I started my first day on the job at BigWing Interactive at Confluence. That’s right: my first day of work was at the largest digital marketing conference in Oklahoma City.
Do you remember your first day at a new job? Take all of those excited/nervous feelings and multiply them by about 500. That’s kind of how I felt. However, as crazy as that sounds, I wouldn’t change it for anything. I was able to start my new position as a content marketing specialist full of fresh knowledge, ideas, and new connections in the industry – who else can say that?
The Digital Marketing Community
After some much-needed coffee, I was ready to dive head first into the digital marketing community. Being that it was my first day actually turned out to be a great icebreaker, especially to see the reaction on people’s faces. Throughout the day, I met so many fun, techy, marketing-savvy professionals that were all eager to learn about all the same things I was interested in. I instantly felt welcomed and gained some new friends on Twitter. Confluence was a great way to be introduced to and to get active in the digital marketing community here in Oklahoma City.
All Things Digital Marketing
With some new acquaintances by my side, I was ready to learn about all things digital marketing. As the sessions began, I imagined all of the “mind=blown” memes going off inside my head. We covered everything from online branding, social media targeting, user experience, and more with speakers from all over the world. Now I partially blame this on the caffeine, but my notebook filled up and quickly looked like this:
So let’s just suffice it to say, you will learn A LOT at Confluence. But don’t be alarmed by my barely legible note taking – Confluence will share a copy of the speakers’ decks with attendees if you missed a golden nugget of information.
Connecting with the speakers
Being new to the industry, I kept hearing how unique Confluence was when compared to the larger, more expensive conferences. I quickly learned that Confluence is large enough to attract a crowd, but intimate enough that you have many opportunities to connect with the speakers. Also, Confluence only has one track, so you don’t have to miss out on any of the speakers’ presentations. Chatting with these digital marketing aficionados during breaks was perhaps the best element of Confluence Conference.
The rest of the day was filled with selfies during networking breaks and plenty of food options to keep us full, caffeinated, and hyped on sugar during the sessions. My favorite part about the food and beverage options was that they were all from locally-owned businesses. It is so important to me that we support our local community and the conference really showed off the best parts about Oklahoma.
Applying what I learned from Confluence
After leaving Confluence, I felt like I had a head start in my career. I had a notebook full of information and couldn’t wait to get started. As I was training, I was able to see the “big picture,” and it made integrating some of the new things I learned at Confluence, like adding UTM codes to social media posts, that much easier.
Confluence gave me confidence and a leg up in the world of digital marketing. A year later, I am still challenging myself to improve, innovate, and create with every piece of content that I create. Are you ready for this year’s event? Register today!
