It’s been a busy month for events, and although it may seem that recently we only leave the office to attend award ceremonies and have fun nights out, that’s not actually the case. The StrategiQ team go to great lengths to take up speaking opportunities, as we strive to reach our personal goals, and it’s even nicer when those talks help others to learn and grow.
Search Marketing – ‘Forget Algorithms – Think Users’
This month our Search Strategist Oli Hearsum visited a group of industry professionals at Colchester Digital to give his talk – ‘Forget Algorithms – Think Users’. This was Oli’s first public speaking event but the audience were none the wiser! Oli’s fellow digital experts gave some amazing feedback, with organiser Dean Leigh commenting – ‘I promise you Oli had you not mentioned it (was your first talk) nobody would have thought you inexperienced in speaking. Great content, and really well presented. Always a pleasure to hear people talk about a topic they know very well and obviously enjoy.’
“I have spoken about giving a talk to the industry for a number of years. In truth, I don’t think I would have if it wasn’t for our quarterly goal setting, the supportive nature of the team with Sam Parnell using her wealth of contacts to find me opportunities and the advice of our brilliant in-house psychologist, Sue Firth. The response and feedback has been really encouraging and great to see so many in the industry giving newcomers a lift rather than pushing them down. Looking forward to doing more talks in 2020 and beyond”.
Forget Algorithms, Think Users – By Oliver Hearsum
Social Media – The Importance of Facebook Pixels
Oli doubled up with our Social Media Marketer Tom Cox for two further speaking gigs, one at the Vertas Emerging Leaders event and the other to local business networking group Coastalnet, lovingly known as Coastalnutters (or just Nutters for short!).
While Oli adapted his original talk for the audience, Tom likes a challenge and gave two completely different talks across the two events – one entitled ‘Know Your @ from your #’ covering helpful tips to get more from social media and the other ‘The Importance of Facebook Pixels’. Tom’s second talk covered a technical subject, delivered to a mostly non-technical group. No mean feat and one he accomplished with style and humour.
The Importance of Facebook Pixels – By Tom Cox
“Being given the opportunity to speak in front of both audiences at Vertas and CoastalNet was an absolute delight. Not only did it help boost my self-confidence and my public speaking abilities, but it allowed me to share my insight of my specialism to those who may not have considered using it before. Ideally, I’d like the audience to leave it and try, if anything, just one of my tips. It was encouraging to hear the positive feedback from the audience and that they’d try geocoding or explore pixel tracking when they got back to their office. I can’t wait for the next talk!”
Feedback from the Vertas and CoastalNet communities was deservedly glowing for both speakers – the organiser of the latter, Darrell Smith said “Two fantastic talks, given with expert knowledge covering two useful topics. Both were delivered in a manner that was aimed at the audience’s awareness of the subjects. Thank you.”
At StrategiQ one of our core values is about investing in our people, we empower our colleagues when it comes to personal and professional development and look forward to seeing our colleagues flourish with their public speaking. These talks are just the beginning for Tom and Oli, watch this space for more opportunities to hear from them and many more of the StrategiQ team soon.
We take pride in sharing our expertise in a way that is accessible, helpful and actionable. We will continue to promote a diverse schedule of regional and national knowledge sharing events, conferences and meet-ups, however, If you feel you or your team could benefit from a more personal strategy session or marketing channel workshop please do reach out to me, I’d be happy to discuss how we can help.