
Panel discussion with the presenters
Last October, I went to a conference for artists called ARTPRENEUR. I love to learn about the business of art as I know there is always room for improvement. With a theme like “Rebranding the artist”, they picked my curiosity. The program was announcing a whole day of networking, information/demo booths, 2 conferences out of 4 to choose from, breakfast and lunch included (nothing fancy of course). It sounded like a good deal.
WHAT I LEARNED
- Inbound marketing is the key concept (use of Social Media to draw traffic, convert visitors to leads and leads to sales, then analyze results to improve upon);
- Divide targeted audience into Buyer Persona (Name them, Describe them, Where are they online?, Keywords they search for?, How you solve their problems?, Content that serves them?);
- Create Content for each Buyer Persona;
- It’s all about getting people to care (about the product/brand). If they care they are more likely to purchase.
- Be interesting, be consistent, be giving/sharing, be assertive and be analytical.

Source: Swisslinked.com

Source: Bestrank.com
WHAT I THOUGHT ABOUT IT

Suki Lee
On the plus side, the Keynote address was outstanding. I could have left the conference after that speech because that person nailed it. Her name: Suki Lee, founder of the full-service marketing agency called Inbox Communications. She was smart, to the point and had a great on-stage presence. One thing for sure is that organizers should have kept her for the end of the day instead of having her opening the conference because it was mostly a letdown after that.

Sonny Juane
One of the presenters stood out as well for his sense of humour and a no-nonsense approach. Sonny Juane of Wolfgang Design Works.
On the downside, it was clear that some of the speakers were only there to pitch their business services. As well, public speaking is a skill and knowing about a subject is not enough to be able to address a crowd in an engaging manner. It often ends up being boring for the listener to just hear someone read out the slides on the screen…
Overall and with an early bird ticket which cost $35, I would say that it was worth it. I did learn a few things and enjoyed seeing friends and colleagues at the event. In a previous post I did mention books that help a great deal understand some of the concepts mentioned that day.
Favorite quote of the day by Carlo Lombard: “You network is your net worth”
Here is the link for more information on ARTPRENEUR: http://www.artpreneurottawa.com