For the second year in a row, I’ve had the chance to attend the Digital Summit Detroit. This is hands down one of the best conferences I’ve attended and highly recommend that you go if you have the chance. Now that I’ve had some time to process the information and put it into practice, I’m sharing five things I learned from the two-day event.
Seth Godin reads The Art of Possibility every six weeks whether he needs to or not.
You may have seen my Franco reading lists for 2016 and 2015, so you know I’m a big fan of learning new things. I haven’t read this one yet, but I can guarantee this will be on my 2017 reading list. Seth said that “There’s no such thing as writer’s block. If you don’t have enough good ideas you probably don’t have enough bad ideas.” It’s important to take time to innovate so you can keep coming up with those big ideas!
If you put a wacky flailing arm man in front of your door, people will look at your door.
Cliff Seal of Salesforce presented “Death to Boring B2B: How Applying Design Thinking Drives Success” and there were some great takeaways. You can view his full presentation below:
FIWTSBS
Ann Handley, author of Everybody Writes (a 2015 reading list pick), taught us a new acronym…FIWTSBS, which means Find Interesting Ways to Say Boring Stuff. Sort of a new take on the old WIIFM – “What’s in it for Them?”
Great content is about brains, not budget. Think about any product, if you took the label off would you be able to tell what the product is?
Create an experience for your customers
Ann introduced Skillshare to the Digital Summit and I am amazed! One of her examples was from Blue Bottle Coffee, who took some time to create a free Skillshare class called “From Plant to Cup: Brew an Amazing Cup of Coffee” to show customers how to use their product.
Get the customer to come to you
One of my favorites (and Detroit original), Shannon Paul, had a great presentation on “Evolving Your Social Strategy for Mobile.” I loved one of the campaign examples she shared from the Sydney Opera House called “Come On In.” This was a genius idea and definitely inspired me:
Digital Summit Detroit has already confirmed a third year in 2017 back at COBO. Will I see you there?
Elizabeth Robbins-Sabourin is an account manager at Franco. You can reach her at (313) 567-5029 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @DetroitDuchess.
