I spent the first part of this week at the inaugural Niimbus conference, and… wow. It was pretty awesome. I am obviously a tad bit biased – the conference was organized and MC’d by Casey Benedict, my podcast co-host and good friend.
But all biases aside, it was a really wonderful two days. A group of about 30 professionals gathered in Chicago (at the very cool inspiring Catalyst Ranch) to learn, share best practices, and collaborate on ways to create a better future for influencer marketing.
Some of my favorite moments:
- Trading war stories with fellow Edelman alum, Corey Martin. I think I could talk to him for another 20 hours straight and not run out of things to dish on/spar over.
- Communing with Worldwide Partners agency partners! We’re everwhere! In addition to my hang time with Corey (who runs influencer at Lippe Taylor), I was also able to connect with Mary Moenning from Curious Plot.
Quality time with Noelle Nachreiner, our client from Milk Means More. Curious clients who want to understand the industry better are the best kinds of clients. (And Noelle gets massive bonus points for being a fellow Armcherry AND successfully navigating us through an actual tornado on our drive to Chicago.) - Reversing roles with Brian Camen during a fun role-playing exercise where I got to play the brand and Brian was my tortured agency partner.
- Lunch at Au Cheval with Paula Bruno, George Dupree, and Ryan Greenberg. Paula and I have been in the same space for so many years. It was lovely to reconnect, brainstorm, and commiserate. And George and Ryan both blew me away with their knowledge of influencer marketing in the gaming space. It is so different from the work we do on a day to day basis. I learned a ton.
Casey just announced that a second Niimbus will be taking place in October, also at the Catalyst Ranch in Chicago. I highly encourage you to try to grab a spot. There are a couple of options for that:
Option One: Sign up for Casey’s Influencer Accelerator program. This guarantees you a spot and also provides you with lots of other great resources. Swayzine listeners get a $500 discount off the already great price with the promo code OCTOBERVIP
Option Two: Get on the waitlist for the event here. This will insure you get the registration link the moment it becomes available!
More next week!
Danielle