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Another year, another great Connections for the record books. We saw three amazing days jam-packed with inspirational keynote speakers, heard stories from visionary marketers, attended breakout sessions, workshops, trainings. We networked at happy hours, took in the sights of Atlanta, and rocked out at a music festival. Thanks for being a gracious (and deliciously food-filled) host, Atlanta!
Our last day here certainly left a lasting impression on attendees. Here are our top three highlights from today’s event:
“Coming down in the Soyuz is like going over Niagra Falls in a barrel while on fire. It’s medieval, but effective.” — Scott Kelly, History-making U.S Astronaut & Retired U.S. Navy Captain
Record-setting U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly is one of the few human beings to literally see the big picture — planet Earth from the window of the International Space Station. (“The most beautiful blue I’ve ever seen.”) Having spent over a year in space, Kelly has laid the groundwork for the future of space travel and exploration and shared his unique and valuable perspective on where we fall in the great scheme of things in the universe. In a fascinating conversation with Marketing Cloud CEO Scott McCorkle, Kelly shared stories about getting cyberbullied by Buzz Aldrin while in space, how you handle moving the International Space Station out of the way when a large piece of orbital debris is hurtling towards you at 35,000 MPH, and how being in space for an extended period of time gives you a heightened sense of empathy for Earth and the environment. “With the right resources, anything is possible,” says Kelly. “If we want to go to Mars, fix the environment, anything. If you dream it, you can do it.”
“Editors ask us, ‘Are you my worst nightmare?’ and we tell them, ‘No we’re your best friend. We’ll send you traffic.” — Co-founders and co-CEOs Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg, theSkimm
Some businesses get their start in a garage or a home office. Others got started on a living room couch. theSkimm Co-founders and co-CEOs Carly Zakin and Danielle Weisberg were working for NBC news and decided to take their storytelling talents to a different medium. The problem was they knew very little about starting their own business. They wanted to create a trusted news source that would easily fit into a reader’s everyday routine; email just happened to be a part of that routine. “We’re good at saying when we don’t know something,” Zakin explains, sharing how they learned more about running their own business. Since quitting their dream jobs and launching theSkimm, an email newsletter designed to make it easier to be smarter, in 2012, they’ve quickly grown to 3.5 million active subscribers with an impressive 40% daily open rate, mostly through word of mouth and grassroots marketing tactics. Zakin and Weisberg shared their core belief in always focusing on their readers, and connecting with them on their terms. “People ask us if we’re a tech company or a media company. We’re neither. We’re an audience company,” Weisberg says.
Mark your calendars — the digital marketing event of the year is blowing into the Windy City next June 13-15. In the meantime, take all that newfound knowledge and ideas you acquired in the past few days back to your company, and become a marketing demigod. Reach out to all the new connections you made here and keep on striving for even bigger, better 1:1 customer experiences.
Dreamforce registration is now live! Be sure to join us in San Francisco on October 4-7 2016 for more inspirational speakers, visionary customers, innovation, networking, music, and fun. Register today to secure your spot for the can't miss event of the year!
