With summer just kicking off, we couldn’t think of a better way to spend our time than in London with hundreds of our favorite people! We hosted our latest NetBase LIVE London on 19-20 June and attracted quite a crowd, with over 150 social media experts, enabling us to spend two fast-paced, insight-packed days with brands, agencies, customers and prospects.
A recap of the conference follows!
The Lay of the Land
The conference was over two days and included 21 total conference sessions focusing business value and ROI, remarkable success stories, best practices and the latest trends from industry experts at major brands and agencies, followed by solution training.
We announced our market leading breakthrough in next generation artificial intelligence (which we will cover more below). And attendees always benefit greatly from the opportunity to network with experts and peers.
The solution training was split into two distinct tracks – introductory and master-classes – to accommodate all user levels. Each were led by master practitioners and offered practical knowledge so brands could hit the ground running with ideas to produce maximum business impact.
After getting checked in, and networking with a few new friends . . .
we were ready to start off strong with our keynote from the illustrious Dr. Jillian Ney, UK’s first Dr of Social Media Intelligence and Behavioral Science!
Cursed by Knowledge, Saved by the Child’s Mind
Dr. Ney presented an absolutely brilliant keynote, where she made the case for approaching social data analysis with a child’s mind, because “your smarts are killing your future success.” The knowledge one has limits what you do with social data, while a child’s mind is much more open and offers more opportunities for success.
Her thoughts around what to measure – and why – were equally on point:
Her presentation set the tone for the day, challenging attendees to be open to the potential social analytics offers. And then NetBase CEO, Peter Caswell, picked up that ball and knocked it out of the park with his announcement that followed.
First-to-Market Announcement – AI Studio
NetBase CEO, Peter Caswell, shared our market leading announcement that was met with huge spontaneous applause. The market and our customers are well aware of NetBase’s uncanny ability to adapt and innovate ahead of the rest of the market and making sure our customers have the very latest capabilities at their fingertips. It’s what maintains our best-in-class standing in this ever-changing social analytics market.
So, they weren’t so much surprised as super excited to learn we were, yet again, pulling out ahead technologically with the announcement first to market with our next generation platform and our next generation artificial intelligence (AI) which includes a new framework called AI Studio.
And yes, it’s every bit as awesome as it sounds.
After that announcement, in between sessions we had the Showcase Bar in full swing, where we shared more than 70 demos of our Next Generation Platform and our Next Generation Artificial Intelligence solution, which was led by the amazing Carla Da Graca.
If you weren’t able to make it to London and want to see the platform in action – reach out. Carla or another of our highly capable data technicians would be happy to show it off to you, as we’re all really excited about it too!
And how did the other sessions go? Super. The insight offered had attendees taking notes and asking questions well into our happy hour, of which we do not have photos!
Let’s run through them to give you a sense of what you missed:
Brands, Agencies and Industry Experts Offer Insight
The conference sessions included 14 customers and expert speakers from L’Oréal UKI, Wavemaker, Hotwire Global, Edelman Intelligence, MetrixLab, Archetype, Digital Media Services, BVA BDRC, TBWA|Italia, Portland Communications, sibilare*, and 113 Industries!
Let’s take a look at them!
High-Stakes Leadership & Strategies for CMOs
Chris Paxton, Chief Strategy Officer at Hotwire Global and Matt Cross, Head of B2B EMEA, Hotwire Global shared ways to prepare for that next high-stakes situation that can make or break brand’s reputation. Their advice was informed by their own extensive experience and insight gathered from surveying key stakeholders around the globe for their thoughts on how this unpredictable environment is impacting brands and purchasing decisions.
Social Savvy Organisations
Teodora Coste, Senior Strategic Planner at Portland Communications, Joy Desseigne, Research Manager, BVA BDRC and Luca Lilla, Senior Digital Strategist at TBWAItalia shared expertise on a panel focused on ways to align a brand’s social strategy to meet today’s business needs.
They shared ways to develop a mature social practice that fuels strategic initiatives across the entire organization, stressing the importance of coordination, communication, and – possibly most importantly – the right tools.
Following that, we had Jane Fieldsend, Social Insights Manager, L’Oréal UKI offering ways her a company can cultivate social maturity by engaging leadership. It requires being ready with the right use case to show the value that social analytics can have on your brand, but also goes beyond that. Jane shared ways to take social insight to the next level.
While Razi Imam, Founder, CEO of 113 Industries spoke to its proprietary Consumer Behaviour Modeling process that combines the power of NetBase, IBM Watson and other AI technologies to answer the “Why” behind the “What.”
Creating Business Value from Social Insight & Analytics
Adrián Becerra, CTO of sibilare* had a powerful case study showing how data can be used to make decisions and define the right response to a reputational crisis.
And Kristian Foged, Senior Consultant, Insights & Analytics, Archetype made the case for differentiation – “If you’re saying the same thing as everyone else, you might as well not be talking.” She explored using data to add something new to a crowded conversation, with specific examples of helping brands find their “whitespace” to drive and measurably improve business results.
Success Frameworks & Influencers
Anna Zaikina, Head of Social Media Insights at Digital Media Services, Mike Hatfield, Social Media Insights Executive at Wavemaker, and Simon Quinton, Account Director at Edelman Intelligence discussed ways brands can capture what matters when considering day-to-day insights. And how to leverage social media analytics to answer common questions and improve internal communication, while building a repeatable framework that will enhance client success.
Gilbert Saktoe of MetrixLab understands influencers, and the importance of creating relationships with them. He shared strategies for identifying and activating key influencers that have the right relevance, tone-of-voice, sentiment and communication style to influence your target audience and amplify brand communications in a positive way. Tons of good stuff there.
But that’s not all – we have to tell you a bit about our Academy Sessions on Day Two!
8 Amazing All Star Academy Sessions
Of our attendees, we had 67% agency and 33% brand representatives join us for our four introductory and four master track sessions. The classes were led by our resident experts in professional services – Jackie B and Julien R.
Our introductory sessions included:
- Brand & Competitive Monitoring Basics: Best Practices in Topic Building
- Crisis Management: Uncovering More Insight (Part I)
- Campaign Reporting: Uncovering More Insight (Part II)
- Presenting Insights & Driving Action: Storytelling and Dashboard Templates
And the Master Class sessions challenged participants with:
- Campaign Content Strategy: Deeper Insights to Connect Emotionally with Your Target Audience
- Advanced Best Practices in Social Analytics
- Customer Driven Innovation: Surface Unmet Needs Using Category and Competitive Analyses
- Creating a Social Listening Program: How Brands & Agencies Can Deliver ROI
Many, if not all, of the sessions we taught on Day Two were touched upon by our speakers in some way the day before, so participants were eager to see NetBase in action and sort out ways to tailor it to their specific needs.
We have even more great info headed your way soon, with both video testimonials and conference testimonials sharing current and future customer experiences attending this NetBase LIVE event!
Want to attend our next one and have amazing conversations of your own? It’s a great opportunity to expand – and learn to apply – your social analytics knowledge. Reach out, and we’ll help you make the business case for your CEO, or to appreciate the value it offers if you are the CEO!
