Future of Marketing | Futurelab

Late last year, 60 marketing experts shared their visions of the future of marketing through a “micro-conference” run by Sam Rosen of thoughtlead. It found it fascinating on several levels.

First the “micro-conference” is a really neat format. It’s a podcast-type audio event in which each person has only 60-seconds to speak. Sam initiated the format with The Influencer Project, billed as “the shortest marketing conference ever” and featured thought-leaders on the subject of increasing your online influence.

In just one hour a “micro-conference” gives listeners a broad range of perspectives – it’s a little random, and by design, there isn’t a lot of depth, but nuggets of wisdom emerge throughout. It’s kind of abuffet for the brain.

Also the types of thought-leaders who participated in the Future of Marketing were interesting. There weren’t any real surprises in the speaker list – it included the expected experts (e.g., Guy Kawasaki, Charlene Li, Steve Rubel, and more), popular business figures (e.g., Scott Monty,Tony Hsieh, Alex Bogusky, etc.), and the authors everyone has read (e.g., David Meerman Scott,Brian Solis, Chris Brogan, etc.) No real academics, no one from outside the field of marketing, and no celebrities (although Alex Bogusky might have as many fans — and critics — to qualify for that designation!)