Dallas Digital Summit 2015

I recently had the great opportunity to attend the Dallas Digital Summit in Irving, TX on December 9th and 10th of 2015. I had never been to a conference that was not “design or creative” oriented, but I found that I really rather enjoyed every bit of it.

I have always approached digital marketing from a creative brand perspective. With over 12+ years in design, I have geared myself to helping others create a good looking brand that they would be proud to share. Little did I know, I was only really helping with a small part of the puzzle.

First Impressions of the conference

Overall, the convention was rather interesting. I definitely feel it was worth the price I paid. There were two days of specialized sessions ranging in topics from SEO, content marketing, Social media, and even ways to “make e-mail not suck”. There were a small mixture of roundtable sessions, keynote speaker sessions, and smaller specialized sessions. Each specialized session was around 30 mins, and I watched presentations from speakers including:

The overall session topics ranged to cover a broad selection from digital marketing.  I was really pleased with the selection of topics, and I wish I could have been in two places at once to be honest. Even though each speaker had 30 mins to speak, each session flew by and then you were racing to find a good seat at your next session.

I will say, I am thankful that some of the presentations were made available for review a few days later.  There was tons of great information, and unless you were recording each session, you definitely didn’t have time to write or type everything out.

Convention Highlights for me:

1. Networking with Marketing Professionals – This was a great networking opportunity for me and my digital design team. We were introduced to some great tools used by industry professionals, and we also had the pleasure of learning some new industry knowledge.
2. Learning more about Content Marketing – Even thought I went to every content marketing session I could manage, I still find that there is so much more I could learn. These specialized sessions really peaked my interest and I hope to continue learn in this field of marketing.
3. A great presentation on Brand Storytelling – This presentation from Flip Croft Caderao was probably the most inspiring for me at the event. The presentation was not long, but it was well constructed, and It personally spoke to the future I want with digital marketing. I look forward to becoming a better digital brand storyteller and can’t wait to continue down this path.
4. Humor mixed with learning – It was a nice change of pace from regular conventions to have content speakers with actual personality. As a creative professional, I like to collaborate with people of all types, so I could see myself working with these personalities on a day-to-day basis. These presenters made the information easy to absorb with humor and a few jokes in the mix.

Event Suggestions:

1. More than half of the slide presentations looked like they were thrown together in about 20 minutes. I come from a background of design and branding, so I was a little disappointed in the quality of the presentations. Especially since so much emphasis was covered on “having great content with great structure”. Slide presentations to me qualify as “content” and I would recommend spending a little more time on the designs. The content was great, but it could have been delivered in a more polished approach. Not all were like this, but enough of them for me to notice. (This is a personal opinion. Others may disagree Just thought it was worth noting.)
2. I would love to see more User Interface design, or Branding specific topics. It would be great to see one or more presenters speak about creative tools or branding. What do designers use to find inspiration, and how can marketers utilize these tools to make content look better. It’s all about telling a better story.

Convention Recap:

If bad PowerPoint presentations was the only thing I could nit-pick, then I would say it was a really great event. I look forward to one day being able to present to a crowd of my peers. Until I get over my stage fright, I will keep practicing in front of the mirror every night. I would like to thank all the speakers who attended, and TechMedia for presenting the event. I look forward to another event soon and really hope to continue learning industry knowledge from events like this.