Last week I attended my third Brand ManageCamp, held this year at the MGM in Las Vegas. Given that I have passed the eight month mark for unemployment, I was in serious need of some great marketing inspiration, and as they have in years past, the folks at Brand ManageCamp did not fail to disappoint.
This year was ‘a must’ for me because marketing legend Philip Kotler was one of the speakers. If you are a marketer, or ever took a college or graduate marketing class, chances are Mr. Kotler was the author of the book you were using. His presentation centered on his new book Chaotics: The Business of Managing and Marketing in The Age of Turbulence. Suffice it to say I took two pages of notes and will be ordering his book very soon. And if you care about surviving this crazy world recession/globalization/modernization, you will too. By the way, in the short conversation I had with him, he was super nice! It was great to meet the man who has helped shaped so much of where marketing has been and where it’s going.
Other marketing/branding speakers included Guy Kawasaki (founder of Alltop.com), John Gerzema (author of The Brand Bubble), Amber MacArthur (she makes social media approachable), Simon Bray (?What If! North America), Kevin Clancy (author of Counterintuitive Marketing and Your Gut Is Still Not Smarter Than Your Head), Jeremy Gutsche (founder of Trendhunter.com), Jonathan Salem Baskin (author of Branding Only Works on Cattle), Charlene Li (author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies), Michael Dunn (author of The Marketing Accountability Imperative).
We ended with a couple different things this year that were really interesting. Rick Smith, founder of World 50 and author of The Leap: How 3 Simple Changes Can Propel Your Career from Good to Great talked about how you can get to the next step in your career and life by tapping into more of who you are. He co-developed the Primary Color Assessment test in an effort to focus people much more on their strengths and passions instead of fixing weaknesses. His story can be appreciated most by those of us currently out of work. He was laid-off, had a big idea, followed through with it and the rest is everything listed above. Very inspiring!
Our final speaker was Joe Navarro, who is a 25-year veteran of the FBI and author of What Every BODY Is Saying. He was a frequent commentator on news channels during the election and gave some really good body language tips. He also had some great insights into dealing with workplace situations. He left us with a final order, “Move to Action!” I’m trying, Joe!
I have an interview this week. I’m excited at the prospect of getting back to what I do best, and apply the knowledge and insights I gleaned from these amazing speakers. I love going to Camp.
What inspires you?
© Copyright 2009 Theresa Moretti. All rights reserved.
