The CIMC conference in Squamish stands for Change in The Making after two full days, and I mean packed from sunrise to sunset with really great presentations and panels, I walked away with some really great lessons for both me and my businesses.
While the conference takes place in Squamish, it’s pretty much like every digital agency in Vancouver closed up shop for two days and moved to the tiny town to learn as much as they could. It was a fantastic experience to sit and chat with them about the ever evolving world of digital marketing and just how different it is from Calgary to Vancouver.
So while the excitement and energy is still fresh in my veins, I wanted to share with you some things I learned at this year’s conference!
1. You’re not alone.
I know this sounds silly, but so many of us spend our lives working from behind computers and more and more people are self-employed. But what I loved about CIMC is that there are so many people like me who either work for themselves, or small agencies.
2. Influencer marketing is real..and it’s sorta complicated.
A common theme of of the conference was people talking about influencer marketing, which is sorta a field that I work in too. Â I liked that the general idea was that it’s important, but has to be done. How do you do it right? Well, it depends on the influencer.
3. Click bait has been given a bad rep!
AOL Canada‘s Mike Reeves said it best when during his panel he said it’s only clickbait if the content doesn’t provide what the headline promised.  A skill of writing a killer headline is just that: A skill.
4. Not everyone is your audience.
Twitter Canada’s Michelle Slater nailed it during the same panel when she basically said that she didn’t think we should be trying to target everyone all the time, but more focus on targeting the ones who are actually interested. Â I always that I don’t need the whole country to read my blog, (although I guess that would be nice), but instead I need a certain amount of people to. So I try to entice that number to come over and check out Mike’s Bloggity Blog.
5. Just start already!
Mad props are deserved for Adobe’s Joe Dmarti when he encouraged content creators to just start already. There is no perfect time. I love this because if we just start waiting for the perfect time we will never do it. Start putting content out there and then start seeing what works and what doesn’t. Â It’s the only way!
6. CEOs are missing out!
Did you know that only 50% of CEOs are on social media?  Well, they are missing out. CSuite’s Caroline Carter gave an inspiring presentation on the importance of CEOs and social media. It’s all about being human. More and more we want to connect to the brands we love and CEOs who aren’t doing this, are missing out big time!
7. It’s okay to not know everything.
Not that I do, or pretend to, but it was comforting to realize that I don’t have to know everything about social media and digital marketing. There are so many great people out there doing great things, and I really think it’s about working together to provide the best results.
8. There’s a con to hosting a conference in a beautiful place.
I had a hard time sitting inside the whole time. I mean, Squamish is beautiful! Like, really, really beautiful!
There’s no details yet on next year’s CIMC, but keep your eyes peeled for it. Thanks to the Jelly Marketing Team for inviting me to come out. You worked your butts off and it showed!
