The boxes we carried bore far more weight than the beautiful Stratus Interactive swag contained within. Through the airport, to the cramped bus, and into the hotel, we were giving the people around us something to notice (or at least circumnavigate). The journey was cumbersome at first, and probably pretty annoying to everyone else, but there’s so much more to the Inbound package than arrivals and departures, no matter what you’ve got in your hands.
Upon arriving at the convention center, I ran the following mental gamut:
1.) This place is huge!
2.) These boxes are friggin’ heavy!
3.) This is going to be a pivotal week!
This was my first business convention and I expected to learn a lot, but seeing Hubspot flex its expo muscle pushed me into a new mindset. Through every detail, from the orange sprocket-shaped room lighting, to the prestige of the speakers set to take the stage in the coming days, I found myself preparing for a new professional outlook.
Tuesday arrived and the convention was fully underway. As we began raffling off our swag, we were able to open up to other partners and Hubspot customers. The amazing thing about the showroom we were stationed in was that the element of prospecting and sales was belittled by an environment of meaningful interaction. Sometimes that meaningful interaction was the promise of a follow-up email, but more likely it was promise of catching up in the future. If you come to Inbound for nothing else, come for the relationship building not just networking.
The breakout sessions were revelations: forty-five minute, bite-sized, tangible revelations. Diving deeper into the play between primitive psychology and landing pages with Tim Ash was as entertaining as it was educational. Putting a process behind the nebulous concepts of business core-values and people evaluation with Mike Paton and his Entrepreneurial Operating System was another takeaway that we have already put into action back home.
Thursday afternoon, I was convinced the theory of relativity was simply incorrect. I began to believe I was witness to an actual slowing of time. My metaphysical impatience had nothing to do with a desire to take a break, however. I could not wait to get back and begin taking action on all of the things I had just learned.
By the end, the boxes we had brought with us had transcended their contents into a positive energy to all of our winners. Each person carrying swag out with them was met with an equal and opposite reaction of Stratus carrying back the excitement of a relationship for the future.
My little mascot for @StratusInteract pic.twitter.com/GaIcLlsCTo
— LindsayAmanda (@LindsayAmanda) September 21, 2014
Killer swag from the talented team at @StratusInteract Beer Friday on a Wednesday! #INBOUND14 pic.twitter.com/UrfUDDf2xU
— Dustin Steller (@dustinsteller) September 17, 2014
This shirt is ahmayyyyzing! Hoping I win it! Thanks @StratusInteract ?? pic.twitter.com/mFrJxInqjD
— Andrea (@andrav23) September 16, 2014
@Peter352 @StratusInteract mission accomplished! pic.twitter.com/M2Jqq1ax2j
— Burton Hohman (@BurtonHohman) September 18, 2014
All In All
With the giveaways having exhausted the content within, we return with a box of experiences that we can bring home and use to improve Stratus and the people we do business with even further. We can’t wait to start, and we can’t wait to bring our new friends with us along the way.
