Keynoting the first session at Like Minds in England
Keynoting the first session at Like Minds in England
Unbelievable experience. Culmination of months of making connections and following through.
Last February I connected with a Brit, Scott Gould, on Twitter. After exchanging tweets and comments we agreed that it would be fun to connect in the real world someday. In April, I began making plans to travel to Cardiff, Wales with a team from my church and suggested to my new British friend that we connect while I was in the UK.
He offered to meet me at Gatwick airport or even in Cardiff. Instead, we worked out a tweet up for his home town of Exeter, England. We met in Exeter in May. He was exactly what I expected him to be and we had a grand time together. Both of us wound up making new friends in Exeter at the tweetup.
Scott took me on a grand tour of historic Exeter afterwards. As we enjoyed coffee at Prezzo, Scott recounted his experience with a friend of my from Greenville, South Carolina. “Do you know someone who goes by the name The Brandbuilder?”
“Well, of course I do. He’s a good friend,” I said.
“Wow. It’d like to talk with him someday.”
I reached into my pocket, took out my iPhone saying, “Would you like to talk with him right now?”
“You’re kidding. You mean, like on the phone?”
“Sure.” I mashed the “favorites” button on my iPhone, rang The Brandbuilder (Olivier Blanchard), introduced Olivier to Scott and then handed the phone to Scott.” As they spoke for the first time, I suggested they both get out their calendars.
“Let’s do a conference in October,” I said. Scott laughed out loud and apparently Olivier did, too. However, being the marketing leaders they are, they took a leap of faith and reserved October 16th for the conference.
Not too long afterwards, I left Exeter, returned to the United States, and left Scott Gould to do all the work.
He did. Scott went above and beyond to create a stunning meeting venue, complete with powerful Wi-Fi, video and audio in house and recording. More than that, Scott worked diligently to bring together far more than technology—he brought a fabulous group of people together.
The Exeter Conference Center was well equipped and buzzed with the excitement of a full house!
Technology takes center stage in too many discussions. Though the technology is cool, it doesn’t deserve top billing. Instead, the people brought together should take front and center. The people-to-people connections made at the conference (Like Minds) are far move valuable than any content we could have shared.
Even if we delivered the most valuable content in the world, it will be outdated in the not-to-distant future, the technology will change (someday no one will be talking about Facebook nor Twitter. Seriously.) The people-to-people connections will not. The value of the content will diminish over time; the relationships will grow increasingly valuable.
Scott Gould did a great job organizing an event. In the process, he created immense, lasting value (incalculable value) for Devon by creating the beginnings of a community. Now the community has the opportunity to foster even more significant contributions to each other and the broader community throughout Exeter and beyond.
