend Events?
… and to actually go out there, it costs a lot of money. It's important for us, we were saying, to talk to our clients about the investment that we're making in our education by going to something like that. But there's a couple of reasons I think that people go to events, or certainly why I go to an event anyway. One is the actual learning, so what is it that people are talking about, what can I learn there? When I was at Social Media Marketing World, I picked all the tracks and all the sessions where I felt I was going to learn something new, where the gaps in my knowledge was. The thing that has always surprised me about events is the community around the event. So the people that are there, the connections that you make. My primary purpose to be honest was about networking. That's actually part of the story of MarketEd Live and how we set that up and how we choose who to speak, and what they should be talking about.
The sort of structured of MarketEd Live is that, it's fairly straightforward. We have sessions, we only have one room, but the one room thing is really important to us because we want everybody, including the speakers, to be together.
I think so, I like that.
[crosstalk 00:16:57] have a green room or a separate area for speakers. I don't want them coming in, doing their thing, and then going away, because yes, people there will learn from their sessions, but they will also learn a massive amount by going and talking to them and challenging them. I think one of the emails that we sent out to our attendees said, make sure you challenge the speakers after you've heard what they have to say. Because you might not have that experience or you might have done something differently, and I think we should always challenge each other because that's how you share experiences and how you get better at what it is you do.
Sessions, we choose a different series of topics. We try and cover lots of different marketing disciplines. So email marketing, or chat box, or websites, community, content, social media, there's lots in marketing to talk about. There's actually too much to talk about in one day, so we have to be picky.
Totally, yeah.
So we didn't cover everything this year, and we didn't cover everything last year, and we won't cover everything in 2019, but we'll try and find out what people want and factor that into the agenda.
You had some great speakers this year, and for me, one of the speakers that I actually have reused what he said so many times since then, was Chris Marr. He did a great talk on how to be, or how you should be the Wikipedia of your industry.
Love that.
I loved that, because basically what he was saying, it was such a great case study he gave, and it was actually his wife the case study was about, wasn't it? So his wife's family had a shed company, but these weren't your average sheds were they? These were nice sheds and slightly fancy sheds. [inaudible 00:18:46] sheds in America, will you know what I mean by that? Fingers crossed you do. Basically like-
It's an outbuilding, right?
Yeah, small, wooden, outside buildings that like you either put your garden stuff in, or you sit in, depending on the type of shed it is. Anyway, you're going to have to Google it and see if you don't know what I mean. They sell them and the company was great, and fine, and good from what he said and everything was going okay, but they wanted to see how they could use content marketing and develop the sales of the business. His wife I think was the person who went on camera, wasn't it? She went onto YouTube and she started putting out regular, consistent content basically answering questions that their customers would have. These weren't like groundbreaking, massive, full on questions, these were like some of the most basic questions that you would get asked in your industry every single day, and questions that you probably sit there and think, “Oh man, not again. Surely you know this.” You know?
So she got those questions, she recorded a YouTube video, and basically answered those questions. It might have been things around how low do the footings need to be, or do I need planning permission, or whatever they might be. She started to put these questions on YouTube, and therefore every time someone was in the market to buy one of these nice, fancy sheds, and like I said, they're quite expensive, some of them were, they would obviously do a bit of research on Google, they would type in a question and there she was, it would come up, her video, she would give them the answer, they would think, “Oh, very helpful, thanks very much.” They might Google another question and there she'd be again.
Basically she became the Wikipedia of her industry, so that when people decided to buy, they obviously looked at her as a choice, because they trusted her and they knew she knew what she was talking about. So I love this phrase now and I was in … I did a full day training yesterday with a company and I used the same thing. I talked [crosstalk 00:20:44]
Me too.
… and stole it, said it was mine. No, I didn't steal it. I said, you know, “I was at a conference and I heard this.” It was so good. So I loved that, that was a great takeaway for me and it was a really great thing that I learnt from the day, which again, sometimes you think, “Yeah, I know my stuff.” But that, again, kind of ticked that box as to why I should've been there. What about you? I mean, as an organiser it must be very hard for you to sit and listen to things, but what did you take away from the day? What was your favourite bit?
Well, it's bound to be a difficult one because as the curator of the speakers, obviously I get the huge amount of choice in selecting who comes to speak. I'm looking for people who are of high quality, who know their stuff, who are experts in their field, because our audience expects it to be at a certain level. We target, in terms of our audience, it is professional marketers. This isn't entry level stuff, so it's not a business event as such, it is for professional marketing people. So we don't really want people to talk about why someone should use social media for example, because we're assuming that people understand why that's important today. What we might do is talk about, well, what are the latest things that people need to do, why is video important, which platforms people should be concentrating on, and all that kind of stuff.
When you are organising it, yes, it's hard to concentrate fully on the speakers because you're looking at things like is the wifi working or not, as the case may be.
[crosstalk 00:22:16].
Is lunch coming out on time? That sort of issue. But, I did pick up lots from the day. I really loved Emma Leech's session. She is a marketing director from Loughborough University, a university-
She was very entertaining.
She's the president elect of the chartered institute of public relations here in the UK, so she's very much at the top of her game in terms of marketing and PR. I just love the way that she was able to talk about the personalization of their campaign. So at this university, whenever someone applies and they are successful in getting the exam results that mean that they can come to the university, they send them out a Willy Wonka style golden ticket with their name on it, and encourage them to share that on social media.
Love that.
So they can then use that user generated content and create all of this fantastic stuff, like how excited these people are to come to university. They're on a high because they've got the exam results that they needed and they've got their place, and on the same day that they get their results, they get this golden ticket and their next chapter in their life story begins. When you look at the content that these young adults create as a result of getting in and getting that piece of print, because it's a piece of print marketing, they get this and the first thing they do, which I think is fascinating, is that they share it on a digital platform.
Yeah, love that.
What a great example of how to coordinate different types of formats, the digital, the analogue. I mean, just as a concept, I think that is really important, because I think it's easy to focus on the digital because it's easy and it might be obvious, but the way that she was able to demonstrate what they did … and it wasn't kind of like, you know, “Oh, aren't we great, we did this.” It was like, “And this is the return on investment, this is how much it cost, we generated £4 million worth of revenue as a result of that, and it cost 3,000 or whatever it is.” So she was really able to give us some hard facts and I like facts and data.
Yeah, I do.
So she was really inspiring really and we had lots of good feedback about her. Of course, Chris Strub, a good friend Chris who-
Yes, and he's been on the podcast.
Yes he has been on the podcast, a great podcast. Very fantastic guy, real, genuine friend. That links back to the Social Media Marketing World actually and the power of events, because I got Chris over as a result of meeting him at Social Media Marketing World.
Amazing.
Just meeting up with him, having a chat with him, talking about what we were trying to do, meeting him a couple of times, and just carrying on that conversation after the event and over a period of a few months agreeing to get him over, and he came and keynoted at the end and everyone loved him. Taught a really powerful session about community, and-
He was awesome.
He was awesome.
Really, really good. The event was fantastic, it was a great day, really enjoyed it. I want to kind of … The reason I wanted you on and we wanted to talk about this is because I want to stress to people listening that if you're not attending events, whether it be MarketEd Live in the UK, and by all means we want you to come to that, but whether you're in the UK or not, whether it be that event or whether it's another event somewhere around the world, the importance of, one, going and listening to different people who've got different things to say, and picking up on those little gems, or a new idea, or a new concept, or something that you've never thought about. Or whether it's a case of just going and sitting in a room with people who are like you, who do the job like you do, who go through the same struggles as you, who have the same brilliant ideas that you might have but isn't the same and you can share them, just to be in that type of room with those people.
Especially, I know a lot of people that listen to freelancers, I know a lot of people work on their own. For me, even though I have a team, my team's virtual, so it's lovely for me to go into a room with all those other people and connect with them. I can genuinely say that I have made friends from meeting people. In fact, I can't even think how you and I first met. Was is at Social Day?
It was at Social Day about two years ago.
Yes it was, of course it was. Yes, yes, yes. We sat next to each other on the table and that's how cool it is. Because I would class you as one of my very good friends now, Paul. So the fact that we sat on a table at an event and we didn't know each other, but we started talking and we did the same thing. Then we started following each other and speaking to each other on social media, and then we were at another event together, and another, and another. Since then, it's been brilliant. I honestly, if you don't go to events or you haven't been to them, you might to think to yourselves, yeah, it's a big investment, time and money, often these events aren't cheap, especially if you're flying across the other side of the world.
I will happily tell you that when I went to Social Media Marketing World and Traffic & Conversion this year in San Diego, one, I had two team members come out with me so I paid for their tickets to go to the events, and I obviously had tickets to go to the events. But that trip cost me £6,000. Like, that is a lot of money. The hotel was a lot of money, the flights were a lot of money, the food, San Diego's not the cheapest place in the world. But do you know what? It's worth every single penny, and I will do it again next year, and the year after, the year after. Have done even more since then because it's so important. Again, the time out of your business, you might be thinking, “Can I spare a whole day?” Or a whole two days, depending on the event. Absolutely. It is totally worth the time, and effort, and money.
How To Maximise An Event As An Attendee
The other thing I want to … I've got a couple of tips actually, and while I'm giving these couple of tips I want you, Paul, to think of your tips about how to maximise an event as an attendee.
My tips are, prior to the event find out who the speakers are and connect with them on social media. Even maybe send them a tweet, doesn't have to be DM it could be just an open tweet saying, “Really looking forward to seeing you at,” whatever it is. Use the hashtag as well, because they'll have a hashtag before the event. Do a lot of networking, look at who else is using that hashtag. Also, I tend to, or I used to, not so much now, but I used to put them in a Twitter list. Or I used to kind of segment them in some way so I could see who was at the event. Do that before the event. Obviously while you're at the event, it's all about using the hashtag and going crazy on that. Then again, after the event, be going back and looking at all those people and making sure you're following those people that were at the event and speaking to you.
The other thing that I learnt very quickly and in fact it was the first time I went to the States, they told us that when you're at a big event, especially one like MarketEd Live where it's one room all day, get front and centre. Look at those speakers in the eye and the speakers will look at you because you're front and centre and they can see you, and if you got a big smiley face, like I tend to do most the time, then they will keep looking at you because they want to see someone smiling, and then when you go up to them afterwards, they're going to know you, and obviously they won't necessarily put two and two together, but I did this at the first American event I went to and every speaker when I went up to them was like, “Hi, how you doing? Gave me a hug.” Because I'd sat there front and centre looking at them. So those are my tips if you're going to attend event. Paul, over to you.
Well, that second one, something similar, I was going to say, I definitely also agree with sitting at the front and centre. Now, you and I both speak at events ourselves, and whenever I speak, when someone is giving me lots of eye contact and nodding, it is a really positive feeling that you get because you're never quite sure how an audience is going to receive what you're saying. The impact of that is so positive, I always then end up going to speak to that person afterwards and thank them for what they did.
Yeah, and I do. Saying they're a great attendee, yeah.
Yeah. I would always sit front and centre as well. One of my tips would be that before the event, this is quite a recent thing that's happening I've noticed, but before the event, on Twitter at least, edit your profile and edit your name and include the hashtag in your name because I see that's been happening over the last year or so and it helps you be found if people are searching for that hashtag in the people section of the Twitter search results. That's a really good way to indicate that you're going and finding people there.
I think when you are there, I would suggest that depending on the format of the event, spend almost as much time listening and attending sessions as you do networking. If there's multiple sessions and, if it's multiple sessions and there's lots of things going on, and you don't particularly resonate with one of the sessions, don't feel like you have to go to that session.
No [crosstalk 00:31:42]
Spend the time in the foyer, or the atrium, or wherever, where people are networking, and go and talk to people, because you get just as much from the networking aspect as you do looking at the sessions. Particularly sometimes the sessions don't feel that interesting or aren't particularly what you do.
The other tip that I would give is write something up about the event afterwards, because the event organisers love to receive feedback, they love to hear what people have got to say, and it keeps the event going in some way. I love it when people write a blog post about what they learnt at MarketEd Live. It's great user-generated content-
Yeah, you're going to share it.
You're sharing. Yeah, of course I will share it with the whole community, I would share it on all of the social channels, and it really makes that person stick in my mind. If you want to make some big connections at an event, you want to stick in the organisers mind.
Do you know what? That's such a good point as well, because I know I was looking at something, I was trying to find something from a previous event I'd spoken at and I was hoping that the page would still be up, but obviously it wasn't because it was a couple of years ago now. But, of course when I searched for that event, I found blog posts. I found blog posts talking about the event. You know, great way to be found.
I also have one last tip, but this might be because I just like drinking gin or fizz, that if there are any social aspects around the event, so last … Last year. I honestly don't know what year it is. This September, it was only a couple of months ago, this September when we went out to MarketEd Live I got there the night before and lots of other people got there the night before and we did the most hilarious Robin Hood tour of Nottingham, drinking tour, which was brilliant, and there was a lot of alcohol involved, and we were quite drunk. It was such great fun. Then the following day, which I couldn't go to, I was gutted actually because I had to get home, but the following evening after the event you did drinks which … were they free drinks? If I remember rightly, or some free drinks.
They were free drinks. We spent quite a lot of money on the drinks.
Yeah. Funny, you end up spending a lot of money on the drinks. You're inviting the wrong people, they're using that money well.
Clearly.
So then, that evening, but I couldn't go to that. But do you know what? And I know I'm laughing that I like gin and I just like drinking but, actually all joking aside, where I've made some of the biggest connections have been in the social bit. That's where people are a bit more relaxed, they don't feel like they're being necessarily businessy, or I've got to network, I've got to make connections. They're literally just having a nice time. Suddenly you start chatting to people and you realise they've got a child the same age as you, or they're having the same staffing problem as you, or they shop at the same place, or whatever it might be. Those are the kind of things that actually going forward, if you want to make real connections, they're the things that connect them. So if there is any social event, and I think we're getting better at this, don't you? In Social Media Marketing World every single night there's a social event isn't there?
Yeah.
They are phenomenal.
They're great.
I think in the UK, this is a fairly new thing that's happening, but I think we're getting better at it, aren't we?
Yeah, for sure. I mean, certainly for us the social element was a huge, huge part. The Robin Hood idea just came around randomly when we were thinking, “What else can we do? Let's do a Robin Hood tour of the city.” You know, let's walk around with a man in tights pretending to be from the 16th, 12th, 14th century-
[crosstalk 00:35:24] do you know what I mean?
Yeah. It was fun. I totally concur with what you've just said there, that it is those relationships. Without wanting to sound all, “Let's go networking,” that's essentially what it is. Although you'll learn some stuff when you go to the event, and that's great, the fact that you can have other people that have shared that experience and are willing to share their own experience with you gives you further education. Like we said, we've met at an event and there's lots of people that we meet at events when we go. My network is certainly bigger, particularly in the States now, from going to Social Media Marketing World.
Yeah, absolutely.
But also here in the UK when I go to events. Make some good friends and meet up in real life.
I actually have clients.
Yeah.
Yeah, I've actually got clients from events, where I've sat in the same room as them. Especially if the event is slightly, brings different audiences in, and then they find out what you do and then they're like, “Oh yeah, awesome.” I've ended up getting clients from it. But yeah, totally recommend going to any event. I'm not a big fan of local networking, I have to say, it's not my audience. I love networking generally with people, I love meeting people, but that's not a good use of my time. So when I stopped the local stuff, this kind of got in its place, which was a perfect place to network because these are people that I need to network or keep … see their content that they're putting out, and their ideas, and their thoughts, and that sort of thing.
MarketEdLive 2019
So MarketEd Live is obviously brilliant and wonderful, and it's coming back next year.
It is. It is. In the Autumn next year. I mean, we had such a great time. This is the only second year that we have run it this year, and it was so much better than the first year, but you learn by these things, right?
Always.
You know, we had some great speakers, and we had a great room, and some … Honestly, it's not really my place to say it really because I'm the organiser, but certainly at the end of that day there was such a feeling of, dare I say love, in the room. Where people had had such a great time. I just want to say to your listeners that it doesn't actually matter what type of event it is, it could be an event on blockchain, or it could be something on tax, or something that is not marketing related. The same principles apply, you can meet people there that are doing something very similar and feel a connection with those and try and keep that going.
We're certainly going to try and keep that spirit, that feeling of community with MarketEd Live. We've asked for feedback, we've asked what people want to learn, and one of the things that they said that they want to do next year is kind of go deep into each area. So that's our plan for 2019, is to pick individual speakers who have a real depth of knowledge in a particular area who are articulate, who are fun, who have a great attitude, and yeah. Do you know any of those?
You know what, if I can think of anybody, I will let you know. Yeah, definitely. This is where we get to announce the really exciting news that next year I am very lucky enough to have been asked to come and speak and MarketEd Live, which I am super excited about, so thank you so much for asking me.
Oh, I'm so thrilled she said yes, thank you for saying yes. Just by listening to this podcast, we know that our audience is going to love what you have to say and you've got so much knowledge that it's important to share that. We have loads of great speakers in the UK, we really do.
Yes, we do.
More UK speakers need to get out on the international circuit. I know you're working very hard at trying to do that.
Very hard.
I would encourage people to sign Teresa up to do it. Yeah, we're really looking forward to having you on the speaking list at MarketEd Live. You're our first announcement. This is actually a world exclusive-
World exclusive.
… where people can hear this announcement. We haven't announced it yet until right very moment.
That's exciting stuff, that is. I feel very important now, Paul. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get out of my office because my head might be so big, but yeah very [crosstalk 00:40:01]
Very massive.
I'm so excited to speak, and I know that we're going to come up with some great content, you're going to have some amazing speakers, it's going to be a brilliant day. Tickets are on sale now, are they not? Am I right in saying that?
They are, yes. They are on sale now. If you wanted to know more about the event, go to marketed.live. That's market ed, because it's education, so marketed.live, do you see what we did there?
Super. Very clever, very clever.
Took us ages actually to think of the name. Marketed.live. All the information is there. You will see some stuff on there from this year, who spoke. You can actually still get a virtual ticket to this year if you want to catch up on all of the things that you may have missed. Yes, go to the website and you can then click on the big button that says, Get a Ticket, and you can buy a ticket from there.
Awesome. If you haven't been to an event, one thing you need to know is that the tickets at the very beginning are the cheapest they're ever going to be, because often at that point you don't know who's necessarily speaking. Now you do, so obviously they're all going to flood to the website, get ready to sell out. I am joking. We could only hope though. But yeah, they're super cheap to begin with, because obviously they haven't confirmed some of the speakers yet, they haven't announced some of the speakers yet, although they might be confirmed, they just haven't said, but that's the time to buy your ticket, because it's the cheapest it's ever going to be. The closer to the event it gets, the more expensive it gets. And obviously you run the risk of just selling out and missing out altogether.
I'd highly recommend that you go and take a look. I will obviously put it all in the show notes as well if you didn't catch that link. Go to teresaheathwareing.com/43, as in numbers, and you'll find all of the details from MarketEd Live there and all of the details to do with Paul there as well.
Paul, thank you so much for coming on the podcast, and I really hope people have enjoyed this. It's been a bit of a different interview, but I think we've given you a few hints and tips about the events and what to do at them, and also a couple of those cool things that we took away from MarketEd Live this year. So thank you so much for coming on, it's been a pleasure to have you. Hopefully we, nearer the time maybe, will do another one and talk about the event coming up.
Thanks so much for having me on, Teresa. It's been great to be here, and yes, I hope that anyone listening to this event can think about what sort of events that they have in their area, or where they want to travel to, just go and do it. Just go and book a ticket to wherever it is and get going with your event journey.
Awesome, thank you, Paul.
Do you know what? I really loved that. It's so nice having someone like that that I can talk to and communicate with, and bounce ideas off, and thoughts. For me, he is like one of the best people in our industries in the UK. He puts on a great event that's quality, he's very knowledgeable, so it was an absolute pleasure to be able to introduce him to you all and for you to go and see who he is and follow him. As I said, I have put all his details in the show notes, teresaheathwareing.com/43. You can find all the details there of where to follow him, and obviously to get your tickets for MarketEd Live. If you're here in the UK, and even if you're not in the UK but you fancy a trip over to the UK and you want to come and see me speak, then I will be speaking there. So you can go ahead and get your tickets today. I really would urge you to.
I know that sometimes people say, “Do this, do that.” You know, “This is brilliant. That's brilliant.” But I only ever say it, and I genuinely mean it, if something's good. I would never say go and do something if I didn't think that A, it was worth your while and money. And B, if I hadn't of done it myself. I have attended MarketEd Live both years now and I've got great content from it. It is a bit different from your social media events, because you do talk general marketing tools and tactics, and you do get some great knowledge. I know that Paul said it's really for marketing professionals, but I think if you're taking marketing serious in your business and you want to make some of those connections, and you want to get some good ideas, and you want to understand some of the things that are available to you, then absolutely come along because I think you will get a lot from it.
Anyway, sales pitch over, I hope it didn't come across like that. But it's just so interesting to kind of have a conversation with him, to have a conversation with people who put on these kind of events, because as I said, for me, and as you know if you follow me you'll know I go to quite a lot of events, and it's made a big difference for me and my business. Also, if you attend an event that is awesome and you think I might be interested or my audience might be interested then come and find me on social media, send me a DM, or a tweet, or something on Instagram, and let me know, because actually I'm always on the lookout for new events to attend, and obviously events to speak at. I love speaking at events. It's one of the things that is one of my most favourite things to do. So, I would always be open and willing to have a conversation about events coming up. If you run an event and you're looking for a speaker, then just give me a shout, I would love to have a chat with you.
Anyway, until next time, have the most wonderful week, and I will see you here again next week.
