INBOUND 2022 Conference

Inbound 2022 kicked off with an opener from Yamini Rangan, Hubspot CEO, followed by presentations from Dharmesh Shah, co-founder and CTO, and Stephanie Cuthbertson, Hubspot CPO. 

Once the opening presentations were finished, thousands of marketing and tech professionals began to fill the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center walls. Energized and cheerful marketing vendors had their company displays on show and were ready to network and facilitate product demos. Nothing short of incredible, vendors from all over the world were in attendance, founders, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between. What stood out to me was that no one had a title on their badge, which was a conscious decision from Hubspot to leave titles off –everyone is equal here. No detail in the DEI space was left untouched and it truly showed. There was space for everyone. 

They truly hit the mark on making this an exceptional experience with numerous sessions, meet-ups, deep dive sessions, a founders stage, a podcast stage, a live Hubspot academy, and the list goes on. Hubspot provided an app for the conference to organize your own “Prix fixe” agenda, that way you could pick and choose which sessions you wanted to attend from the provided menu. Former 44th President Barack Obama closed the conference out with a final presentation on community and culture alongside Hubspot, Co-Founder, Executive Chairperson, Brian Halligan.

I highly recommend attending this conference if you are in marketing or tech and want to learn about all the newest innovations and ways to build your brand. 

Some valuable and inspiring lessons and reminders I took away from the sessions I will share here below:

1. Everyone is nervous when it comes to networking. Have fun with it, and don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Everyone is just trying to make it and make a good impression when introducing themselves to someone new. That’s where the “working” in networking comes from, you have to work to make new connections.
2. “If you’re not known for something, you’re known for nothing” – Jay Schwendelson, Founder and CEO, Subjectline. Marketers are known for wearing many hats and to some known as the “swag people”. Don’t be the swag person. Find one thing you are really good at and master it. 
3. Make everything you do Customer Centric. We tend to fill our calendars up with meetings and can get so lost in the mundane trivias of work that we often lose sight of the main goal, and that is our WHY. We need to make sure we take time to focus on strategic work and operate from a place of trying to make our consumers, customers, and clients' lives easier.
4. “If you don’t give up, you will find a way” – Dr. Jane Goodall. Dr. Goodall took the stage and spoke about being a great leader in the workplace. She emphasized the importance of loving what you do because when you love what you do people will trust you more than when they think you are just “doing your job” and clocking in and out. Never give up on something you really want, you will find a way to make it happen. 
5. Love the work that you do, it will make your life easier. Viola Davis, need I say more? She stressed being persistent in your pursuits and making sure to pave similar roads for each other in our communities. If you get the privilege of making it, pay it forward.