A country is the sum off all its people no matter if they decide to work and live within its boundaries or develop themselves abroad. It is a real truth the fact that the second language spoken at Microsoft HQ’s is Romanian. Maybe there isn’t any mistake in the fact that the speed of internet here is one of the best in the world. I have to say that most of the time when I am abroad I simply miss the speed of internet available here. And I rarely play games online or download movies but use the internet for business and publishing.
Maybe there are some seeds in the fact that small companies started from garages or one bedroom apartments here solve important world problems and attract massive interest and investments from the big online giants.
I can relate to the fact that the schooling system is far from perfect, the wages are smaller than most people would like to be paid and there are a lot of imperfections which simply can’t be solved overnight. But there is something which is so valuable, amazingly powerful and this is the fuel for the machine pushed forward by the new generations. This “something” is the access to the information.
As an entrepreneur and constant learner I discovered many years ago the gift of public speaking and luckily I was able to speak in front of hundreds of thousands people on all continents. Of course, a special place in my heart belongs to all the events I’ve spoken to in Romania doing everything I can to share new ideas, know-how and actionable content to change lives and businesses for the better.
One funny thing which is still common for many event promoters in Romania and here I take into consideration the keynotes, not the speeches with product pitch at the end is that at any moment of the day a speaker from abroad is preferred versus a local one. But please don’t get me wrong. It is totally fine to invite somebody with a great track record who can bring amazing content and value and also sell the tickets and fill the room. It makes totally sense. But in most of the occasions, between a Romanian who is medium to highly successful at the international level and a pretty unknown somebody from abroad with no so many credentials, poor in content speech and offering very little value to the audience they will choose the latter. I believe that at the end of the day this is a remaining from the Communist period when people considered almost everything coming from outside better.
The biggest problem is not the fact that the sponsors are overcharged with unnecessary fees, transport and accomodation costs but the people from the audience leave the event dissapointed. I love speaking at events and if you follow me for a while you know that. But my focus is always on how I can share the best content I am capable of with the audiences. That’s why all my power point presentations are finished very close to the speaking moment because all the time I add something new and I don’t actually repeat everything even if I present a series of speeches on the same topic. There is all the time something new, an exciting discovery, a new point of view or something of a value to share.
Today was not an exception and I spoke for the third time at Webstock, “The most important social media conference in Romania”. The conference is in its 9th year and besides gathering a nice community around the concept it is like a knowledge hub for agency professionals and marketing & PR specialists from various companies.
My talk was built around how to use Linkedin for personal branding and company exposure which is a subject I gathered a lot of experience with.
Webstock is by far the go to event to find what’s new in the local social media scene without being forced to assist witness nonsense company pitches and corporate zero in value speeches. Luckily today there are many corporations also where people put their heart and soul when speaking on stage and the result is always a nice one. I really don’t know why not all the corporate people produce awesome presentations and speeches. But this can be a subject for another article.
What I like about Webstock is mainly the fact that as a concept found ways to stay fresh over the years and became a GPS for the trends is the Romanian digital marketing world.
Cristian Manafu is one of the most famous Romanian bloggers and also along with his team the driving force behind the event. He shared with me over an ice cream and a capuccino that: “Webstock is the biggest yearly event organised by us and the most important for me because it represents everything I did in online and for The Romanian Blogosphere during the last 10 years. We need to push ourselves very hard to make it happen everytime, it aggregates a hefty volume of resources and our ambition is to make it bigger and better each year. We always kept the pace with the latest trends and did everything we could to offer a clear image of where social media is in Romania and which are the best avenues for evolution. Webstock contributes to the evolution of the Romanian market through the speakers we are inviting, the themes we are approaching, the creative cooperations with the brands and the network opportunities, some of them being quite unique for many of the attendants. We rely on our strong desire to bring added value to the social media community, to offer information which can be applied right away and offering overall a chance to learn from the best”.
I’ve promised to the audience that I will not leave Webstock’s premises without finishing the article which I did and I really believe that such events will help Romanians to take over slowly but surely the online world.