Collision is the fastest-growing digital marketing tech conference in North America. The 2018 edition of the conference was in New Orleans, and it gave our Connective Agency team a chance to go back to Louisiana and see our partners, like Echo Tango, and meet new ones, like Digital Segment.
One of the cool things about Collision is that you get to meet emerging and fast-growing startups from all over the world. This year, there were 750 early-stage companies categorized by maturity (Alpha – Beta – Growth). Visitors get to see product/service innovations and hear the passionate brand stories from founders and builders from every imaginable industry: fintech (financial services technology – i.e. cryptocurrency), artificial intelligence, healthcare, adtech, machine learning, autonomous vehicles, nonprofit, sustainability, edtech.
Product Innovation
We met with the founders Ingrid Bell and Linh Le. They are the folks at New York-based Bonbouton; a non-invasive diabetic monitoring system in the form of a shoe insole that helps to prevent foot ulcers and reduce the frequency of physician visits.
Service Innovation
We also met with Dallas-based Selery Fulfillment – a turn-key platform that manages inventory, fulfillment, order status and tracking. Their tagline is ‘You sell it, we handle the rest’. They were a top 3 finalist for the Collision Pitch Competition from over 200 entrants.
Collision is also three straight days of thought-leader keynotes and panels on emerging topics in tech, digital marketing, policy and influence. Each talk and moderated panel are usually twenty minutes.
Here is a sampling of the most important and impactful things we heard at #Collision2018 #CollisionConf:
“I’m a big believer in the power of focus.” @anjsud CEO of @Vimeo talks about how they consider all company decisions through the lens of video creators.
“Younger generations of consumers are more interested in experiences, not stuff.” – Karen Timpone, CMO of @MarriottIntl
“It’s great to see big corporations working together to promote positive messages of love and inclusion, both internally and externally.” #inclusion #diversity Johnson & Johnson Ad Council
“The truths of the matter may be inconvenient, but we can still make a difference!” – @algore
#collisionconf #collision2018 #climatechange #technology #policy #vote#sustainability
“If you’re never taking risks, someone else is going to take them and beat you.” Wise words from @rebeccaparsons of @thoughtworks
“Can patients have convenient, quality, and affordable healthcare all at the same time?” Love hearing what tech companies like @HealApp and @getroman are doing to push the industry forward.
“I would love to see public financing in elections.” – @SusanHermanACLU
“Most Americans can’t afford an unexpected $500 bill.” – @AndrewYangVFA
“What a brand does is more important than what a brand says.” – Chuck Porter @chuckportercpb co-founder @cpbgroup
“Cars of the future will be electrified, smart and autonomous … and they will not be cars, they will be connected user devices.” @BYTONcars CEO
Collision 2019 is in Toronto. See you there.
Signing off with more sights and scenes below.
