Buck the trend – Communitech’s Tech Leadership conference

Sarah and I were lucky enough to meet with Iain Klugman of Communitech a few months ago to chat about RedWire, among other things. Communitech is an industry-led organization driving the growth and success of Waterloo Region´s technology sector through leadership, connections and promotion. When I heard their annual Tech Leadership Conference was in May, I knew I had to attend. The conference took place on May 14th at Bingemans conference centre, and consisted of three keynote speakers and two breakout sessions, as well as a lunch and networking reception. The theme was “Buck the Trend,” and how to be resilient during the economic downturn.

Keynote speaker Jeremy Gutsche of TrendHunter.com gets feedback from the crowd

The keynote speakers were all accomplished and well-known. The first keynote was Jeremy Gutsche of Trendhunter.com. His theme was “exploiting chaos,” and he spoke about how companies can thrive during tough, chaotic times; and how innovation leads to success (he used the example of how the hit show The Office was the result of a gambling fund at the BBC). He was a very enigmatic, engaging speaker and even got the audience engaged by asking each table to develop an idea for a hip hotel.

My super-cool Seth Godin action figure

The lunch keynote was Seth Godin, the author of the most popular marketing blog in the world and several bestselling marketing books, and the founder of Squidoo.com. His theme was “invisible or remarkable” and was all about permission marketing and how you have to be truly remarkable to stand out. He talked about his theory of the “purple cow” – how you have to stand out from the crowd to be remembered and talked about. He gave away a Seth Godin action figure on each table (because as he says, there aren’t many marketing guru action figures) – and I was the lucky winner. One of my favourite quotes was “if you’re talking to people about a problem they don’t know they have, you’re invisible.” I also loved his discussion of Zappos – he said they’re not a shoe store, they’re a business service that gives out shoes as souvenirs. Obviously this is an exaggeration but it goes to show that people make purchases as much for the experience as for the product.

I attended the conference with Trevor Stafford of RedCanary.ca

The final keynote of the day was from Paul Kedrosky, an investor, write and entrepreneur. He spoke about “the new normal: a post-leverage economy.” He discussed how we got into this economic situation and what the scene will be after it is over.

I also attended two breakout sessions, the most memorable of which was a session called “get customers first, funders later” featuring Freshbooks’ co-founder and CEO Mike McDerment.

Photos of the conference here.