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It seems I’m in the free advice business these days.

Friends starting their own companies. People faced with the opportunity of a new job. People seeking volunteers to help raise funds. Old colleagues looking for a new job. Strangers currently out of a job. Sales people looking for introductions. Clients thinking about a new job.

They all come asking for advice. Free advice.

For years I think I have given more than my fair share. Much more. Why? Because I’m a big believer in what goes around comes around. There are many a days when I need an introduction, a favour, some industry intel, or a referral. Many, many days. I don’t feel guilty about asking, because I feel like I’m good at doing my part. So I give free advice, because I get free advice.

It’s amazing the power of the old adage of it’s not what you know, it’s who you know that drives business success. I tend to edit that saying by suggesting it’s both. Having the contacts affords you the opportunity to demonstrate what you know. But without the contacts, the knowledge size is useless.

So get off your butts, and get out to network.

Oh, I’m serious. Very serious. The number-one mistake I see is people don’t network until it’s too late. They wait until they lost the sale or their job, or their investors fell through, before they network aggressively. Many times an unemployed person tells me they were too busy to network when they had a job. Many times a small business owner will claim they were fully occupied servicing their major client or retailer to look for new business. Many times an entrepreneur will believe they were being unfaithful to look for other investors while their father-in-law claimed to be standing by with a cheque in hand. Believe it all, until reality hits. Sales dry up. You’re laid off. The major sponsor prospect backs out last minute. Your father-in-law didn’t realize you weren’t able to guarantee his loan. Now you need help. Now you start networking. Now it’s too late.

Why? Well, beyond the obvious of your back being up against the wall, networking is a background activity, not a centre stage one. It’s like consensus building or grassroots politics. It takes time, patience, and persistence. But it doesn’t work when it’s rushed or forced. Because the art of networking is to secure a meeting where it’s clearly declared there is no tolerance for selling, pitching, interviewing. In reality, it’s just that. Both sides know it on some level. But the closer the agenda is to being transactional versus relational, the less likely you are to secure a networking meeting.

So I have some tips. Both as a giver and a taker of networking benefits.

1. Don’t Be a Stranger: Even if I wasn’t making a numbered advice list, this would be my number-one rule of all time. I’m happy to network with people, and, like most, I prioritize the people I know. But you know who I prioritize last? The Stranger! That’s a person who I have known for years, who goes AWOL for a variety of reasons, usually because they deem me to be of no value to them in their current stage. Miraculously they contact me when their circumstances have changed, turned for the worse, and now not only am I their new BFF, but I am somehow supposed to drop everything to meet with them and provide advice/direction/contacts. Rant is over. Don’t be a stranger. Invest a little. It goes a long way.

2. Don’t Be a Whiner: If you read my first tip, you can now call me a massive hypocrite. But let’s face it, how many times have you networked with someone who spent most of the meeting whining about their past business partners, employer, or clients. Nothing is worse. Instantly you have lost all desire to help this person. Frantically you want to escape this chat. That’s why when I predict this is going to happen to me, I use blind date principles in organizing the meet. Bright, open, public space. Coffee, not lunch. Never a drink. Late afternoon where the list of time-related excuses are air-tight and valid. I don’t care about your problems, which usually are more your fault than the accusers you mention anyway. I am providing you my time, so make it enjoyable.

3. Don’t Be a Bragger: Maybe it’s a defence mechanism, but we are meeting because you want something from me. When I’m networking it may be because I want to understand industry trends, or find out about a hot speaker, or learn what agency got hired for what, or keep our relationship warm for the future. Yes, I admit, there is a reason I asked you out for lunch. Is that so bad? It would be if all I did was brag to you about me, my life, my work, and my new car (though it’s pretty awesome!). Network with humility. Find out what’s going on in my life. We will eventually get around to talking about you. And when we do, keep it real. More importantly, when I ask you what you’re great at, or what your company is great at, or what is amazing about this investment, don’t say everything. No one is great at everything. Be honest and candid so we can focus the chat.

4. Don’t Be a Stranger: Had to stick this in again. Besides, I like odd-numbered lists, so I needed a filler.

5. Don’t Forget to Say Thanks: It’s amazing, but true. More than half the times I network with someone, I never hear a word after. No thanks. No update. Not even a note telling me to shut up about my car. Nothing. The best networkers follow up with a thank you, a plan, and an easy request. I gave you my time to help you. I’m willing to give you more. Make me feel good about it and make it easy for me to help, and I am all yours.

Networking helps the world go round. It’s timeless. It’s invaluable. It will never be replaced by social media or augmented reality. Never. Until bots become better at common courtesy than we are.

T1 turns 22 this week.

May 16th to be precise.

That’s years, not months. In case you’re using the toddler time system.

Whew, we made it. Eighty percent of new business lasts less than two years. How lucky are we to tack on another two decades? Guess what, we’re primed for another two or more… decades that is.

What will T1 look like in twenty years, you ask? If you didn’t ask, I don’t care. I am telling you anyway.

Well, for one, I will still be here. In 2038. The good news/bad news for all of you is that retirement isn’t in my spellchecker. So stop asking. Maybe I’m old, feeling slightly insecure, but it’s amazing how many people ask me when am I going to sell. Well never say never, but I have little interest.

In 2038 T1 will still be called T1. It took me twenty-one years to get rid of the condom name. I am not going to mess with this one. It’s too good.

In 2038 the Leafs will win the Stanley Cup. Their front jersey will be adorned by the logo of a local politician, since full-jersey sponsorship was allowed years earlier.

In 2038 T1 won’t have any clients. We will only work for brands that are shareholders or investors in our agency. I think that will be a way of the future. Plus it will allow me to remain steadfast in my independence.

In 2038 T1 will be part of a global network. If not, we will be dead. Again, we will be independent.

In 2038 T1 will have more shareholders than employees. How else will we be able to compete?

In 2038 those who are employees will have two to three places of employment. The careers of the future will look more like an Airbnb than a Howard Johnson.

In 2038 my eldest son, the most admired storyteller in the world, will hire T1 to market his global talking photography exhibit, which features real-time image and message change-outs based on the audience’s immediate emotional reactions, in galleries around the world.

In 2038 T1 will celebrate our 34th Sponsorship Forum aboard Elon Musk’s galactic cruise ship, with 1,500 delegates circling the globe.

In 2038 T1 will operate conferences in seventeen countries around the world.

In 2038 I will realize I have to stop talking about writing my book.

In 2038 Canada will win the Summer Olympics with a record haul of gold medals. Those games will be held in Nunavut.

In 2038 T1 will be celebrating our second Oscar, our third JUNO Award, and will have raised millions for charity.

In 2038 Ella-Grace Margaret Trudeau will be sworn in as Canada’s Prime Minister.

In 2038 T1 will have seven seasonal experiential platforms we own that brands can plug-and-play in at their necessity.

In 2038 Canada will have admitted their seventh U.S. state who started defection proceedings during Trump’s twelve-year presidential reign after he changed term limits to allow himself an extra four years!

In 2038 T1 will lose our patent for DNA-fuelled campaign testing to a challenge by IMI. In related news, Mark & Don were seen at Happy Hour talking about the good old days of 2008!

In 2038 I will own a professional football team. Oh please, oh please.

In 2038 my youngest son will say you’re welcome, when I say thanks for buying me that professional football team.

In 2038 T1 will operate a training program helping elderly people (like me) re-enter the workforce after a decade or more of retirement.

In 2038 T1 will have more Harrisons in it than Sterns. Today there are 3 Sterns and only 2 Harrisons. Prince and I are feeling outnumbered by my wife’s family. Plus she probably would claim Prince. Okay, more isn’t the goal, but at least an even number? (-:

In 2038 T1 will also be employing its first grandchild of a former employee. The betting pool opens soon!

In 2038 the Leafs will raise the banner on their twelfth Stanley Cup in twenty years, while every other team in the NHL complains about their dominance.

What is the Future of Live Events?

That was the question posed to a group of twenty attendees recently at a discreetly curated gathering held by Intellitix and Gilbert’s LLP, at private wine club The Vintage Conservatory.

To stimulate the discussion, four unique speakers were asked to share insights and ideas, while literally being grilled, challenged, endorsed, mocked, cheered, and even heckled by the attendees. The triangulation of twenty Type-H (hyper) guests, the event being held on a Friday evening, and a kept promise of an endless supply of remarkable wines, produced a combustible conversation. The speakers were brave and grateful to be engaged with an audience that included the CEO of one Canada’s most successful homegrown businesses. Senior VPs from pro sports properties, venues, and media. Music festival founders. Brand partnership gurus. Major brand marketers. You get the point.

So what did the speakers have to say, and what is the Future of Live Events?

First, you should meet them. Leading off was Alan Smithson. Beyond his incredible tech background, he is also the CMO of his eleven-year-old daughter’s company Love Sandal. Yes, eleven! Smithson is also known for patenting the Emulator DJ system, and he’s now launching a new VR/AR company called MetaVRse. At the same time he and his wife are creating a legacy project to engage youth through entrepreneurship.

One of those youths could have been speaker number two, Derrick Fung. He’s only twenty-eight, so I hate him already. At twelve he was running the largest online music sheet business in the world. Built another company called Tunezy which he sold to SFX Entertainment. Was named a Top 30 under 30 by Forbes and is now running Drop Loyalty, an experience-based loyalty idea targeting millennials.

Super smart is the only way to describe Rafael Nicolas Fermin Cota. He’s the founder of Left Brain and a professor at Western University. More importantly he’s a mathematical whiz who can take any data dump you can imagine and output a logic path that can drive better decision making.

 

The final speaker was the charismatic Devon Wright who founded Turnstyle Solutions. Wright is the leading proximity marketing innovator in North America and is building a platform that has reached 25,000 stores and wants millions more. But consider this. If you are a sponsor of an event and want to connect with a consumer who attended that event when they walk into your store, Turnstyle can help you do that. Read that sentence over again very very slowly. My customer was at a festival that I sponsored and five days later they walk into my store, and I know immediately? Flip that around. My customer is in my store and I want to tell them about my event in five days? Read that one again as well.

Debate in the workplace is a healthy construct. Too often, however, people take debate personally and can’t separate themselves from the discussion. The beauty of a room full of mostly strangers – everyone seemed to know no more than two other people prior to the evening – and bottles of truth serum, means the mandate to be candid actually happens. There was an abundant supply.

Back and forth the room collegially thrashed.
Would Virtual Reality eventually put an end to live events?
How do you promote a live event, when the in-home experience can be technologically superior?
Is there consumer loyalty in the festival industry?
Is there a different level of loyalty based on event type? Audience type?
Why are consumers?
What data do you need to successfully program and promote a live event?
How do you acquire it?
Who do you have on-board to analyze it?
Do you know who your core influencers are? Your most profitable customers?
Who should you market your event to…the masses or the leaders?
Why will millennials give you data no baby boomer would ever part with?

Maybe it was the laughter or the room energy, but it wasn’t until a day later I realized the answer to the question. The question of The Future of Live Events is not will there be a live event industry or will live events be replaced by virtual or artificial or augmented events. Now the question is what will live events look like and what will differentiate the good from the bad. The answer is painfully obvious. Data.

Data will be the big differentiator. What data can you provide your bosses, your clients, your sponsors, your sponsees? How will you use that data to enhance the consumer experience? How will you use it to refine your value proposition? How will you utilize data to generate higher sponsor ROI?

The tricky part will be blending the art with the science. Balancing the left and the right side of your brain. Your eyes versus your gut.

But without the data – the right data, timely data, clean data – the event industry will languish in the land of the nice to do, feel good, and vanity project. While other forms of marketing and commerce will receive the priority resources in your organization.

Live is a powerful medium, and soon you will have the data to prove it.

Sunday’s Game 7 series-clinching victory by the Raptors should have put a smile on all T.O. sports fans’ faces.

There was an excessive amount of hand wringing and gloom forecasting as to the implications of a loss. Every expert imaginable imagined a Raptors loss resulting in a new coach, a new superstar, and maybe even a new logo. The house wouldn’t just be cleaned. It would be an all around eviction.

You would have thought that the outcome would have ignited the latest Yonge Street parade. Instead I mainly witnessed a flotilla of griping. Apparently the ugly manner in which Toronto won counts for more than the fact that Toronto won. I’m confused!

This was Game 7! We won! It was a franchise-defining victory!

The game began with a strong Raptors O being matched by an equally adept Pacers attack. Then Toronto pushed ahead with a surge in the third quarter, only to serve up a disastrous fourth quarter when they almost handed back the keys to victory.

But in the end, isn’t a win a win? Apparently not.

Is this a Toronto phenomenon? To be an infinitely unhappy sports fan? Is this some special characteristic only those in the 416/647/905/289 possess? Even though we had notched a Grey Cup win just a few seasons ago, the general sentiment is we are over twenty years removed from our last championship. Which is not only patently unfair to the Argonauts and the Toronto Rock for that matter, it’s also an empty lament.

Toronto sports fans aren’t any more deprived than those in Vancouver, Montreal, Buffalo, Cleveland, or Leicester for that matter. We just like to pretend we are. It’s like traffic, road conditions, weather, construction, housing prices, and the economy. It’s trendy to label your hometown as having the worst circumstances of all. Throw in local politicians, decaying schools, garbage pickup, and you have the precise list of every single person’s community gripes.

Now let’s get back to the most common refrain. Our teams stink.

In sports, that is actually true. In every league there is only one champion, only one happy group of fans, only one group of diehards who don’t have to proclaim, “Wait till next year!” I have bad news for you. Next year never comes to most.

Which is sad.

Sports should not be a make-or-break proposition. Why is it fans only come out if the team is winning? Is the quality of play, on the whole, that much worse when your team loses? Does the winning team not possess artistry and mastery of skill? Is everything we learned about enjoying sports as a pastime related to winning?

It appears to be that way.

Winning teams get more fans, get more coverage, get more media, more ratings, more sponsors. The city gets covered on their shirts and hats. Flags adorn their cars. Bars promote their games. But only if you win.

No team, with the exception of the Leafs, seems to draw fervent and consistent passion regardless of their record. Maybe it’s because we have too many choices. I can remember attending and watching many Argos games during their dreary years when they attracted great crowds. The games mattered even if the Boatmen weren’t going to win the Grey Cup.

Perhaps there really are too many choices in this world for just entertainment dollar. But that doesn’t explain why fans only come when the team wins. Better yet, it doesn’t explain why when our teams do succeed, people still find issues and reasons to pout.

So can I ask a favour? Can we please start smiling, T.O. sports fans? Yes the Jays are still finding their groove. Maybe by the time this is published the Raps will be down versus the Heat. TFC has done a pretty good job surviving a brutal season opening road trip. The Argos can’t wait to host you at revamped BMO Field. You seem to have bought into the Leafs brain trust that losing is part of the protest.

Let’s be real sports fans and enjoy the journey. Let’s learn the nuances of our favourite sports and marvel at the skills being showcased. Let’s cheer when we win and cheer louder when we aren’t winning, because it may help turn the tide.

I’m convinced that our pro sports anxiety is showing through loud and clear at our children’s events, and at our community events. It’s clear it’s spilling over at the water cooler.

Seems we are having a hard time remembering, it’s just a game, it’s entertainment, it’s a pastime. Besides, there is always next year!

No, not Elvis. Prince.
No, not my dog Prince. Prince the singer.

(Yes my dog is named Prince. Yes some people at the office, where he is a daily fixture, thought mon chien had passed away when the news of the pop star’s death surfaced.)

I was / am a massive Prince fan. In the summer of 1984 I drove my roommates nuts playing Purple Rain over and over in our tiny cabin astride the old Paignton House golf course at the now defunct Paignton House Resort on Lake Rousseau. Apparently my doves were crying.

This isn’t going to be another coming of age tribute to Prince. I won’t bore you with how he helped me get through my darkest times as a late teenager. Or how he spoke to me and me alone with his music. Or how seeing the movie Purple Rain made me feel like there was hope in this world for a short beige man.

Nor am I going to provide a commentary on his contribution to music as we know it today. How he both adopted others’ styles and also invented new genres. I won’t touch on his most amazing Super Bowl Halftime show or the criticism his selection originally faced. I won’t give you a history lesson on his weirdness, his namelessness, nor his Torontoness.

 

 

I also won’t lament on what a crummy year it has been losing both Prince and Bowie in the span of a few months. That goes without saying. I also won’t mention these things come in threes, thereby now hexing every iconic living musical artist to their potential demise.

Others have done all that in Spades.

Instead I am going to tell you a simple story.

I never got to see Prince live. Years ago I was invited and didn’t go. I can’t remember why. I think it was because I was busy watching a football game. My spouse went and she said he was amazing. She wasn’t really an appreciator of his artistry until that event.

Me? I expected I would see him someday. There was something about Prince that seemed invincible. He lived, or so I thought, so cleanly. He was so devout. He seemed to be normal, despite his weirdness. I always thought there would be a tomorrow, a next year, a next time. Then I could see him.

Prince’s death came out of the blue. You couldn’t say that about Michael Jackson. Or Elvis. Some people were shocked by Bowie’s demise, others had been hearing rumors or listening to internet suspicion. But Prince went out of the blue.

Now I have a regret. A regret that is stained by my procrastination. I wish I had seen him live. I wish I had seen him more than once. In death his lesson to me is simple. Don’t put things off that matter to you. Go hike that mountain. See that monument. Visit that distant relative. Check in on that old friend. Run that first marathon.

Even in death Prince is still sending me life lessons.

Business conferences are like chess games.

You never know how your attendance is going to play out. What sessions will be great. What will stink. Where the best networking is.

Despite having attended multiple versions of the IEG Sponsorship Conference in the past, I decided this was the year to change up my regular modus operandi. I resolved to understand from as many sources as I could, what’s actually happening in the global sponsorship industry in 2016. My not so hidden agenda was to come out with an insight, or three, that could be utilized for a future marketing opportunity.

I think the question could be best positioned as What’s Changed in Sponsorship? The answer isn’t simple but can fill three buckets:  (1) Nothing; (2) Everything; (3) Anything.

1. Nothing. 

   Yes nothing. Shockingly brands are still sponsoring what the C-Suite wants. Shockingly brands are still utilizing gut instinct. Shockingly awareness is still being referenced as a key benefit of sponsorship. 

   Equally as surprising is the fact that many speakers and delegates still think that suggesting themes as “start with your objectives,” “know your audience,” and “we only do custom proposals,” is somehow innovative or unique. 

   Despite these relics from the past, there is one significant theme that thankfully hasn’t disappeared and is critical to the existence of the industry. That is the simple reality that nothing ties into passions of a consumer more powerfully than sponsorship. It might come in a different package today, think YouTube influencer, but the core remains the same.

2. Everything. 

   Even IEG is being repositioned as a newsletter and conference company, as they are part of a WPP consolidation that has created a new company called ESP properties. Legendary founder Lesa Ukman declared this was her last year hosting her venerable conference. In 2017 Ukman will be a delegate. 

   B2B is converging with B2C as brand marketers realize they aren’t selling business to business, they are selling human to human. As the role of small and innovative business increasingly becomes more important in global economies, the need for corporate marketers to achieve scale is also driving this. 

   The NBA is allowing jersey sponsorship. It’s a three-year test with a plethora of rules and regulations. The first major league to do so. The Cleveland Cavaliers, for example, have an interesting question to be answered. How much will a company pay to have their logo on LeBron James.

3. Anything. 

   What continues to amaze me about the business we are in, is that you can create, invent, or design anything you can dream. No single speaker epitomized this more than superstar keynote Dean Kamen. The holder of four hundred patents, he has invented devices that help people with diabetes, cancer, limb loss, mobility issues and more. His creations range from the Segway to the Coca-Cola Freestyle machine to a machine that can generate power from cow dung.  

   Kamen created FIRST in 1989 to encourage and inspire kids to participate in science. His mission was to create a science competition that resembled a youth sports league. Today the property has over one million participants from eighty plus countries, and over sixty thousand people at a massive world championship. Kamen is a genius. His prosthetic arm for ARPA is allowing wounded soldiers to regain their independence. He didn’t create his property to gain fame or wealth. He has that. He created his property to help build the youth of today into the leaders of tomorrow. His IEG pitch was to find partners who could help him build FIRST to a place of ubiquity. So that every child in America, and perhaps the world, can be exposed to science. His model is an amazing one that could be patterned for any program.

   Too many people still seemed to confuse the changes in technology with changes in marketing. I’m not the first to suggest this. However, just because anyone with an iPhone can produce a video or a banner, doesn’t mean that’s where the opportunity lies. The opportunity lies in the reality that sponsorship is an industry where you can create anything. It’s the most flexible and adaptable marketing form and continues to be so.

Whoever coined the phrase The more things change, the more they stay the same, best summarized this year’s IEG Sponsorship Conference. 

As a company IEG was a global thought leader in sponsorship-building approaches and protocols that have become ubiquitous throughout the industry. It will be interesting  to see how its conference and newsletter fare when they are disconnected from the actual business. In some respects I’m sad to see the end of Lesa Ukman’s tenure. 

Perhaps the change makes me feel old.

South by Southwest kicks off this week, and even though it’s my third time attending, it still feels like I’m a decade behind.

Which of course is crazy to have FOMO over something you’re actually doing, but nonetheless, that’s how I feel. Stronger than my FOMO is my HYPE. I’m uncontrollably excited. SXSW is a magical convergence of art, business, inspiration, food, networking, and Austin. Love that place. If you’ve never been and are going…I won’t spoil it for you. It’s supremo.

The first time you attend SXSW, people advise that you use it as a breaking-in experience. The event is so overwhelming, broad, and consuming that it really does require a massive adjustment. There are times in the day when you don’t know which of the fifty sessions to be in. What activations to spy on. What margarita bar to drink in. What trade show exhibit to immerse in. Or maybe you should just wander into a coffee shop and meet some new friends.

My first Southby I got sick. I never get sick. I couldn’t believe it. I spent over two days in bed with the flu. My second Southby was amazing, but I had to leave after two days. This year? Well, I am not feeling great as I write this, which means by flying time I will be perfect! I’ve booked a five-night stay so I can see every bit of the Interactive festival as possible. Though I would love to stay for Music, it’s just too long a run.

So armed with self-forecasted good health and all the time I need, I can now put the perfect Southby plan in place. Want to know what I plan to do?

1. See Obama. The POTUS and the First Lady were both announced just last week as keynote speakers. I won’t be there to see Mrs. O, but I plan on lining up early to see the President. I’m giddy with excitement.

2. See Trump. No, just kidding. He’s not on the agenda.

3. Shake hands with a man who designed and built his own artificial arm. The SXSW Trade Show doesn’t start and stop with digital media activations. There are robots, new products, tech gurus, and inspiring medical discoveries. Last year there really was a one-armed man and a crazy long line just to shake his robotic hand. In fact, this year they’re even launching an inaugural Robot Ranch at SXSW Create. Get ready to step into the future.

3. Go to SoutBites. This convergent track has a ton of sessions covering food industry and marketing and festivals, and is a must-attend for any packaged goods marketer. I was particularly enthralled with where food festivals are headed. Culinary events are going to explode over the next few years as the affluent and young both seek new experiences. The way to a man’s heart, and wallet, is still through his belly.

4. Wear my T1 pin with pride when our Chief Creative Officer Graham Lee presents Comic Sans Exists for a Reason on Saturday. I am absolutely sure no one else has original footage of Russell “The Cashman” Oliver in their presentation! Join the discussion around the key question “Is bad design good?” Need the deets? This snazzy graphic says it all.

5. I plan to Dare Greatly. That’s the title of an amazing book I just finished reading, about how dealing with vulnerability can help you succeed. Its author Brené Brown is also doing a keynote, and I’m sure she will be a great presenter, as she crafted the fifth most-watched TED talk of all time.

6. Go to SXsports. The future of sports and the future of tech meet head-on in an open field collision that produces some pretty amazing content. Last year a session on how players are prepared for the NFL combine, down to the minutes they sleep and the ounces of water they drink, was packed. Of course none of us attendees were going to any combine. But oh to dream.

7. Share. I will be writing a couple of blogs for the Association of Canadian Advertisers. So check those out. As well, my team is building an insights presentation about the conference, which we plan to share with our clients in the weeks after our return. Plus you can follow our whole team’s experience through #T1atSXSW. The live feed on our homepage starts Friday, so don’t miss a beat.

I just checked the weather forecast, and the first day or two are a bit rainy, but then the clouds are breaking and it gets very warm. Let’s add sun worshipping to my To Do list right now!

I’m enjoying two glorious, sunny days in New York at the The Sport Business Summit, put on by Leaders.

Though some of our team has previously attended, this is my first time. It’s the third U.S. iteration of a fairly large UK event that is over a decade old, and from what I’m told by other delegates, it’s grown dramatically from 2015. They announced six hundred delegates are in attendance, but I think that’s a generous number. Regardless, it’s a well-produced, slick event in a great venue, The TimesCenter on 41st street. This Leaders group understands branding very well.

Many people ask me why I attend conferences. Hopefully it’s not because I come across as a know-it-all! No, I attend conferences for all the same reasons I pitch you in attending mine, plus one more. I love experiencing others’ events to improve my own. Whether that be through blatant theft of something amazing that I saw or experienced, or perhaps stimulated by something frustrating. Either way, being a customer is the best research in the world.

A new reason for me to attend conferences is to share my learnings (not about the event mechanics, but from the content) with you. I am very fortunate to attend so many events. I realized I shouldn’t be so selfish. So here today you get the taste of a first of a new periodic twist to my blog. No formal announcement or name. Let’s just call it a Conference Report. I will let my creative team brand it up later!

The highlight of the event for me was David Droga from Droga5, the hottest advertising agency in America right now. His firm did the trailers for The Martian, featuring a unique Matt Damon Under Armour integration.

A great example of multiple parties winning because they were an advertisement for the movie, UA, and even Matt Damon; yet to the consumer they were inspiration. I loved his line that “everything is advertising” today and that a brand needs to know what it stands for, develop a consistent “red thread” that communicates their promise, and then engage in ongoing disposable activities to communicate it. To Droga, an advert or an event or vine video is disposable. Yet they contribute to building a place for the brand in the consumer’s mind. A great example of a red thread is their client at Prudential, who relentlessly pursued a mission to Make America financially smarter. This provides a platform for all activities.

Two other groups who presented and truly get their red thread are Real Madrid CF and Williams F1 Racing. For Real Madrid it is simple. Every player, every employee, every club owner must possess Ambition. In essence the speaker proclaimed that Real Madrid is so successful because they aim to be. Simple. Powerful. At Williams F1 they have a similar red line – double entendre intended. There, every employee has one job description. To make the car go faster. The leaders at Williams F1 proclaim that every employee is a racer. That sets the stage for all brand relationships, innovations, and even new businesses they create. Williams F1 currently has thirty-six for-profit projects leveraging their auto racing technology in other industry sectors. A bizarre example? They are designing a system to reduce energy loss in grocery stores’ cool sections that makes the middle of the aisles cold.

Interesting learnings were to be had from Olympic partners BMW, Dow and P&G. BMW has used their bobsleigh success from Sochi to launch a program of building racing wheelchairs for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games.

If you don’t remember, the car maker developed Team USA’s sleds and vaulted them to unprecedented success. Now they plan to do the same and are very proud of their focus on the Paras. I think it’s brilliant.

P&G has continued to evolve their Thank you Mom campaign if for no other reason than some of their participating brands see an 11% higher marketing spend ROI on Olympic-associated campaigns, versus those pitches that go ringless. That should be in every NSO’s pitch deck!

Dow is a unique sponsor in that they are a B-to-B company looking to create new channels, or as they say, skip a generation of traditional supply chains.

What all Olympic brands also emphasized was the positive impact on their agencies Olympic work has. Given the Games are only every two years, these brands see an increased creative effort from their partners and their internal stakeholders. It seems that their Olympic brand promise of inspiration impacts more than just young athletes.

The only other discussion that impressed me was MasterCard. They have 70,000 sponsorship assets globally. The guy who counted them all was in the room! They used to use those assets to tell stories, but have transitioned their activation approach to story making.

Leveraging their Priceless platform, they reward consumers from small surprises to once-in-a-lifetime experiences, that have been identified through data intelligence. Delivering these Priceless moments then creates the script to make stories. They are the first brand I have heard use this approach. Watch for lots more story making speeches on the conference circuit for the next two years.

Overall I was disappointed in this event. I had heard great things of Leaders and their events, but this summit missed the mark wildly. Many of the speakers talked in uncessarily broad terms at a level that wouldn’t interest a Grade 10 class. There were multiple references to speakers’ own children who watch three screens at once and other profound research. Honestly whoever created that cliché should be barred from their favourite dessert for a year. In general the speakers were not pushed or prodded to get deep.

As well, the format of the event was stale and boring. Almost every session was a moderated panel, all of whom except for Scott McCune and Bernie Mullin lacked energy, knowledge, and depth. Mullin would be a superstar moderator if he wasn’t so inclined to promoting his own firm with every question he asked. But he and McCune are keynote-worthy, so their moderating was a treat.

The networking for the event was the predictable buffet lunch and end-of-day hospitality bar. Speakers were ushered in and out of back doors like heads of state, making delegates feel almost criminal for seeking to connect with them. It felt like there were two tiers to the event. Those in a secret club, or perhaps the organizer’s clients, and the rest of the regular delegates.

Some delegates said I should see their London event, which is fine. Except I paid for the New York event.

It’s seems that many people who are asked to pay tribute to the dead use a hauntingly similar opening line, which is to describe the first time the speaker met the deceased. 

I won’t be asked to speak at Dennis Glavin’s funeral, but I do need to pay tribute to him. Dennis, was the founder of Glavin & Associates where I began my career, many many many hairs ago. My first meeting with him was over the phone, which resulted in an impromptu live interview not an hour later. From that moment, until I received word this morning that he passed away in his sleep last evening, he was a looming shadow in my life.

Dennis Glavin was a larger than life figure. He commanded a room like few people I have ever met. There was no client he feared. No pitch too intimidating. No concept too daunting. He was too smart to be a promotions expert. He was too articulate to be writing contest headlines. He was too well read to be reading briefs about product launches. 

His writing was both artistically beautiful and literally masterful.  His written word was only rivalled by his oral performances. His command of written and spoken language was buffeted by a curiosity that made him resemble a human Google, long before that invention changed forever the way world discovers.

Dennis had his warts. While a tribute to him should not be tainted by describing them, it would also be disingenuous of me to pretend to you that they didn’t exist. More appropriately for this tribute they made him part of who he was. Someone you could genuinely follow off the edge of the earth one day and the next minute wish to pummel. He was as fascinating a human as you could ever meet. 

Dennis was my business father. He took a chance on a kid from a tier two Political Science program and put him in front of blue chip marketing clients. He let me grow a dying account into our largest business. He rewarded me handsomely, financially, and emotionally. 

I can’t put a price on that. If that price was the times we struggled, I will take that. We worked together for a decade, over two stints, before I was thirty five. That’s a long time in a young man’s life.

He was a massive Steelers fan. Check.
Loved March Madenes. Check.
Could drink like a fiend. Check.
Had a wicked sense of humour. Check. 
Could out debate Gorbachev. Check. 
Insanely smart. Check. 
Loved nice cars. Check.
Was a neat freak. Check.
Loved his Mom like no one you ever met. Double Check.
Revered the legacy of his father. Check. Check. Check.

Dennis and I had an acrimonious ending to our last business relationship. I say that only for context. I saw him only two times after over the course of fifteen years.  Once we had a drink to see if we could rekindle our working relationship. It didn’t. The last was a unplanned encounter after he had been stricken with cancer. Although he was recovering, he was nothing short of miserable. That brief encounter crushed me. He wasn’t the same imposing man that loomed large in my memory. 

That’s not the man I’m going to remember.

I’m going to remember the man who built a business with his bare hands. I’m going to remember the man who who overcame childhood illness, obesity, being bedridden, and schoolyard persecution to push himself to become the most refined sense of himself he could be. I’m going to remember the man who sold laundry detergent from the trunk of his car in the depth of the Manitoba winter to support his family. I’m going to remember the  man who saw the future of consumer promotions before anyone else and launched his namesake company. I’m going to rember the man who spawned generation after generation of employees who went on to own their own businesses. I’m going to remember the man who bought me a new car for graduation. I’m going to remember the man I promised that I would never tell anyone about that gift. (Sorry!). I’m going to remember the man who told me “I am your MBA”, when I excitedly announced I was accepted to grad school. I’m going to remember the man who could swing a golf club so beautifully, the sun came out on cloudy days just to watch. I’m going to remember the man who lined our office hallways with amazing gift baskets from Oliver’s Bakery for Christmas. I’m going to remember the man who taught us how to concept ideas that no client ever dreamed possible. I’m going to remember the man who would make me take his car keys home when he knew he was in for a crazy night. I’m going to remember the man who overtipped everywhere he went. I’m going to remember the man who found it hard to publicly let people get close to him, yet privately he truly coveted them. I’m going to remember the man who somehow brought smiles to the family of his deceased secretary, who died from a horrific cancer discovered only when she broke her leg, during his spellbinding eulogy of her. I am going to remember the man who teased one of our colleagues on a relentless basis, yet we all knew how much he loved this guy. I’m going to remember the man who cried when I shared my problems with him. I’m going to remember the man who told me not to find my birth parents, because he was convinced the ones who raised me were perfect

I’m going to remember the man I met December 4th, 1987. RIP Dennis “Hondo” Glavin.