With just one week remaining until PI LIVE takes over London’s Old Billingsgate, PerformanceIN caught a brief moment with founder Matthew Wood to give ticket-holders a glimpse of the show’s conception and a taste of what’s in store.
Hi, Matthew, with PI LIVE just one week away, how is preparation going for what’s geared to be the biggest performance marketing show this year?
Matthew Wood: This is the most exciting time for the team, as everything just comes together in this final week. Although behind the scenes we have been working on the new conference over the last 14 months. We’ve just completed an audit this morning and we currently have around 850 unique companies and nearly 2,500 people already for the show, with a heavy percentage of advertisers, which is fantastic to see.
The majority of attendees use the show to network with potential partners so seeing this high proportion of advertisers means a lot of deals will be struck on the show floor from the 52 countries that are currently represented.
We’ve taken on quite a lot this year with the inaugural Influencer marketing Show and the International Performance Marketing Awards so the team has kept energised with a mix of fresh fruit, caffeine and the odd beverage of something much stronger!
Performance marketing is a pretty huge industry – and one that’s growing constantly; was it a challenge to capture this when curating the agenda?
MW: The beauty of our industry is that it’s so fast moving and diverse, there are so many topics that we could have scheduled. I think we’ve got the mix right this year with some off-piste sessions on leadership from Andy Parfitt, the ex-controller of BBC Radio 1 in addition to Ben Ryan the coach who took the Fiji Rugby 7’s team to Gold at the Rio Olympics. He will be talking about collaboration, teamwork, and communication – all critical to our relationship heavy industry.
Our industry is full of bright, young talent, and we wanted to schedule sessions not just on industry thought leadership but on personal development too – these are often our most popular.
This isn’t the first event you’ve organised by a long shot – but in terms of previous shows such as the Performance Marketing Insights series, how is PI LIVE its own unique package?
MW: Well, we completely flipped the model. Not being constrained by the hotel environment, the fabulous Old Billingsgate gives us more creative freedom. We’ve been able to fit in a keynote theatre which holds around 600 delegates; I must say the team have done a fantastic job as the stage set looks pretty impressive! In addition, it will also feature areas such as the interactive Dome stage, a Prosecco Lounge from Rakuten Marketing, a nook meeting zone, some quirky food stalls from London’s best street food markets. They’ll be offering everything from gourmet mac and cheese to a good old-fashioned dirty burger. Oh, we’ll also have a Bavarian-themed Beer Garden courtesy of Webgains, one of our headline sponsors.
There are a few other surprises during the day to keep the energy high!
In terms of the topics of sessions and current industry dialogue, are there any recurring themes we’re likely to see and hear discussed at the show?
MW: I predict we’ll be seeing conversations around how Blockchain could potentially disrupt the sector, how Artificial Intelligence and automation could help partners generate more returns and also continued discussions on diversifying away from incentive with more technology publishers.
October’s event has no fewer than four keynotes; can you reveal any more about what lies in store for these at this point?
MW: I’ve already mentioned Andy Parfitt who will be talking on the Future of Leadership following the tech revolution and Ben Ryan. We’ll also be welcoming Jonathan MacDonald, founder of Thought Expansion Network and Steven Bartlett, the CEO of Social Chain.
I’m really looking forward to Steven, his achievements to unlock the power of both micro and larger social communities give him the power to make anything trend within minutes globally. He’s a top entrepreneur that we can take inspiration from, especially how he has disrupted a market and built an awesome team from his Manchester HQ.
Outside of these four promoted keynotes, the main stage will also be hosting talks from David Arnoux on growth hacking strategies and the founders of Jungle Creations, whose suite of social brands makes them the fifth largest media company on the planet with four billion views per month – all built in the space of a couple of years.
Away from the agenda, what else is in store for attendees at PI LIVE?
MW: Besides the glamour of the International Performance Marketing Awards on October 23 – there are a few seats remaining if you would like to network with the c-level suite – there will be a number of other great networking opportunities including the middle evening party at the Trade Union; we’ll have some gourmet pizza on tap for VIPs and they even have a slide that you can use to enter the building! Oh, and of course a complimentary bar.
Finally, what would be your top tips for attendees for maximising time at PI LIVE?
MW: I’ll keep this brief – be organised. Don’t leave it until the last minute, get yourself registered today so you can download and interact via the event mobile app and start arranging those all important meetings.