Holmes Report Global Summit

I've been at the Holmes Report Global Summit this week ... an amazing conference where Communications professionals from all over the world gather to talk about how to advance our craft.

It's been a great experience networking, sharing, and learning.  That's what these things are for!  And every time I make new friends that make the industry, well, a nicer and more friendly place, which means a lot to me.

And I also see and hear a lot that stretches my mind, which is also the point.  Thought I'd share a couple of nuggets here.

Brand as a Verb.  The notion that a brand as a "noun" is basically dead.  A brand is no longer a "thing" that consumers merely just buy.  Brands should be a verb.  Brands should be all about action ... engaging, sharing, discussing ... all verbs.  It's an interesting notion to think about branding this way, and I kind of like it.  It forces us to think about our brands as being much more action oriented. 

We need to be more confident.  During Martin Sorrell's discussion with my CEO Donna Imperato, he encouraged all of us to be more proactive and more aggressive when it comes to advancing integrated marketing and adding more value to our clients' brands.  I'm summing up a lot of what he said, but basically he said we come to the table ready to take action and push our clients' business ahead.  I guess we should be verbs too!

UN Women Campaign.  During one of the panel discussions on creativity, the participants showcased some really cool global campaigns.  There's nothing more inspiring to me than dissecting good creative and strategic messaging.  One campaign featured really struck me ... the UN Women campaign, which highlights the need to continue to fight for women's rights around the world.  It's shocking that we even have to continue the dialogue at this point in our human evolution.  I did a little digging and realized that the campaign extends beyond just women's rights, to include anyone/everyone fighting adversity.  Hopefully campaigns like this one help the cause.

While I know many worry about the cost and time, conferences are such a great investment ... the networking and sharing of information is invaluable as we each build our careers and our businesses.  Thanks to everyone at the Holmes Report for a great week!  It was all very inspiring!

What's your experience?  Jim.

PS - if you want to follow any of the commentary from the participants and from the Twitter chat, just go to #PRSummit