#INBOUND17: Michelle Obama keynote

I almost felt bad for all the other speakers at #INBOUND17; everyone was so psyched for Wednesday morning's Michelle Obama keynote!

As we've already established, I'm a pretty prolific tweeter at these events. But two of my tweets in particular were going crazy viral (and not even two of my best):

We think 12 times before we open our mouthes, "What if it's wrong?"; men don't think that @michelleobama #INBOUND17

— ✨Christine Gritmon✨ (@cgritmon) September 27, 2017

We're socialized to believe some people's voices are more important than ours.@michelleobama #INBOUND17

— ✨Christine Gritmon✨ (@cgritmon) September 27, 2017

It took me a while to figure out that it was because they'd been included in the official Twitter Moment of the talk!

"When you go through a dark time, that's the time you most grow. Embrace it." @MichelleObama at #INBOUND17. https://t.co/0jmBqaSJ8U

— Twitter Moments (@TwitterMoments) September 27, 2017

The reach and engagement were totally worth the abuse of the trolls who hopped on to state how sexist they felt the quote was (and they've all gone away now anyway). ;)

So. What does Michelle Obama have to do with inbound marketing? Her talk actually did speak to a major theme of this year's conference: identity. Knowing yourself, being strong in your self, and letting that guide everything you do. I also really liked that, after 8 years of having to respond to all sorts of ridiculousness in a subdued manner, she was finally free to comment with - not pettiness - candor. She maintained her grace while also sneaking some serious side-eye towards the abuse her husband suffered and the current political situation (some of which got her into hot water in the media). I loved every moment and am grateful to have smart, strong voices like hers in our current discourse.

Oh, and Roxane Gay did ask the Beyonce question. Scroll down for Michelle's response...

#INBOUND17: Roxane Gay at The INBOUND Studio

Huuuuuuuge Roxane Gay fangirl over here. As stated in my Jen Rubio post, my conference badge did not get me into The INBOUND Studio sessions. I got access to Jen's by being an early retweeter; I got access to Roxane's by waiting outside the door and begging. It worked, and for fifteen glorious minutes, I was fifteen feet away from greatness. 

I was glad they discussed her actual work, and not just her upcoming interview with Michelle Obama, which was slated for the very next morning. That being said, those of us who watched this interview spent the entire morning waiting with bated breath to discover MO's favorite song from "Lemonade" (if you missed my tweets, you'll just have to wait until tomorrow's blog post!).

Aaaaand now I have an autographed copy of "Hunger." And a pic with her. I can die happy.

#INBOUND17: Dharmesh Shah

HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah used his half of the founders keynote to delve into his take on some of the same topics as Brian Halligan, especially that of culture, as it was a running theme throughout this year's conference. He also got us back to the customer-centric mindset we need to embrace when creating inbound marketing, the urgency of creating value in all things (never creating just to put something out there), and demonstrated some of HubSpot's plans to deliver on these values, including a stepped-up CRM for sales professionals and HubSpot's recent acquisition of an AI company (per Dharmesh himself, he likes chat bots and he cannot lie).

(And yes, I recycled the picture from Brian's keynote; I didn't get any good shots in the back half!)

#INBOUND17: Brian Halligan

Of course I was excited to see HubSpot founders Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah speak at #INBOUND17. Last year's talk was inspiring and informative. This year, they decided to split their keynote, each focusing on their strengths (but with enough thematic overlaps and joint references that they still felt like related talks). I was also glad to see the return of the Brian & Dharmesh puppets on-screen. :)

As I said in a previous blog post: I hadn't originally planned to grow my company, but now that is absolutely part of my plan. I don't ever plan to become big like HubSpot, but I was still thrilled to hear lessons on startup mentality vs. scale-up mentality, and the important things to absorb or remove from each. His journey from starting HubSpot, through its exponential growth, and general commentaries on companies and marketing in general was engaging and on-point.

My favorite quote wasn't able to fit fully into a tweet, but I've found it:

"Netflix didn't disrupt Blockbuster; their late fees did that. Apple didn't disrupt the music industry; buying the whole album did. Then Uber, they didn't disrupt the taxi industry; waiting outside in the rain did."

#INBOUND17: Jen Rubio

The INBOUND Studio is an intimate setting for live-streamed interviews with speakers at #INBOUND17. My ticket level didn't allow access to those sessions, but I had the good fortune of attending a few anyway, due to a combination of tenacity and tweeting.

I admit that I didn't know much about Warby Parker alum Jen Rubio and her startup, Away - I'm not a huge traveler, though I had seen her awesome suitcases (with embedded chargers!) advertised on social media. I loved hearing what she had to say about creating Away as an overall travel brand, beyond just selling suitcases. She and her team truly love travel, and want to contribute in a meaningful way to that culture and dialogue. 

Best quote:
"If you're not emotionally connecting, you're not building a brand, you're just selling a product"

#INBOUND17: Piera Gelardi

I love Refinery29. So I was super excited when their founder, Piera Gelardi - who is my age! - opened up the first full day of INBOUND17. The fierce red suit & matching lipstick only added to my feelings of connection with this brunette badass.

I never planned to grow my company. Silly, right? But I didn't. And now I do. So any lessons on leadership and growth at this conference were lapped up eagerly. Piera's office sounds unbelievably fun: she encourages them to think more creatively, gives them the pressure-free space to do so, and even fuels brainstorming sessions with candy and rose. But she's also running a company, so maintaining the feeling of that creative space has had to become a deliberate priority in the hustle and bustle of everyday business. Hearing her ideas - and the recurring theme of the conference talks, which all dealt with identity and connection - was refreshing and inspiring.

#INBOUND17: Brene Brown

I live-tweet things at conferences; it's what I do. It's how I take notes. It's how I share the experience with those unable to attend. It's how I get noticed by fellow conference-goers (and, ideally, the organizers; bring me in as a speaker for #INBOUND18, HubSpot!). And it's how I'm able to digest the experience after the fact, when I'm able to focus again on the words and main points.

Everyone I know has been reading Brene Brown's latest book, Braving the Wilderness (as my cover image shows, I will soon be joining them, with my very own signed copy!). I had seen them posting quotes and snapshots of pages that held special resonance from them. And, early on in Brene's presentation, some of her words sounded awfully familiar. Were we just hearing a re-hash of her book? And what does any of this have to do with marketing? The answers became clear: no, she wasn't just re-hashing her book, or if she was, she was doing it in a sufficiently engaging manner to make me feel like she was truly WITH us (and made me want to read the book, of course). As for what it has to do with marketing: the theme that seemed to emerge throughout EVERY talk at this year's conference was that of connection. And Brene's book is about belonging. Makes perfect sense. And yes, her words will be affecting the way I approach my work, as well as the way I move through the world.

MidweekMinute: now expanding to 2:80 (just kidding)

After a bit of a break, I'm back to a weekly #MidweekMinute! Did you miss me? This week's is coming at you LIVE from the #INBOUND17 conference in Boston! (To catch up with my conference learnings, check out my Twitter feed or stay tuned next week for blog posts of my Storify threads).

This week's top stories that fit into a minute:

Twitter doubles character limit from 140 to 280:

Giving you more characters to express yourself (Twitter blog)
Twitter just doubled the character limit for tweets to 280 (The Verge)

7 Questions About Twitter's Doubled Character Limit (The Atlantic)

Pinterest/Target visual search teamup:

Pinterest's Lens tech powers Target's visual search tool (Engadget)

Target Embedding Pinterest Camera Search Tool in Its App (The Wall Street Journal)

Instagram commenting settings:

Instagram Lets You Limit Comments Just To People You Follow (BuzzFeed News)

Instagram: Here’s How to Stop Users From Commenting On a Post (Adweek)

LinkedIn/Microsoft Office 365 profile integration:

LinkedIn profiles are coming soon to your Microsoft work apps (TheNextWeb)

Microsoft finally starts doing something with LinkedIn by integrating it into Office 365 (TechCrunch)

Social: iSocialFanz on getting the most out of conferences & events

Professional conferences can be a great opportunity to meet people in your industry who you admire - especially if, like me, your profession is also something you personally geek out over. One of the many fantastic social media leaders I met at Social Media Marketing World is Brian "iSocialFanz" Fanzo. Brian's expertise ranges from tech to livestreaming to public speaking and all sorts of topics in between, but today we spoke about something highly relevant as we head into fall conference season: how to get the most out of those experiences.

Some of Brian's best tips include:

• Start following (and participating in) the conference hashtag long before the conference; become an integral part of that conversation before the event even starts
• When interacting with the bigwigs you're excited to see (either before or after), don't just put out a generic, "Excited to hear your talk!" - share their work, offer value to them, and have something to actually say to them with some meaning and context
• One great way to get on conference organizers' radars (and good sides!) is to give their sponsors some love!

These, and way more fantastic tips, are all in our conversation below. Thanks again, Brian - see you at #SMMW18!