I had a super busy week with lots of learnings, read all about it below.
What I learned at the B2B Marketing Summit this week
I was only able to attend a few hours of this summit because of my own event, but I was very impressed by the sessions I did make it to. The common thread that many speakers touched on was something I’ve mentioned several times before, the need for B2B marketers to move beyond MQLs, lead scoring, and gated content, and let high-intent prospects come to us when they are ready to engage. Many of the speakers shared how big of a shift this has been for them and their team, but how it has led to positive results. Most of our audience is not ready to purchase at any given moment, so spamming them or passing them off to sales before they are ready isn’t the right way to go. It was great to know that our leadership is following the same new best practices as other massive tech companies.
What I learned from hosting our KLX Singapore edition
This was the first time I’ve run such a big event since my Ingram Micro Days when I led the planning and execution of the APAC Cloud and Security Summit and ISV Summit. It was a great experience putting on this event with huge amounts of support from our global teams. The biggest highlights were having our CMO visit for the week and participate in the event, and the amazing job our regional sales leader did delivering the keynote and emceeing the whole day. It makes my work easy when I have such amazing people to collaborate with. The biggest learnings I took from the event were first, that as much as you plan, nothing will go exactly the way you want it to, but if you prepare for contingencies and build in flexibility everything can still go smoothly. Secondly, attendees want more interactivity and engagement. That was a core theme that was given to me by the leadership for this event, and I had some concerns as I was worried people wouldn’t engage or participate fully, even while our interactive session was happening, mini-roundtables, I couldn’t tell if people were really enjoying it or not. However, after the event, we had overwhelming feedback that the roundtables were one of the highlights of the event.
What I learned from watching a musical show this weekend
Since I’ve been living in Singapore, I’ve learned more and more about its history, and I always find it fascinating. Yesterday I got to watch Don’t Call Him Mr. Mari Kata, a musical show about the life and work of the composer of Singapore’s national anthem. I was worried that it wouldn’t connect with me as much as locals, since I didn’t grow up here, but I was wrong and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The show went deep into the ups and downs of Zubir Said’s life and career and shared many stories and songs that even most Singaporeans don’t know about. I loved the nostalgic feel and the callouts to Singapore’s Malay roots and how the country should still cherish and promote those traditions even as it has evolved over the years.
What I learned from an inspirational NatGeo TV speaker this week
One of the other cool things we did at KLX SG was to invite a speaker from outside the industry to hold a session. I chose Rob Lilwall, a fascinating person who has been on some huge adventures like a 3-year biking trip from Siberia to London via Australia, and a hike across the Gobi desert. We thought it would be a nice change of pace to hear about overcoming challenges and growth mindset from someone with his background instead of a business person. He was a fantastic speaker and the audience was super happy they got to listen to his talk. What resonated with me most was his sharing that attitude is the most important ingredient to success and overcoming challenges. Often in life, you won’t have all the experience, capabilities, or resources you think you need to complete something successfully, but if you have a positive mindset and determination, you can make up for those and still come out with a good outcome.
A few more days of work and then we are off to Taiwan for a family vacation! Have a great week.
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