Chief Digital Officer Summit London - Day 1 Morning

Recently I was fortunate to be able to attend the first day of the Chief Digital Officer Forum which was held in London.

I was able to attend the event because I work for the company which was hosting it and wanted to get a feel for the type of events we put on.

Whilst it is in my best interests to paint my company’s events in a positive light I hope you will believe me that I would not lie on my personal blog, or anywhere for that matter!

The Venue

The event took place in the Park Plaza Victoria hotel. In the heart of London it was incredibly easy to get to, just a 5 minute walk from Victoria tube station.

The Hotel was lovely, the events room was spacious, the WiFi adequate (the nicest thing you are going to get from a nerd!), and the staff helpful.

The Speakers

Even though I was only there for the first half of the first day I was bombarded with so much great content.

I didn’t think I would be doing anyone justice if I were to summarise it here so instead I have written a brief writeup of each of the talks individually;

• Patrick Jubb – Re-building the Marketing Department to be Fit for the Future
• Robert Wint – Using Content to Improve the Customer Journey
• Ana Serrano – Digital Transformation & Continuous Innovation: the CDO’s Two Paths to Success
• Martin Trickey – Do we Tell Stories Differently Now?
• Kerensa Samanidis - Breaking in to the online video market
• Amanda Neylon – The Importance of Focusing on Social Strategy
• Mark Elkins – From Passion to Purchase: Coca-Cola’s Digital Revolution

The Themes

I picked up on three themes that ran through the talks I attended;

• Meeting customers where they live and when they want.
• Getting buy in from management/stakeholders towards social and digital
• Keep testing, keep learning. Keep making new mistakes

What is interesting is that if you look at the range of companies represented by the speakers it would be hard to find more different areas of concern. We had someone from a bank, a football club, a cancer charity, arts not-for-profits and more! But yet there was still these common themes recurring again and again.

Summing Up

As well as getting to hear some amazing talks I was able to see how the Innovation Enterprise team works at the events. I am happy to report that everything was smooth and professional from start to finish.

I have left with a new level of respect for what Conference Organisers and Creatives do during these events in order to ensure everything runs as it should.