One year ago. It was November 2015 when I attended the Conference #ThinkContentLondon. NewsCred’s event in town, the third of a tour that touched NYC, San Francisco and London. I was impressed by the preparation of the speakers – I can still remember the panel discussing media and marketing convergence. Organisation was excellent and location magnificent (now closed, but so attractive for Italians). I told myself: “I’d love to be on that stage, too”.
One year later. #ThinkContentLondon 2017. Same town. Different location. I will be part of the speaker lineup. I will be on that stage.
One year. 2016 has been a busy year. I had the pleasure to meet awesome marketers – Joe Pulizzi, Jason Miller, Robert Rose, AJ Huisman, Doug Kessler, Bert Van Loon. With some of them I am now in contact. With others, I have established a very friendly relationship. I have seen incredible speakers on stage – Ann Handley, Michael Brenner, Andy Crestodina, Jay Acunzo, Rand Fishkin. I missed a few others, Pam Didner for example, for just a few minutes, last September in Cleveland.
They have inspired me. I have learned so much from all of them. I’m 48, working in marketing for more than 20 years. Yeah, it’s true. It’s never too late to learn. Education and learning are never enough. It’s just hard to find inspiring models.
I started to get on stage and talk about what I know and what I am passionate with. Marketing. M&A – Acquisitions and integrations. Content Marketing. Social Media. All things that I am used to manage every single day, together with my team. How could I talk about something I don’t know?
I attended as a speaker 10 Conferences in 2016, with 3 more to go. I moderated 2 events. All incredible events – and the best part is of course listening to all other speakers and networking with them, and I have to tell you, this is much much easier when you are a speaker too.
Going with some stats, I have been more requested in Europe. London, Amsterdam, Berlin, Dublin, Warsaw. Funny enough, I never got any single call from my home country.
But that’s OK. It is what it is. For now, just enjoying being a public speaker and trying to improve, time after time. Learning from marketers I mentioned above. At the end, it was only one year ago when I said myself: “I’d love to be on that stage, too”.