In the beginning of June I had the opportunity to attend the Mumbrella360 conference, hosted at the beautiful Hilton hotel in Sydney.
It was a great opportunity to interact with such a diverse range of advertising professionals. The event saw plenty of people walking through its doors, from leaders to creatives, CEOs- to startup dreamers, interns, analysis' and those just popping in for the day.
I attended the 'networking' event that was held early on in the program. It was essentially 'speed-dating' without the lingering sense of awkwardness in the air. I locked down some solid conversations with people who clearly knew far more about the advertising game than myself. We exchanged business cards, made some jokes, pitched our ideas and shook hands at the end.
It was fun. Creating contacts and generating business is a good time.
The following day I attended the expo component at the conference. I ate some frozen yogurt with blueberries at the Realestate.com stand, had my portrait sketched at another, drank complimentary coffees, had iced donuts at another and generally directed conversations towards 'those premium coffee-cup mediums at Reach Media'. It's a less subtle way raising awareness than others would use but 'subtle' isn't how I like to get things done.
I spent most of the event talking to everyone in the room (once again, not particularly subtle) and the presentations from industry leaders was excellent to learn from!
The entire event was fun a lot of fun. We're damn lucky to work in an industry that thrives off of the ridiculous and allows us to be 'ourselves'. Could you imagine if we worked in offices that didn't offer premium coffee blends? Where you're required to wear ill-fitting uniforms? Where your glasses weren't seen as an extension of your personality?
I couldn't imagine such a fate. We got lucky.
