Bring’s Dialogue Marketing conference a huge success

What began as a smaller initiative 14 years ago, is now the most important Dialogue Marketing Conference in Scandinavia. Having followed the conference and how it has developed for years, we are impressed by Bring Dialogue’s (formerly Talk2Me) accomplishment. Here is a very brief report from the “Dialogkonferansen 2010″

I had the pleasure of conducting an Email Marketing Masterclass Workshop at Dialogkonferansen 2010, which took place at Strömstad Spa and Hotel in Sweden. This beautiful property is a short 2 hour drive from Oslo and an easy 6 hour drive from Copenhagen, Denmark.

The conference saw more than 430 people attending, which also constitutes an all time record. Although I did not part-take in any of the social activities and did not sit in to listen to any of the many brilliant speakers, my understanding – from chatting with conference delegates – was that the conference had been a great experience. And although I tend to believe that a conference should be just that, I think the combination of social activities such as rafting, golf, bicycle trips and a professional program with knowledgeable speakers, may just be the best way of organizing a three day conference today.

Networking with like minded dialogue marketing professionals
One conference attendee told me that while she found some of the speakers to be less interesting for her, the opportunity to speak with other dialog marketing professionals was very valuable to her. And it makes sense. Given the level of informal networking activities, every single attendee had ample opportunity to meet & discuss with other marketing professionals from a variety of industries.

Highly professional organizer
Being somewhat of a “pro” when it comes to evaluating conference organizers, I was quite impressed by the team from Bring Dialog (formerly Talk2Me). Having some pretty dramatic PC problems in the early morning, I was pleasantly surprised to see that Bring had brought their own team of – in lack of a better word – technicians. They worked real hard to help me.  And in the end, I did manage to do a three hour + something presentation.

One for the road
Speaking about being a professional event organizer; I was pleasantly surprised when a Bring Dialog representative gave me a gift after speaking. Sure, I get paid for speaking, but still that little token of appreciation means a lot. A professional event organizer, will understand the importance of making speakers feel comfortable. Bring Dialog got that part right too.

While I am not sure what attendees at the Email Marketing Masterclass Workshop thought of the presentation (if or when I receive evaluation feedback, I’ll be sure to publish it here staying true to my rule of transparency), however going back to my own country, I was fortunate to catch a bus ride with the majority of the Danish delegates. And. I admit it. I was eavesdropping. It was interesting for me to hear how these Danish marketing professionals shared their viewpoints about various speakers.
It reminded me once again about the responsibility speakers have to deliver value to attendees and how important speaker reputation is. But that is a different story.

The links you want to check
- If you want to learn more about Bring Dialog in Norway – do your thing here
- Danish sponsors included the highly competent Loyalty Group and OneMarketing (thanks for the bus-ride)
- The Email Marketing Masterclass Tour coming to more than 30 cities can be found here