The Marketing Conference Blog

For those of you who aren’t too sure as to who the gentleman above is, it’s Paul Gillin. Now don’t feel bad if you haven’t heard the name; Paul just so happens to be the former editor-in-chief and executive editor of Computerworld and the founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget.

He’s also the author of the book that’s taking the online marketing world by a bit of a storm: The New Influencers.

Blogging, podcasting and other social media are profoundly disrupting the mainstream media and marketing industries. Paul Gillin’s The New Influencers explores these forces by identifying the influencers, their goals and their motivations. The book also offers advice for marketers at both large and small organizations on how to influence the influencers.

The New Influencers explores:

• Why social media are now so important in consumer decisions;

• How to leverage the blogosphere to enhance your company’s message;

• Strategies for taking advantage of this new medium;

• The need for transparency and how to make it work for your benefit;

• Action items for both small and large businesses

• Whether and how your organization should use blogs, podcasts and other social media tools in your marketing strategy.

I first started exchanging emails with Paul when he kindly asked if I’d answer a few questions about The Tinbasher’s success for the book (I think it’s mentioned around page 200). I had no idea at the time who the dickens he was or how well the book was going to be received (a book review in the Wall Street Journal and an interview with the BBC are rarely to be sniffed at).

I certainly didn’t have any idea as to what a thoroughly decent chap Paul is, and even less of an idea that he cites The Tinbasher regularly when he speaks. If we’re being honest, how many specialists in their respective fields start their book talking about how wrong they were to write off the field they’re now specializing in? Genius!

Anyway, Paul is more than an accomplished speaker and has also organized the odd conference in his time, so I thought I’d ask him what could make or break a conference. He very kindly responded with this:

Conferences are vast and complex things, with many moving parts and many possibilities of failure. One bad speaker can shut down an audience for the rest of the day. Two bad speakers can kill a conference before it gets off the ground.

The key to success is to know the audience, know the thought leaders and match the two perfectly. It’s also critical to vet the speakers for their speaking ability, making sure they know how to hold an audience’s attention, engage their imagination and leave them deep in thought. The difficulty of ascertaining this important information in phone calls and e-mail can’t be underestimated.

I have the highest respect for successful conference organizers, because the job demands such high levels of organizational skill, interpersonal engagement, domain knowledge and raw creativity. Those who are successful at it are a rare breed.

If that isn’t enough to reduce your average conference organizer and speaker into a quivering, self-doubting wreck then I don’t know what will.

But, if listening to and schmoozing with the good and the great we’ve managed to assemble isn’t cranking your excitometer up past 11, you’ve also got the added bonus of rubbing shoulders with a new influencer – namely, erm, me.