A workshop breakout session from AIM 2010

At AIM, our goal is to provide as much value in a two-day event as we possibly can.  We know that choosing to go to AIM means an investment of time as well the cost of the conference.

Here are 10 reasons why delegates find AIM a great investment – and why it’s an event you don’t want to miss!

1. Find out What Works Now Online
Digital marketing is crucial to your company’s success. But it’s changing fast. Keeping up with those changes puts you ahead of your competition. AIM has 24 experts and 34 sessions to give you the learning you want.

2. Reduce Distractions
At a conference your attention if fully focused – you’re immersed in the experience. In front of our computer screens, we’re perpetually distracted – we email, Skype, surf, all at the same time. That online seminar we sign up for might just as easily be missed when something else comes up or on a busy day.

3. The People: Get Inspired by Your Community
Online marketers face a steep learning curve and a constant challenges to master new insights and technologies. It can be a lonely place to be. Being with others who are in the same situation not only informs us but can be both reassuring and inspiring.

4. Connect Personally with Industry Leaders
AIM has welcomed leaders from major players like Facebook, Yahoo, Travelocity, Kijiji, Microsoft, Digg.com, and this year – Amazon and BBDO. But even more than our 24 expert speakers, many of the delegates are experts too. AIM is also a very relaxed environment where it’s easy to chat – an outstanding networking opportunity.

5. Build Your Rolodex
Making connections is part of marketing. Finding partners, vendors, advisors, colleagues in similar situations – to walk away with these new supporters, friends, and contacts is sometimes the best value an event gives you.

6. See Who Does What; Gather New Ideas
You can’t live just through your computer screen. Getting out is good for your state of mind, your creativity – and even your relationships.   Having new things to talk about, new ideas, new experiences – this is valuable to everyone, and yes, to your business too.

7. Get Candid Expert Insight
At events most people loosen up, speak more directly, and share freely from their experiences, insights, and strategies. You’ll also hear what not to do – advice from experience marketers will help you avoid wasting time and money.

8. Save Money
Get a better ROI, as well as great learning and unbeatable networking without leaving the region. Similar conferences in Toronto or Boston cost more than twice as much, with the extra expense of travel, hotel, and added time.  AIM is a great bang for your buck, brining you speakers that also speak at major conferences. It’s great value – and a good time with people from your own community to boot.

9. Opportunities for Partnerships
Joint ventures are part of our industry. Opportunities for partnerships or even for future employment come from the people you know, whose ideas you like and who you can see yourself working with. You can’t get there if you don’t meet them.

10. It’s a Live Event – Get Engaged!
Engagement is everything in the attention economy. No matter how good our online tools get, it’s still not face-to-face. You want full engagement? Sit down with people and talk to them. You can’t trump that.

AIM is a good time as well – it’s a very social event making it an even better experience for these and all the reasons above. You’ll be sorry if you miss it – and we’ll be sorry too!

See you June 7th and 8th!

Click here to register.
Click here to see the agenda.

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AIM is coming up fast. To make sure your group is front and center for 2 great days of learning, discussion, and drink…er, networking – take advantage of these group discounts:

“Any Group” Week, May 1-4
To kick-off our group discount weeks, we’ll take any group, same company, same hair-colour, guys named Bob – whatever. Find 3 colleagues who want to taste what AIM is cookin’ up, purchase your tickets together and the 4th pass is free. We know you’ll share the discount (over $100 off each) and not keep the free pass for yourself right?

Agency Bingo Week, May 7-11
Awesome keynotes, panels, workshops and strategy sessions make AIM great for everyone, from designers to marketers, art directors, executives, and sales agents. During Agency Bingo week, any agency that signs up one person from three different departments will receive a fourth, free swapable flex pass – other agency persons can use to attend sessions of their choice.  (Note: tickets purchased prior to this week may count as part of your 3, but may not be combined with other discounts; may not include other promotion passes, ‘free’ passes, or sponsor package passes.)

“In-house” Marketer Week, May 14-18
AIM’s 3 break-out rooms ensure that there are talks for every member of the marketing team – from executives to front-line marketers. Which is why many smart companies, government agencies, and even SME’s send 3 or 4 people to AIM. For those, and others with similar good sense, during group week buy 3 passes from the same company and get a fourth pass free. Just pick up 3 passes and email us for a promo code for your free one. (May not be combined with other discounts.)

Tourism “Twin-up” Week, May 21-26
Tourism is crucial to Atlantic Canada and digital marketing is vital to tourism. With tourism expert Daniel Edward Craig and a large number of workshops in social media marketing and online strategy sessions, we know you want to be there. So for tourism business, register during tourism twin-up week, and you 2 members of the same company each get $100 off their passes.

Questions? Need codes? Just email us here. See you in June!

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Collin is the VP Global Digital Planning Leader for P&G at BBDO NY, working on Gillette developing integrated and social media strategies internationally. Collin was a favorite at the last AIM conference, brimming with great stories and insight – those who missed him were sorry they did. His ’5 questions’ answers include some interesting thoughts on mobile technologies, and on being a ‘tourist’ in New York. So that you can’t miss Collin this year, we’ve made him a keynote. One of the nicest guys around, and sure to be one of the most interesting talks at AIM. 

1. You used to live in Toronto, now you’re a New Yorker. What’s the best thing about being there? Who’s the biggest or best celebrity you’ve seen?
I’m still a tourist.  I fly a lot between NYC and Boston to see clients and still take photos out the window of the plane. (Note: the photos in this article are examples.) Every morning I ride my motorcycle over the Brooklyn  or Manhattan Bridge, through SOHO and up 6th Ave. I pass world famous land marks and magnificent architecture just to arrive at work.  I hope my excitement never goes away.Every weekend my family does something different. A 3 year old in FAO Swartz? Forget about it. Even a simple walk through Prospect Park in Brooklyn or a tram ride to Roosevelt island is still amazing and new.

Celebrities? We recently launched a campaign for Gillette with Adrian Brody, Andre 3000 and Gael Garcia Bernal. That’s was cool. I saw more celebrities in Toronto than I have in NYC. I guess there are fewer places for them to hide there.

2. What is the toughest part of living in New York?
So far the toughest thing about NYC is the distance from my friends and Family. Although many have visited its still tough to be this far away.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder I guess. I miss my mom

Shot of NY from "commuter" Douma

3. You work on international campaigns for P&G/Gillette.  What kind of challenges does internationalizing a campaign bring? How involved does this get?
Digital is a tough acumen for advertising agencies to adapt. It challenges their perspective on influence and persuasion. It has become a cliché to say the paradigm has shifted, the future is digital etc. That doesn’t suggest that agencies have adapted to that change. Our clients are asking for it, and Proximity and BBDO are bringing it in new bigger way every day. It’s challenging and exciting to be on the crest of that wave as it washes down Madison Ave.

International scale? It reminds me of the environmental slogan from the 80′s “Think global, act local”. With digital it is the opposite. “Think Local, Act Global”. Think local means we ought to think of the consumer and serve their needs, then scale to the world. It is easier to digest and almost always more effective that way.

4. What’s an interesting trend going on in the social media space that you’re excited about.
“Hyper curation” Pinterest is the most interesting thing. Not because of the size and scope of that particular website, but because of the model they present for curating interests and content. It’s amazing. I would much rather follow my interests than I would specific people in social networks. It’s a hard concept understand, but once you do, it works really well.

NY bridges from above

5. If you’re in a big meeting, what percentage of people have iPhones versus Android or Blackberries?
Around here most people have both a Blackberry and an iPhone.  I carry an Android: Samsung Galaxy S2. It is the best phone on the market. My last phone was an iPhone, my next phone will also be the best on the market at the time I buy it. I’m only loyal to “cutting edge”. I have to be in order to know what I’m talking about. For the future, my money is on Andriod. iPhone will remain strong, but as the mobile market commoditizes itself, price and performance and personalization will dominate purchase decisions.  Of course, that’s when Apple will launch the next revolution.

It’s surprising to hear someone in qual testing say iPhones are “dads phone”, but that’s where we are headed. Blackberries are not on their radar.

Hear more of Collin’s insight during his Keynote Friday, June 8th, at AIM.

Learn from not just Collin but 20 other insightful speakers too at Atlantic Canada’s digital marketing conference June 7-8 in Halifax.  Register now! (or sit at your desk for 2 great days in June).

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Kate Inglis, award-winning blogger, is giving a blogging workshop at AIM 2012, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Veteran corporate storyteller, blogger, photographer – and author of a popular kids tale about pirates, on Kate Inglis’ award-winning blog she mixes artistry with strategy in a way that shows what social media marketing can and should be. If you’re a writer or social media contributor, you’ll want to attend her Blogging Workshop on Friday, June 8th, 2012 at AIM. 

1. Your blog has won high praise for both content and design. Give a couple of quick tips on what makes a good blog.

Whether it’s personal or corporate, you have to know who you are. That’s what I’m supposed to say. It’s fashionable to talk about Knowing Who You Are. And that’s not untrue, but there are also very tangible, straightforward things to do if you want to be heard as a storyteller. If you don’t have instinct or skills, hire a designer—or choose a blog platform that’s going to give you a leg up. The same goes for other visual elements like photography. Make an effort. And if you’re not a writer, get better at it—or find someone who is. If you don’t need readers, don’t worry about any of it. Share all the asparagus recipes and LOL cats you like. But if you do want readers, the quality of your design, photography, and writing (most of all) is really important.

People and companies used to think of blogs as a throwaway medium. But now, unless you have no intent beyond personal journaling, they’re a body of work. It is the distilled essence of you, or your brand. To be good, it’s got to be crafted with the same kind of attention and mindfulness you’d grant any paid media. Otherwise, you’re among the 90% of people online who are just adding more piss to the wind. Which is certainly a big genre, if that’s what you’re into.

2. Can you have a great blog without good design?
Sure. Just like how you can be a future prime minister or the next great opera star or a gorgeous fox. With facial warts and no tongue and a set of hunting orange coveralls, only you will know the secret of your greatness.

A vision that includes great online content is a vision that has to include good design—there are platforms that get you most of the way there, as long as you put a premium on it. You have to learn to watch for good design, and emulate it in a way that becomes you. At the very least, it’s got to be clean. Unless you’re a pirate.

3. They say write about what you know… so there’s no other way to put this: why pirates?
The Dread Crew is a manifestation of all the best maritime things: hospitality, ingenuity, salt air, and hooliganism. That’s what I know.

4. Do kids write to you about the book?  Tell me one of your favorite bits of feedback to the book.
PLEES WRITE ANOTHER GROOS BOOK. That was from a seven-year-old named Camille who otherwise looks very adorable and proper. Kids are tricky that way. They’re all freckled and cute and peaches and cream but underneath, not very deep down, all they want is a faceful of mud.

5. How has your personal writing changed your corporate writing or vice versa?
My corporate clients, since they commission and own what I write, have helped me to incorporate feedback with detachment. It makes me less crippled by my own preciousness when bringing a manuscript to an editor. The lesson is that a piece of fiction does not belong to me. It belongs to itself—I’m just an interpreter helping to usher it into existence. It’s not about me and my ego. My writing gets stronger, tighter, and more considered with every critique. I don’t take it personally. That’s a literary superpower. It keeps me away from the malt liquor.

Like what Kate had to say?  Get your tickets to see Kate and 20 other incredibly talented speakers at AIM2012.  Register now!

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