Inbound 15 - More than a Content and Inbound Conference

Looking at the line up for #inbound15 at first glance you might be fooled into thinking is this is a comedy festival,  with the likes of Amy Schumer, Marc Maron and Aziz Ansari taking centre stage as keynote speakers.  However this is far from the case, although there were alot of laughs to be had during the 4 day conference in Boston.

Many blogs will be written about #inbound15 over the course of the next few weeks but I want to try and give you a real feel for the event.  

Prior to heading to Boston you start to get a feel for a size of the event awaiting you, the number of emails start to increase from the organisers to exclusive events which as soon as you click on the link are full (similar to the event, but I’ll talk more about this later) meaning there are some very eager people out there, or a lot of people who woul be attending the event.

Coming from the Middle East, we faced a lengthy journey getting to Boston.  I say we, as 4 members made it from Team Nexa.  Myself, our CEO Amit Vyas, our Commercial Director Ravi Vyas and our Business Development Director, Benjamin Goodman.

15 long hours after leaving Dubai we find ourselves in New York, 5 more hours on a train and we hit Boston and our hotel, side note, thank you to Uber while we were away!

Randomly the first session was in the evening, kick off was at 7pm but we headed down early for the event.  Arriving at the convention centre we were greeting but a slew of people hustling and bustling to register for the event. This part was fairly efficient, although by the time I had registered I had was locked out of the keynote and forced to watch it on a large screen (this would turn out to be the first event I couldn't attend due to overcapacity but not the last!)

Due to the room being full I headed down to the hubspot hub on the lower lever, essentially where the exhibitors had set up shop during the event and the networking hub for the attendees for the next 4 days. This was a very cool space with a DJ booth in the middle raised off the ground, drinks stations and free flowing Dunkin Donuts Coffee!  There was a real encouragement to talk to the exhibitors but in a casual way, to be honest out of all the conferences, seminars and exhibitions I have been to over the years this space really worked for me.  It become a great networking spot during and post sessions and I think ultimately the exhibitors must have benefited from it.  

The relaxed feel resonated throughout the conference, from sometimes the way people dressed (saw a few folks in shorts and flip flops) to the networking breakout sessions, but I don't want this to sound like a negative statement.  Nothing felt forced during the 4 days, attendees genuinely wanted to connect with each other and more importantly share ideas, thoughts and challenges.  Dharmesh Shah (one of the co founders of hubspot) mentioned in his keynote inbound was a movement, a philosophy and I  felt this over the course of the 4 days.  

With a mixture of sessions from Dr Brene Brown talking on shame and vulnerability to Mike Lieberman from Square 2 Marketing talking about building a successful content marketing agency the general consensus was people were there to learn and connect from and with each other.

Top 5 learned from Inbound

1. Apparently I can wear shorts to conferences (guaranteeing my return next year)

2. Dunkin Donuts coffee without the donuts isnt quite the same

3. Bigger rooms are needed for the sessions at Inbound16

4. Inbound is a community, a movement of like minded indivduals 

5. Marketing to people who want to be marketed to through good qulaity content generates leads

I think we are all looking forward Inbound 16 already!

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