Dublin tech summit 2017

What I learnt

On Wednesday I attended the Dublin tech summit in the Convention centre in Dublin. I want to share the things that I learnt whilst at it as I know a lot of people weren’t able to get their hands on tickets. If you are a blogger or run a business and want to get some tips on improving your social media and sales then this is the post for you. 

We mainly attended the business and marketing talks as well as the fashion talks as these were more relevant to what I do. It was also a full house for Gary Vee’s talk which was really motivating and inspiring. I got to meet up with my blogging besties and had a really fun day learning and catching up with people who inspire me. 

The rise of video. 

I attended three different talks all geared around video content. 75% of content will be video by 2020 and it is growing at a rapid rate. It is now easier for everyone to access video on their mobiles. From Facebook live to Instagram storied and Snapchat everyone can access it. 13.8 billion hours of Youtube is consumed everyday! Yes everyday, so I think I have an opportunity to produce more video content. Faster Wifi and bandwidth makes is making it easier for people to watch your content and share. Mobile phones are advancing and able to record quality video making everyone capable of being a mobile moviemaker. 

Why video is important.

The brain takes 18.5 seconds to get an impression of someone. The brain also now has an attention span of 8 seconds. Video enables you to truly show who you or your business is quicker than text can do. People want information and quickly and video is a great way for you to quickly share who you are. 

An example given at Susan Danzigers talk was about a man who wouldn’t of gotten a job based on his resume as he never graduated college however when applying for the job by video and showing who he was he got the job. Video gives you the opportunity to show yourself better than text ever could. You can tell your stories through video, wether your a shop owner sharing your new stock or a blogger sharing an experience it is a great way to tell a story and engage with people. 

Video content is not just for big fish anymore. You don’t need a fancy production team to get your point across. Film on your mobile or invest in a camera. Use apps such as iMovie to edit mini videos. 

Some tips for video. 

– Snackable sized videos, less than 1 minute shared on Facebook/Instagram etc for people to watch quickly when on the go. 

– Video for sound off, when making videos your music should enhance but think of people watching your video with the sound turned off their phone. A lot of people may be watching on the bus or on lunch and have the sound off. Use text overlays on your videos to enhance for sound off. 60% of videos watched were watched with the sound off. 

– Relevant to your audience– Yes as video grow there will be clutter. To stand out simply listen to what your audience want to see and produce relevant content for your audience. Your competitors might be doing X but that doesn’t mean you have to. 

– Use apps to transform images to video, apps such as hyperlapse and boomerang give you ways to make stackable sized video content.

Creativity.

There was a really fun talk on before Gary Vee. It was called children love unicorns and unicorns love children by Ben Jones. From this talk I get some ideas and tips for getting creative. As a creative person It can get hard sometimes to see new ideas so the was refreshing. 

“Empower adults to be kids once more and the child within will create”.

I found this talk to be refreshing. He talked about how as children we are so open, honest and laugh and as we become adults and go through the education system we conform and lose our sense of creativity. 

I also seen a quote during the week that said ” the creative adult is the child who survived”, so I will be getting silly and playing more to get my creative juices going and I won’t be listening to the people who try and dampen it. 

Quality content. 

It goes without saying that you should only have content that is good quality but what I took from it was to reflect on my content and actually see is this quality? So example, is a million selfies on my Instagram really quality content? or is a selfie and a tutorial better content. So look at what you produce and see is it quality.

No to click bait. If you are not familiar with this term it is basically when people post and the caption is slightly misleading. You might notice it with some of the big Youtubers, so they might say ” Baby talk” and you click in thinking they might be announcing a pregnancy when really they were just talking about a friends baby? It was a caption to get you to click in and get the hits. 

This was spoken about as a big no no. Yes it is okay to tease and entice people to watch your content but avoid click bait. 

Don’t be worrying about the volume of likes. Your building relationships and engaging with each post, it is easy to get caught up in all the likes but honestly focus on engaging with people and customers and building a community. 

What is quality content? For me it is posts and video that gives value to the person. Have I inspired someone?, have I given knowledge? Have I made that person laugh?, For me I try and tick them boxes when creating posts and videos. 

Another thing mentioned which I disagreed with was the peak of the influencer. I don’t think Influencers have peaked however we have to grow and adapt and what worked last year might not work this year and I do think audiences are getting bored of the same old shite. So I used that point as a way to motivate myself and push myself to not get complacent and change things up a bit and not get stale. 

Yes the blogging market it saturated but I honeslty think there is room for everyone if you work your ass off! The ones who don’t will eventually fade away and righty so. 

Gary Vee. 

I am a huge fan already and I listen to Gary’s audiobooks whilst sewing or when I am having a lull in motivation. He doesn’t talk shite! He tells people how it is and he manages to still come across sound whilst doing it. 

Too many people make excuses ( including me ), ” I don’t have the time, camera, funds etc” Blah Blah. These are all excuses and if we want to succeed we have to find ways around it. I work full time, then do another 15-20 hours on orders and more on my blog too! Heck I painted a fridge this morning and now I am writing this post on my day off from work. So for me Gary makes me get off my ass when I am complaining that I have no time. 

It was an absolute pleasure to get to see him talk in person, charismatic, to the point, no nonsense and humble. 

A good tip from Gary was about going where the people are looking. So if your audience is on Snapchat or Pinterest then that is where you need to be. Just because you don’t know a platform or think its stupid if your audience is there then you should too. 

“Most people don’t do what they want to do because they care what people think”, You might want to quit your job and follow your dream but your afraid what your family might think, or you want to be a fashion blogger but your afraid what others might say? What you gonna do, look back in twenty years wishing you did it or say Fuck it and do it and not care what others think. 

There is no shortcut, no trick or algorithm to success. It is down to hard work. People want to be Influencers or Entrepreneurs but they don’t want to get their hands dirty and then complain. You have to get your hands dirty so wether its staying up until 3 am filming a video or commenting on blogs then so be it. 

Document!. A great tip was to document over create. So if your struggling to create new videos, content etc then document your journey. Tell Your story and document it.  

If you ever need a kick in the bum then follow Gary on Youtube and watch some of his videos or his quotes on Instagram. He will get you off that couch and chasing your dream! 

( Me with the lovely holly.ie, lovelygirliebits.com and lifeofabridetobe.com. I also had all the laugh and chats with moss.ie and @TooDollyMakeup )

Was the tech summit worth going to?

Yes, I understand the tickets were expensive. My advice for anyone who wants to go is to try get an early bird ticket or see if your company will pay for you to go to it as I know some do for their employees. Tech is not just for the boys too as I was thrilled to see so many women attended this year. There was also a reduced rate ticket for women to attend. 

It was amazing to be around Inspiring people. People who are doing the same things as you and sharing tips and learning from each other. Listening to speakers who gave so much knowledge. Yes there was a ridiculously long queue and the food selection was a bit poor but I came out feeling inspired, motivated and excited to apply what I had learnt. 

I hope you enjoyed this post and found some of the tips useful and can apply them. In May I will be heading to another conference in New york so keep your eyes on my Instagram and snapchat to see what I get up to at the next one. 

Thanks for reading, 

Catherine. 

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